Now that the virtual machine has been shut down, we can prepare it for the Windows 11 upgrade. To do so, open an administrative PowerShell prompt on the Hyper-V host and enter the following command:Īs you can see in the image below, the shutdown process will fail unless you append the -Force switch. The first thing that you will need to do is to shut down the virtual machine. Before I get started, it is worth noting that even though I am working with a single VM for the sake of simplicity, the technique that I am about to show you can be easily scaled to accommodate a large number of virtual machines. So, with that said, let’s delve into PowerShell and prepare the VM for a Windows 11 upgrade. In either case, the VM will need to meet the Windows 11 hardware requirements, or the upgrade will not be allowed.Īs you can see in the image below, this particular VM, which is running a typical Windows 10 configuration, is not eligible for an upgrade to Windows 11 because it does not meet the minimum system requirements.įiring up PowerShell to prepare for Windows 11

Once Windows 11 is released, you will be able to upgrade by using Windows Update. 5), upgrading to Windows 11 means joining the Windows Insider Program and then selecting a channel that allows an upgrade to Windows 11. In this article, I will show you how to use PowerShell to modify a Windows 10 virtual machine to prepare it for a Windows 11 upgrade.Īs it stands now (before the official Windows 11 release, which is scheduled to start rolling out Oct. In most cases, the best way to modify the virtual machine settings in bulk for Windows 11 will be to use PowerShell. While you can do this using the Hyper-V Manager or System Center Virtual Machine Manager, these tools tend not to scale well when making bulk changes to virtual machine settings.

Does your organization run Windows 10 on Hyper-V virtual machines that you plan to upgrade to Windows 11? You will need to modify some of the virtual machine settings before performing the upgrade.

Windows 11 virtual machine