Set Hyper-V for a lower default version for new VMs

Question

I'm trying to learn more Hyper-V now that Broadcom got rid of the free VMware ESXi. My normal workflow with VMware was to create VMs on my workstation, then copy the VM to the ESXi server. I can do the same in Hyper-V with a Windows 10 workstation to a Server 2022, but I'm upgrading my workstation to Windows 11 and the default VM version in Windows 11 Hyper-V is 11.0 and Server 2022 can't import VMs higher than 10.0.

Is there a way to set Hyper-V's default settings to always create a version 10.0 VM rather than 11.0?

I know I can create a new VM on Server 2022 and copy the VHDs, but then I have to manually enter all the VM settings. And I know that you can create a new VM with Powershell and specify the version, but I can't see any way to tell Windows 11 Hyper-V to default to a lower VM version.

With VMware it was trivial to downgrade/upgrade versions, as it was built into the GUI. But if I can't downgrade the version, then Hyper-V should prompt for the version when creating a new VM, just like how it prompts to select the Generation. And that's what VMware Workstation did. You selected the version during the initial creation of the VM. So, without prompting to select the version in the GUI during creation of a new VM, since Hyper-V GUI has the ability to upgrade the version, then forcing the default version lower and allowing me to upgrade the version in the GUI later seems reasonable and logical.

Answer 1

Create a new VM in Hyper-V Manager.

Once the VM is created, close Hyper-V Manager.

Open PowerShell with administrative privileges.

Run the following command to downgrade the VM version to 10.0:

Set-VMVersion -VMName "VMName" -Version 10.0

Replace "VMName" with the name of the VM you created.

Answer 2

Hi Randall,

Hope you're doing well.

Unfortunately, Hyper-V does not currently provide a built-in option to set a default VM version for new VM creation in the GUI. However, you can achieve this by using PowerShell to create new VMs with a specific version.

Here's how you can create a new VM with PowerShell and specify the VM version:

New-VM -Name "VMName" -Path "C:\Path\To\VM" -MemoryStartupBytes 2GB -Generation 2 -NewVHDPath "C:\Path\To\VHD" -NewVHDSizeBytes 50GB -SwitchName "vSwitchName" -Version 10.0

Replace "VMName" with the desired name for your VM, "C:\Path\To\VM" with the desired path for storing VM configuration files, "2GB" with the desired memory size, "C:\Path\To\VHD" with the desired path for storing the VM's virtual hard disk (VHD), "50GB" with the desired size for the VHD, and "vSwitchName" with the name of the virtual switch you want to connect the VM to.

The "-Version 10.0" parameter specifies the VM version as 10.0, ensuring that the new VM will be compatible with Server 2022.

You can run this PowerShell command whenever you need to create a new VM with version 10.0. While it's not as convenient as setting a default version in the GUI, it provides a workaround for achieving the desired result.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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