How to Run Windows 11 in a Virtual Machine

Windows 11 is known for its strict hardware requirements. These requirements require a few extra steps when setting up a Windows 11 virtual machine – here are all the things you need to do to get it up and running.

Windows 11 virtual machine requirements

Virtual machines allow you to run an operating system — like Windows 11 or Ubuntu — without needing another physical computer. You can create a virtual machine that runs on your existing PC. Virtual machines are extremely useful for testing new operating systems, operating system beta versions, testing software in a sandbox, or a number of other things.

You must meet the regular Windows 11 hardware requirements to run a Windows 11 virtual machine, which are:

The CPU, RAM, storage and display requirements are fairly easily met on most modern computers. Even solid-state drives – which are ideal for running virtual machines – aren’t that much more expensive than traditional hard drives. The really problematic requirements tend to be TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot – both (or both) often prevent a Windows 11 virtual machine from being installed.

How to install Windows 11 in a virtual machine

There are several ways to run virtual machines on Windows. The two most popular options are VMWare Workstation Player and Oracle VirtualBox. The user interfaces are completely different and have slightly different requirements. You can use whatever you want – it doesn’t matter here – but don’t install both unless you want to use both.

Note: It is possible to use TPM within VMWare Workstation Player and the 7th edition of Oracle Virtualbox will also support it. However, we’ve only disabled it here since it’s much easier.

If you want to use other virtualization software, it will probably work – you just need to adapt these steps to your software.

Download Windows 11

The first thing you need to do is download a Windows 11 ISO. Select “Windows 11 (Multi-Edition ISO)” from the drop-down box and then click “Download”.

Start this download as soon as possible. The Windows 11 executable is around five gigabytes in size, and if you don’t have gigabit internet it will take at least a few minutes to download.

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Make sure you know where the Windows ISO was saved when you downloaded it. You will need this location later.

Install Windows 11 in VirtualBox

If you want to use VirtualBox, download and install the latest version of VirtualBox from their website. At the time of writing this is version 6.1, but keep an eye out for version 7 if it’s available.

After installation, launch VirtualBox, click “Tools” and then click the “Add” button.

Give the virtual machine a meaningful and descriptive name so that you can recognize it in the future. Also, make sure the OS version is set to Windows 11, then click Next.

Warning: You can put the machine folder anywhere, but try putting it on an SSD. Running a virtual machine on a traditional hard drive is extremely slow in comparison.

Windows 11 technically only requires four gigabytes of RAM, but if you can spare eight gigabytes, it might help.

Click through the rest of the settings repeatedly. The default options should be fine for general use. After configuring the virtual machine, select your Windows 11 (VM) from the list, right click on it and then select “Settings”. You can also select the VM and click Settings on the menu bar at the top.

Click the Storage tab. Select the “empty” SATA device, click the small disc icon near the right side, then select “Choose A Disk File”. Navigate to the downloaded Windows 11 ISO and select it.

Click “OK” to close the settings window, then click the big green “Start” button.

You will see a black screen with “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD….” The previously selected Windows ISO is currently mounted in a virtual DVD drive. If you press any key, you instruct your virtual machine to boot from the virtual DVD drive.

Go to the section titled “Disable TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot” once you see the familiar Windows logo.

Install Windows 11 in VMWare Workstation Player

The second option you can choose is VMWare Workstation Player. It’s the other big hypervisor that’s popular for everyday applications. Download and install it from the VMWare website.

Launch VMWare Workstation Player, then click Create New Virtual Machine.

The first thing you need to do is select the Windows 11 ISO that you downloaded earlier for the installer image. Select the “Installer Disc Image File” option and then click “Browse” to locate your ISO. When you have done that, click Next.

VMWare Virtualbox Player probably won’t recognize that it’s a Windows ISO; Change the operating system type to “Microsoft Windows” and set the version to “Windows 10 and later x64”.

Name the virtual machine whatever you like and set the virtual drive at least 64 gigabytes. Stop at the Ready to Create Virtual Machine window. You must add additional RAM to the virtual machine, otherwise Windows 11 will not work properly. Click Customize Hardware.

You must allocate at least 4 gigabytes of RAM, but if you can spare 8, consider doing so instead.

In the customization window, click Close, then click Finish. Your virtual machine will start immediately and you will see “Press Any Key to Boot from a CD or DVD”. Press any key as instructed and you’ll be greeted with the familiar Windows installation screen.

Disable TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot

There are two small adjustments we need to make before the installation works correctly. Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0 – by default, neither VMWare Workstation Player nor Oracle VirtualBox meet this requirement, so it needs to be disabled. Also, VirtualBox doesn’t support secure boot, so it needs to be disabled as well.

Click through the first few pages until you get to this window:

Press Shift+F10 to open the command prompt, type “regedit” in the command prompt, and then press Enter.

This is the exact same registry editor that comes with all Windows installations. With it you can change most of the available options of the Windows operating system. In this case we will use it to disable the TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot requirements. Usually you have to be extremely careful while editing the registry because a changed value or deleted key can cause serious problems. But since it’s an uninstalled virtual machine, you don’t have to worry that much – worst-case scenario, just restart your VM before installing Windows and any changes you’ve made will be undone .

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Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup, then right-click Setup, hover over New, and click Key. The new registry key must be named “LabConfig” – it is not case sensitive, but using mixed case may improve readability.

We need to create two DWORD (32-bit) values ​​inside the LabConfig key. Select the LabConfig key, right-click an empty space in the right pane, and then click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name a DWORD:

BypassTPMCheck

and name the other:

BypassSecureBoot

If you did everything right, you should have two DWORDs that look like this:

The value must be changed from 0 to 1. Right-click BypassTPMCheck and click Modify.

Set the Value Data to 1 and click OK.

Repeat the exact same process with the BypassSecureBoot DWORD. When everything is done you should see two DWORDs in the LabConfig key and both should have a value of 1.

That’s it – you’re done and ready to install Windows 11. Click the “X” in the upper-right corner of the Registry Editor and Command Prompt, then click “I don’t have a product key.”

Note: You can also enter a product key if you want to use one. Windows 11 will eventually complain that Windows needs to be activated, but if you don’t use a key. Whether this is a problem or not depends on what you are using the virtual machine for.

All you have to do now is click through the normal Windows 11 installation prompts and wait for everything to install.

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