Why do you have to elevate PowerShell to use Hyper-V cmdlets?

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Short answer - you don't!  Or more accurately - you should not need to.

Every now and then someone complains to me about the fact that they need to run PowerShell "As Administrator" in order to see any of their virtual machines.  This is actually not necessary - but is indicative of a configuration issue with your installation of Hyper-V.  Hyper-V allows anyone to create and control virtual machines, without being administrator, as long as they are part of the "Hyper-V Administrators" group.

If you find that you can only use Hyper-V PowerShell cmdlets when running "As Administrator" - this means that your account is a member of the "Administrators" group - but not the "Hyper-V Administrators" group.  To fix this you will need to:

  1. Open Windows Explorer
  2. Right Click on your PC
  3. Select Manage
  4. Go to System Tools, Local Users and Groups, Groups
  5. Double click on the Hyper-V Administrators group
  6. Add your user account

After you do this you will need to log out and log back in.  Then you will be able to use Hyper-V in PowerShell without running as administrator.

Cheers,
Ben

Comments

  • Anonymous
    August 23, 2015
    You have a domain controller in your house? Just saw the ARMSTRONG domain in that list :))

  • Anonymous
    October 05, 2015
    Yup - Armstrong.house is my home domain :-)

  • Anonymous
    June 12, 2016
    Hi Ben,Unfortunately, I don't have a Hyper V Administrator Group in my System. Ma PC is Win 10 Pro updated from Home version and I enabled Hyper-V. Do you know why this happens. Please help. Thanks in advance.