How To Turn Off Hyper V in Windows 11

Disabling Hyper-V on Windows: A Real-World Run-Through

So, I finally had to turn off Hyper-V on my Windows machine to get some other virtualization stuff to work properly. Honestly, it’s one of those things where the docs make it seem simple, but in practice, it’s kinda messy. Here’s what I found out after some trial, error, and a lot of reboots.

Method 1: Using the Good Old Control Panel

This method isn’t fancy, but it still works for a lot of systems. To start, press Windows key + R to bring up the Run dialog. Type appwiz.cpl and hit Enter—that opens the list of installed programs and Windows features. On the left, you should see “Turn Windows features on or off.” That’s where the magic happens.

Click that, and a list pops up. Look for “Hyper-V” — it might be expanded or collapsed. If it’s there, you’ll see a checkbox labeled “Hyper-V Hypervisor.” Uncheck it. Often, there’s a parent checkbox too which controls the whole Hyper-V feature; unchecking that should suffice. If you see options like “Windows Hypervisor Platform” or “Virtual Machine Platform,” those might also be related and might need disabling if you’re troubleshooting nested virtualization or WSL2.

Hit OK, wait—it might take a moment. Windows will ask for a reboot to finalize the change. Sometimes, that’s all it takes, but beware—Hyper-V can be kinda sneaky and sometimes refuses to turn off fully if other features depend on it. After rebooting, you can run tpm.msc or even check in PowerShell to see if Hyper-V is still active.

Method 2: PowerShell – The Fast Lane

If Control Panel isn’t cooperating or you want a more direct route, PowerShell is your buddy. I always prefer opening it as admin, so press Windows key + X and select “Windows PowerShell (Admin)” or “Windows Terminal (Admin).” You can also search “PowerShell,” right-click, and pick “Run as administrator.”

Then, type in:

Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-Hypervisor

This command disables the Hyper-V hypervisor feature directly. Honestly, it might take a bit of time, and sometimes you get warnings about other features depending on Hyper-V. Once it’s done, just restart your PC. After reboot, run:

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-Hypervisor

And look at the State. If it says “Disabled,” you’re good. If not, run the disable command again or try the registry tweak later. Also, if WSL 2 gives issues, disable “Virtual Machine Platform” and “Hypervisor Platform” with commands like:

Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform

Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName HypervisorPlatform

Method 3: The Registry Hack (A Bit More Risky)

This one’s for folks who tried everything and still see Hyper-V lingering. It involves editing the registry, which can be risky—so back up first! Use Windows key + R, run regedit. Confirm any UAC prompts, and then navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\HYPER-V

If that key exists, look for a DWORD named “HypervisorEnforcedManagement” and set it to 0. Sometimes Hyper-V configs stick around even after disabling features, and registry editing can clear those remnants. For even faster, you can create a .reg file. Open Notepad and paste:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\HYPER-V]
"HypervisorEnforcedManagement"=dword:00000000

Save it as disable_hyperv.reg and double-click to merge. Then restart. Be cautious—if you’re not familiar with regedit, it’s easy to mess things up. But I found this helps sometimes when other methods don’t do the trick.

Bottom line: Hyper-V can be a pain to fully disable because Windows can keep parts alive or sneak features back after updates. I learned that it’s worth checking all related features—like “Virtual Machine Platform” and “Windows Hypervisor Platform” too. And note that on some Windows editions, like Windows 11 Home, Hyper-V just isn’t there at all, so no worries.

Double-check after reboot by running systeminfo in Command Prompt or PowerShell, and look for Hyper-V states. Or, poke around in tpm.msc or attempt to disable Hyper-V through the GUI again.

Hope this helped — it took me way too long to figure out the best way. Some of these steps are not super straightforward, but after a few tries, it finally clicked. Anyway, hope this saves someone else a weekend!