[German]An unpleasant observation that is being discussed in the Virtualbox community. Virtualbox only works under Windows 11 if Hyper-V has been removed as a platform (and other virtualization functions). Apparently the hypervisors (still) collide. But removing Hyper-V and the other virtualization functions under Windows 11 is not at all trivial and has side effects.
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Problem with two hypervisors
I know it from VMware: This software can only be operated under Windows if Hyper-V has been completely removed via features and functions. The reason for this is that the services of the hypervisors would otherwise collide. I used to run the portable version of Virtualbox – but Hyper-V was always removed so that I could run both virtualization solutions in parallel under Windows 10.
German blog reader Peter G. has now pointed out the following problem to me by email (thanks for that). There is a problem with VirtualBox under Windows 11 24H2 (should also affect earlier Windows 11 versions). Peter pointed out that VirtualBox can only run if Hyper-V and other virtualization functions are deactivated in Windows 11 24H2. Firstly, this is not trivial, and secondly, it leads to the Windows 11 security mechanisms that now use Hyper-V functions (e.g. Virtualization Based Security) being deactivated, he wrote.
Discussion in the community
The thread Hyper-V Problems in Windows 24H2
(meaning Windows 11 24H2) in the Virtualbox community describes the problem. The thread starter has upgraded his system from Windows 11 23H2 to Windows 11 24H2.
Since this upgrade, he has had a major problem in Windows 11, he writes. After the upgrade, the virtual machines would only start very slowly or not at all. The symbol of a turtle (green turtle, which probably stands for an emulated mode) was displayed, which indicates problems with another virtualizer.
The affected person then looked at the Virtualbox log file and found an entry stating that another virtualizer was active and therefore Oracle Virtualbox was not working properly.
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The affected person wrote that he had read through the entire Virtualbox community manual and removed the specified registry references or set them to 0. In addition, Safe Boot was deactivated in the bios and all references to Hyper-V in the bios were changed to not active.
The user has also deactivated kernel isolation and kernel access as well as control over driver programs. The system information still shows that a hypervisor is active.
Even reverting to Windows 11 23H2 did not solve the problem, the turtle is still displayed. A downgrade to Virtualbox 7.0.20 did not help either, the turtle is still displayed.
Further mentions on the web
In another search, I found a three year old reddit.com thread dealing with Windows 11 and virtualization issues with Virtualbox. A second reddit.com thread is two years old and also refers to Windows 11 and Virtualbox.
The colleagues at German platform deskmodder.de also have this thread from May 2024, which deals with the same problem: Virtualbox no longer runs under Windows 11. In the thread in question, there are some tips on what to disable (besides Hyper-V) so that virtualization using Virtualbox works in Windows 11. Blog reader Peter sent me this article link, which contains information on what you need to adjust to disable VBS.
In addition to the sandbox, the Device Guard, core isolation, memory integrity and firmware protection must also be deactivated. All of these security functions from Windows 11 use the Hyper-V hypervisor. This shows the collateral damage caused by the security features in Windows 11.
A reader told me, that Virtualbox uses now the Hyper-V platform, and the issues outlined above are gone. But I'm not sure, whether this is true.
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Yes, VirtualBox can collide with Hyper-V on Windows 11. Hyper-V uses hardware virtualization, which conflicts with VirtualBox's settings. To use VirtualBox, disable Hyper-V through the "Windows Features" menu or using the command line: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off. Restart to apply changes.