turning on the virtual machine/hypervisor for some Windows machines

On my older (2017 ASUS ROG G752 laptop) Windows 10 machine, the "hypervisor" (virtual machine feature) was not on by default. I typed "features" into the Windows search/start menu, and then ran the "Turn Windows Features on or off" application. Scroll down and be sure that the "Virtual Machine Platform" and the "Windows Hypervisor Platform" are clicked ON.

That wasn't enough, though, because I think my older Symantec virus protection program was preventing it from running. Here's what I did to get it going: 

1. Open your "Settings and click on "Updates and Security"

2. Open "Windows Security" (on the left)

3. Open "App & Browser control" (on the right)

4. Click "Exploit protection settings" at the bottom

5. Switch to "Program settings" tab (kind of at the top)

6. Locate "C:\WINDOWS\System32\vmcompute.exe" in the list and expand it
	(probably towards the bottom of the scrolling list)

7. Click on it, and click "Edit"

8. Scroll down to "Code flow guard (CFG)" and uncheck "Override system settings"

9. hit apply.

10. Exit the settings, and start up a Powershell

11. Start vmcompute from Powershell by typing "net start vmcompute"

The good news is that you only need to do this once. Good luck!


Brad Garton
July, 2020