VMware Workstation Device/Credential Guard are not compatible

When using VMware Workstation 15 Pro with on Windows 10 with the Hyper-V role enabled I’ve got the following error when trying to install or start Windows 10 in VMware Workstation:

VMware Workstation and Device/Credential Guard are not compatible. VMware Workstation can be run after disabling Device/Credential Guard. Please visit http://www.vmware.com/go/turnoff_CG_DG for more details.

In 2013 I did a post about using VMware Workstation and Hyper-V together on Windows 8, link. The bottom line that the Hyper-V role conflicts with  VMware Workstation.  It looks like this is still the case. The same  solution can be used to  disable the Hyper-V role in Windows 10.

To disable Hyper-V from starting the following command can be used:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

A reboot of Windows 10 is necessary. After the reboot I was able to boot the Windows 10 VM.

 

 

 

 

To enable the Hyper-V role again use the following command:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

A reboot of of the Windows 10 is necessary.

 

VMware/Microsoft has a KB article how to disable Windows Defender Credential Guard, link and link. I did not try this because the solution in this worked for me.

Running Hyper-V and VMware Workstation on Windows 8.x

For testing I use Hyper-V and VMware Workstation 10 on my laptop. One restriction of VMware Workstation is that it does not support VHDX disk files (yet). VMware Workstation support VHD files, so the VHDX files must be converted to a VHD first. After the conversion VMware Workstation can select the VHD as Hard Disk.  This can takes some time.

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1. VHD disk 2. Convert options in Hyper-V

That’s why I use Hyper-V on my laptop sometimes. When trying to start VMware Workstation the following error appears:

VMware Workstation and Hyper-V are not compatible. Remove the Hyper-V role from the system before running VMware Workstation.

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This is because the Hyper-V role is installed and this conflicts with VMware Workstation. To disable Hyper-V from starting the following command can be used:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

A reboot of of the Windows OS is necessary.

To enable the Hyper-V role again use the following command:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

A reboot of of the Windows OS is necessary.

Enable Windows Server 8 Hyper-V in VMware Workstation

VMware Workstation Technology Preview 2012 is available as download.  The Technology Preview makes it possible for example to install and operate Windows 8 and Windows Server 8 in a VM and the possibility to nest VMs.

I tested the installation of  Windows Server 8 in VMware Workstation TP, enabled the Hyper-V role and run a Windows 7 64-bit VM in Hyper-V. Here are some screenshots (Hyper-V manager and the Windows 7 64  bit running in Hyper-V): 

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To make the above configuration work, add to following options to the end of the VMX file before starting the Windows Server 8 installation:

hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = FALSE
mce.enable = "TRUE"

The VMware Workstation TP VMs are started in debug mode which impacts the performance!  

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More information can be found here:

VMware Workstation Technology Preview 2012 Overview

Download

 

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