Hyper-V virtual machines are a powerful tool for managing multiple systems on a single computer. They can be used to run Windows 8 applications, or to create a Windows 8 workstation. To configure Hyper-V virtual machine startup behavior on Windows 8, you must first create a Hyper-V environment. To create an environment, open the Hyper-V Manager and click New Virtual Machine. In the New Virtual Machine dialog, enter the name of your new hypervisor and click OK. Next, you must set up your hypervisor. To do this, open the Hyper-V Manager and click Settings on the left side of the window. On the Settings page, select General on the left and then click Set Up on the right side of the window. On the Set Up page, select Use this hypervisor for this operating system on the left and then click OK to finish setting up your hypervisor. Now that you have your hypervisor set up, you can configure Hyper-V virtual machines to run Windows 8 applications. To do this, open one of your virtual machines andclick Properties in the top right corner of the window. On the Properties page, select Run as Administrator on the left side and then click Change Type in the bottom right corner of the window to Virtual Machine (.vmdk). Click OK to finish setting up your virtual machine properties. Now that you have configured Hyper-V virtual machines to run Windows 8 applications, you can test them by running them in an environment created by preceding steps. To do this, open one of your virtual machines andclick Start in its top right corner to start it up. Then type C:\Windows\system32 into its address bar and hit Enter to start running Microsoft Windows 8 (64 bit).
By default, Hyper-V tries to figure out which Virtual Machines were powered on at the time that your PC had its power cut. It uses this list to automatically turn Virtual Machines back on when your PC powers on. Here is how to change what gets switched back on.
How To Configure Hyper-V Virtual Machine Startup Behavior
Unfortunately, Virtual Machine startup behavior is configured at the Virtual Machine level and therefore needs to be set for each Virtual Machine separately. So go ahead and right click on the first virtual machine and choose to open its settings from the context menu.
You will then need to scroll down until you can select the Automatic Start Action section.
On the right hand side, you will there are three settings that you can choose from:
Nothing: This will leave the virtual machine off regardless of what the state of it was before your PC powered down. Automatically start if it was running when the service was stopped: This is just a fancy way of saying if the virtual machine was running when your PC was powered off, switch it on when your PC comes back online. If it was off, leave it off. This is the default setting for all virtual machines. Always start this virtual machine automatically: This setting doesn’t care if the virtual machine was running or not at the the time your PC went offline. Either way, when your machine comes back online, the virtual machine will be powered on.
In addition to these three settings, you can also set a delay for each virtual machine so that they don’t fight for resources when your PC boots back up.
I went and changed all my Virtual Machines to nothing, as most of the time I don’t want them starting up and slowing down my PC.
