How to Enable VT-X in Windows 10

Virtual machines (or VMs, as they are commonly referred to as) are astounding things. You can use a virtualization program to create a virtual machine, and on a virtual machine, you can run an entire virtual computer – complete with its very own Operating System – in a window on your current system. Virtual machines are commonly used to try out different Operating Systems, test programs in a sandbox environment and to experiment with the features of a system without worrying about any repercussions. For virtualization programs such as VMware and Hyper-V to work on a computer, though, they need access to the hardware acceleration technology that comes built into almost all CPUs in this day and age.

The hardware acceleration technology built into Intel CPUs is known as Intel VT-X hardware acceleration, whereas other CPU manufacturers (such as AMD) bless their processors with different hardware acceleration technologies. In many cases, VT-X is, by default, disabled on Intel processors. Trying to run a virtual machine on a computer that has such a processor results in the virtualization app being used spitting out an error message that usually informs the user that the program needs hardware acceleration to function, but it looks as though they currently have the technology disabled.

Intel’s VT-X hardware acceleration technology can indeed be enabled and disabled at will, and all a user needs to do in order to enable or disable it is access their computer’s BIOS or UEFI settings. This is true in the case of all of the iterations of Windows that are currently supported by Microsoft, including Windows 10 – the latest and greatest in a long line of Windows Operating Systems.

The process you need to go through in order to enable VT-X hardware acceleration on a computer varies slightly depending on whether the computer in question has a BIOS or is a UEFI computer. Computers that came with a version of Windows older than Windows 8 out of the box will almost always have a BIOS, whereas computers that came with Windows 8 or later out of the box are likely to have UEFI settings instead. The industry’s standard for computers is gradually but surely moving towards UEFI, so the newer a computer is, the likelier it is to have UEFI settings. To enable VT-X on a Windows 10 computer, you need to first get into its BIOS or UEFI settings. Here’s how you can do that:

On a computer with BIOS

1. Restart your computer.
2. On the very first screen you see when the computer boots up, press the key specified on the screen to get into your computer’s BIOS or Setup. The key you need to press will be clearly specified on the first screen you see when your computer boots up.

On a computer with UEFI

1. Navigate to the Power options menu in the Settings charm (if you’re using Windows 8 or 8.1) or in the Start Menu (if you’re using Windows 10).
2. Press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard.
3. With the Shift key held, click on Restart. Doing so will get the computer to display the Boot Options menu when it boots up.
4. When you see the Boot Options menu, click on Troubleshoot.
5. Click on Advanced Options.
6. Click on UEFI Firmware Settings.

Once you are inside your computer’s UEFI settings or BIOS, you can actually get to work on locating the option for VT-X hardware acceleration technology and enabling the feature. Simply look around in all of the BIOS’ or UEFI settings’ tabs and sections for an option for VT-X hardware acceleration – this option will be labeled something along the lines of “Intel VT-X“, “Intel Virtualization Technology“, “Virtualization Extensions” or “Vanderpool“.In most cases, this option is found under a Processor sub-menu of a Chipset, Northbridge, Advanced Chipset Control or Advanced CPU Configuration main menu or tab.

Once you have located the option for VT-X hardware acceleration within your computer’s BIOS or UEFI settings, simply turn it on and VT-X hardware acceleration will be enabled. Be sure to save your changes and then exit the BIOS or UEFI settings (precise instructions for which you will be able to find inscribed somewhere on the BIOS or UEFI settings screen). When you get out of the BIOS or UEFI settings of your computer, your computer will boot up like it normally does.

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