Hyper-V
Shares rank 4 of 16 hypervisors by recommenders
Recommended for running Linux and other virtual machines on Windows, reliable across updates and included with Windows Pro. Common complaint: clunky, with missing features such as Quick Sync for Linux guests.
Recommended for running Linux and other virtual machines on Windows, reliable across updates and included with Windows Pro. Common complaint: clunky, with missing features such as Quick Sync for Linux guests.
26 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 65%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Powerful, runs several VMs well
“Hyper-V is quite capable of providing ephemeral workspaces on timescales measured in minutes”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “A way to exclude sensitive files issue still open for OpenAI Codex” “On my little Windows ARM laptop I can easily run 4 VMs before it runs out of steam.”
Comment from 12 Apr 2026 in “Apple Silicon and Virtual Machines: Beating the 2 VM Limit” “Hyper-V comes with pro and is incredibly powerful”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “The Reason Windows Hate Is Exploding: It's the End of Personal Computing [video]” Reliable across updates and easy to use
“hyper-v just fucking works and it keeps working across updates”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “Leaving VMware just got harder after Broadcom pulled VDDK downloads” “Hyper V is a decent hypervisor and easy to work with.”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload” Good for Linux development environments
“I use Hyper-V with great success for driving my Linux and FreeBSD development.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “Windows 11 users are tired of MS account requirements creeping into everything” “I use hyper-v for a Linux dev environment on a windows workstation.”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Isn't WSL2 just a VM?” Included with Windows Pro
“Hyper-V comes with pro and is incredibly powerful”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “The Reason Windows Hate Is Exploding: It's the End of Personal Computing [video]” “Hyper V and bundling it with Windows Pro”
Comment from 10 Oct 2026 in “WSL3 Performance is about 5-60% faster than WSL2 depending on the workload”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Missing features like Quick Sync, sleep
“Better support for Sleep / Wake-on-LAN if you wanted to save power with unused hypervisor capacity.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “I moved a broker's virtualization from Hyper-V to Proxmox with zero downtime” “Doesn't really seem workable to use Intel Quick Sync on Linux guests with a Hyper-V host”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “OrangePi 6 Plus Review: The New Frontier for ARM64 SBC Performance” Clunky, bolted-on tools
“A bunch of different tools created by different teams to do tasks that feel bolted on and afterthoughts.”
Comment from 7 Sep 2026 in “Leaving VMware just got harder after Broadcom pulled VDDK downloads” “Hyper-V and Virtualization Framework wish they were so user friendly”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “Microsoft kills official way to activate Windows 11/10 without internet” Less capable than rivals like VirtualBox
“HyperV exhibits properties closer to VirtualBox.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “An Update on GitHub Availability” “Not the gimped half VM over HiperV.”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “WSL Manager”
Other hypervisors people recommend
The four most recommended other hypervisors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proxmox VE | 208 | 60 | 78% | 12 | 3 yrs16 owners | Approved |
| Incus | 90 | 8 | 92% | 12 | 6 mo5 owners | Approved |
| KVM | 32 | 9 | 78% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Hyper-VThis page | 17 | 9 | 65% | 9 | — | — |
| bhyve hypervisor | 17 | 4 | 81% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
27 of the 28 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I get a lot of utility out of windows, the desktop, the browser, Hyper V”
“Hyper V is a decent hypervisor and easy to work with.”
“Hyper V and bundling it with Windows Pro”
“It's mad that HyperV is chosen as a solution in this day and age.”
“hyper-v just fucking works and it keeps working across updates”
“I defy you to love its iSCSI and networking, let alone that awful vTPM thingie.”
“A bunch of different tools created by different teams to do tasks that feel bolted on and afterthoughts.”
“Hyper-V with GPU sharing on windows (game development) is actually nicer than developing outside of the VM”
“Hyper-V is quite capable of providing ephemeral workspaces on timescales measured in minutes”
“Better support for Sleep / Wake-on-LAN if you wanted to save power with unused hypervisor capacity.”
“outrageous HyperV labor costs”
“I use Hyper-V with great success for driving my Linux and FreeBSD development.”
“On laptops, though, that is not always possible.”
“HyperV exhibits properties closer to VirtualBox.”
“Microsoft does too, with a much better hypervisor.”
“On my little Windows ARM laptop I can easily run 4 VMs before it runs out of steam.”
“Hyper-V comes with pro and is incredibly powerful”
“Not the gimped half VM over HiperV.”
“I don't get why people use it instead of just using Hyper-V”
“The desktop management, included hyper V, wsl2 and awesome RDP make it a great platform to get work done.”
“they still indicate that both Hyper-V and a chosen kernel is used - so that smells like a VM”
“Hyper-V and Virtualization Framework wish they were so user friendly”
“this comes with several other hassles I'd like to avoid”
“Interesting, in Hyper-V that's a non-issue.”
“Doesn't really seem workable to use Intel Quick Sync on Linux guests with a Hyper-V host”
“I use hyper-v for a Linux dev environment on a windows workstation.”
“Hyper-V is pretty decent for many use cases.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.