A guest operating system is the operating system that you install and run in a virtual machine. Before you can install the guest operating system, if you did not specify the location of the installation media when you created the virtual machine, you will need to perform one of the following steps:

  • Obtain the installation media for the operating system and configure the virtual machine to use the CD/DVD drive to access the installation media. For instructions, see Configure Disks and Storage.

  • If you want to perform a network-based installation, configure the virtual machine to use a legacy network adapter that is connected to an external virtual network. This type of network provides connectivity to a physical network by routing traffic through an external virtual network to a physical network adapter. For more information, see Configure Networking.

After you have configured the virtual machine appropriately, you can install the guest operating system.

To install the guest operating system

  1. Open Hyper-V Manager. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Hyper-V Manager.

  2. Connect to the virtual machine. From the Virtual Machines section of the results pane, using one of the following methods:

    • Right-click the name of the virtual machine and click Connect.

    • Select name of the virtual machine. In the Action pane, click Connect.

  3. The Virtual Machine Connection tool opens.

  4. From the Action menu in the Virtual Machine Connection window, click Start.

  5. The virtual machine starts, searches the startup devices, and loads the installation package.

  6. Proceed through the installation.

Note

Depending on the operating system being installed, the mouse pointer may change to a small dot when you move the mouse cursor over the image of the setup window. If this occurs, click anywhere in the virtual machine window. This action "captures" the mouse so that keyboard and mouse input is sent to the virtual machine. To return the input to the physical computer, press CTRL+ALT+LEFT ARROW and then move the mouse pointer outside of the virtual machine window.

Hyper-V includes a software package for supported guest operating systems that improves integration between the physical computer and the virtual machine. This package is referred to as integration services. Newer versions of supported Windows operating systems include the integration services and do not require installation after you install the guest operating system. For more information about which operating systems are supported and which of those require you to install integration services, see the deployment content for Hyper-V at the Windows Server 2008 Technical Library (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=128037).

Note

The following instructions assume that you are installing an operating system for which the software package is available and installation is required.

To install integration services

  1. Connect to the virtual machine. From the Virtual Machines section of the results pane, using one of the following methods:

    • Right-click the name of the virtual machine and click Connect.

    • Select the name of the virtual machine. In the Action pane, click Connect.

  2. The Virtual Machine Connection tool opens.

  3. From the Action menu of Virtual Machine Connection, click Insert Integration Services Setup Disk. This action loads the setup disk in the virtual DVD drive.

  4. Depending on the operating system being installed, you may need to start the installation manually. Click anywhere in the guest operating system window and navigate to the CD drive. Use the method that is appropriate for the guest operating system to start the installation package from the CD drive.

  5. After the installation finishes, all integration services are available for use.

Additional considerations

  • By default, membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. However, an administrator can use Authorization Manager to modify the authorization policy so that a user or group of users can complete this procedure. For more information, see Using Authorization Manager for Hyper-V Security (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=142886).

  • The use of Virtual Machine Connection within a Remote Desktop Services session is not supported unless integration services are installed.

  • Integration services for supported Linux operating systems are not included with an installation of Hyper-V. They are distributed through the Microsoft Connect Web site and are identified as Linux Integration Components for Microsoft Hyper-V. For more information, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=102024.

Additional references

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