Windows 10 - Enable Hyper-V features

Did you all know that Windows 10 Pro x64 comes with Hyper-V features ? Hyper-V is a replacement for the age old Microsoft Virtual PC series, where it allows you to install and run VM(s).

Now I'm not going to explain what is VM (Virtual Machine), for those noob please "Google" for more information. Or you may want to head to MSDN for some study.

Before we start, we need to ensure our existing system hardware able to support and run Hyper-V. The requirements as below :-

• Virtualization Technology (VTx)
• Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VTd).
• Data Execution Prevention (DEP).
• Second Level Address Translation (SLAT).
• Intel's Extended Page Table (EPT) / AMD's Nested Page Table (NPT).
• Minimum 8GB physical RAM, Hyper-V will dynamically allocate at least 4GB RAM (the more the better).
• Windows 10 Professional / Enterprise 64-bit OS.

I would suggest that you download and read through this guide before continuing on for a better understanding. Using Windows 10 Client Hyper-V.

1. Check your BIOS/UEFI is supported or not. Please note that as my computer is a Hewlett-Packard so invoking the UEFI is by pressing [F10] key, yours might be different and depending on manufacturer.

2. Now run --> CMD and type --> systeminfo --> [ENTER] key.

Please note that all displayed option must be "Yes" as shown above.

You can also download this tool CoreInfo from SysInternals for a more in depth check on your processor. After running it, look for the following information as shown below.

Note the "*" (asterisk) sign means the processor is supported while the "-" (minus) sign means its not supported.

3. Goto --> Control Panel --> Programs and Features icon --> Turn Windows features on or off option.

4. Ensure you select all the "Hyper-V" features available as shown below and click "OK" button.

Or you can also use the following cmdlet to install Hyper-V.

enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V –All

When prompted, please restart your computer.

5. After restart then you can now run the "Hyper-V Manager" to start creating VM(s).

 

6. The following windows will be displayed, now its up to you to explore around and familiarized yourself first.

On my next post, I will be showing on how to create a VM especially how to create a "Windows XP Mode" VM in Hyper-V.

VIRTUALIZED EVERYTHING !!!

Windows 10 - Disable Drivers Update in Windows Update

If you remember my old post where I've shown how to customised the Windows Update options, this new post is to show how to disabled the drivers update in Windows Update.

Why ? Well simply because I love my current drivers version I wanted it to stay that way. Actually its more kind of stability issues as all my drivers are downloaded from system manufacturer's website instead from the hardware manufacturer website which usually is more generic.

Eventhough the new version might have some bug fixes, but it was not so significant (in my case) where sometimes latest versions seems to sucks a lot and may causes my hardware not to function properly anymore. Follow these steps on how to disabled automatic drivers updates :-

1. Goto --> Control Panel --> System --> Hardware tab --> Device Installation Settings button as shown below.

2. Now select --> No (your device might not work as expected) option and then click "Save Changes" button to continue.

3. Yeah... I know, the option & the remarks seems intimidating. But as an IT Professional, I preferred to use the drivers version from my system manufacturer instead of those generic version. And sometimes it does work better.

I was wondering why Microsoft doesn't allow us to select which updates that I wanted (just like in Windows 7), have they ever considered that in some environment such as Corporate Companies, they have proprietary software or in-house software that might not be compatible with certain updates ?

Come on Microsoft.... straighten this, do you really expect all the companies can really afford another server running WSUS services ? Did it ever occurred to you guys that maintaining a WSUS in a small company is another expenses ?

Well let's hope Microsoft can release a fix for this soon... else I'm going to downgrade back to Windows 7 instead.

Windows 10 - Create & Run PowerShell Script

In one of my previous post where I've shown on how to remove/uninstall Windows 10 built-in apps, now it's time to create your own PowerShell script to run all those command automatically.

Imagine you need to do this everytime you performed a new installation, well if 1-2 system then it might be OK with..... how about 10-50 systems ? I surely will want to do this automatically.

Of course firstly you need to create the script first then save it and run it at a later stage.

1. Open --> PowerShell ISE.

2. You will see a new application opened.

3. Create your script in the right pane as shown.

For easy reference, you just need to copy & paste the following cmdlet into the pane. You may remove any cmdlet as you deem fits your requirements.

Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *3dbuilder* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *windowsalarms* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *zunevideo* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *officehub* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *skypeapp* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *getstarted* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *zunemusic* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *solitairecollection* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *bingfinance* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -allusers *bingnews* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *people* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *windowsphone* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *commsphone* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *photos* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *bingsports* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *windowsstore* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *bingweather* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *xboxapp* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *twitter* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *office.sway* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *xboxonesmartglass* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *messaging* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *windowscommunicationsapps* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *windowscamera* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *windowsmaps* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *soundrecorder* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *onenote* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *windowsscan* | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage -AllUsers *windowscalculator* | Remove-AppxPackage

4. Now save the newly created script to your preferred location, also you need to ensure the file extension is ".ps1" before saving it.

5. Now you must run --> PowerShell with "administrator" rights by right-click --> Run as administrator option as shown below.

6. Note the "Administrator" level is shown on the top left corner of the windows.

7. As my script file was save in [D:] folder, so must first change the working directory first, your folder maybe different from mine. Proper path is required.

8. Now type the script's filename as shown below and press --> [ENTER] key.

9. You will definitely encounter this error, don't worry as this is normal. This is because the "PowerShell Execution Policy" prevents any unauthorised scripts from running as security measures, which I very much like this idea (even though some find it troublesome).

10. Now type this cmdlet --> Get-ExecutionPolicy --> [ENTER]. It will display the current status of the policy, note the "Restricted" level as shown below screen.

11. Now to change it type the following cmdlet --> Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted --> [ENTER], this will change the level to "Unrestricted" which will allows you to run the script. When prompted just type --> "A" key --> [ENTER] to continue.

12. Type the script filename again and this time you should be able to run it without any error message, if successful you should be able to see the below screen. This will takes some times to complete so be patience.

13. Once completed, you might want to change back the policy back to "Restricted" as security measure, just type --> Set-ExecutionPolicy Restricted --> [ENTER] key.

14. To really do this automatically, you will need to create a batch file to first change the policy level, then run the script and finally change back the policy to default level.

For that will be another posting coming soon.

HAPPY CODING !!!