If you are playing with Windows 11, you may have noticed what appear to be some new Features that also appear to be highly related; HyperV, Virtual Machine Platform, Windows Hypervisor Platform, Windows Subsystem For Linux and Windows Sandbox.
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These features are new-ish, but not to Windows 11. All of them also existed in later versions of Windows 10. Lets explain what each one does:
Hyper-V is Microsoft’s hypervisor that lets you run full versions of other operating systems from Linux and Microsoft inside your current machine.
Virtual Machine Platform is a less powerful version of HyperV that still enables a hypervisor. VMP is a requirement for WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux v2), which is really good. It can, and often is, used to create MSIX Application packages for an App-V or MSI. Note that Microsoft if very vague on what the actual differences are between VMP and HyperV.
Windows Hypervisor Platform lets virtualized applications (like AppV applications) to run in your Windows without requiring the full HyperV hypervisor. It is a stack of API’s.
Windows Sandbox is a very cool feature that lets you run a temporary version of Windows inside your current Windows. It’s use cases are like “In Private Browsing” or “Incognito Mode” in Chrome and Edge browsers, in that by default nothing you do inside those protected shells stays on your computer when you shut it down. We have a great article and video on Windows Sandbox HERE.
Windows Subsystem For Linux is just what is says. It allows you to run Linux commands inside your Windows. We have a nice article and video on WSL and why you likely want to use WSL2.
1 Comment
WillEMakit · December 23, 2021 at 3:04 am
Umm… just want to point out that none of those virtual Windows Features are new to Windows 11. They have all very much been inside of the Windows Features panel since before Windows 10. Just felt that bit of immediate false information given in this article should be cleared up.