The Windows Phone 8 SDK has been released, and running the emulator for Windows Phone 8, requires that your PC has Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). This in turn needs Hyper-V.
If you have read my blogs before, you will know I am a great fan of VMware, and use it for development systems, but you can't run VMware with Hyper-V, as VMware refuses to start if it detects Hyper-V.
So, if I want to run VMware, I can't run Hyper-V, and if I run Hyper-V then I can't run VMware. An ideal solution would be to convert my VMware machines to Hyper-V machines, but I can't do this, as I use them for Windows Mobile development, and need USB support to attach my Windows Mobile devices. So - what to do?
After some research, I found it is possible to turn Hyper-V on and off, but you need a reboot after you have done this. I created a couple of batch files, HyperVOn and HyperVOff.
HyperVOn contains:-
cd c:\
bcdedit /set {current}
hypervisorlaunchtype auto
@Echo Off
SET /P ANSWER=Do you want to reboot
now (Y/N)?
if /i {%ANSWER%}=={y} (goto :yes)
if /i {%ANSWER%}=={Y} (goto
:yes)
goto :no
:yes
shutdown -r
:no
exit
HyperVOff contains:-
cd c:\
bcdedit /set {current}
hypervisorlaunchtype off
@Echo Off
SET /P ANSWER=Do you want to reboot now
(Y/N)?
if /i {%ANSWER%}=={y} (goto :yes)
if /i {%ANSWER%}=={Y} (goto
:yes)
goto :no
:yes
shutdown -r
:no
exit
These use bcdedit to change the Boot Configuration Data. Right-click on the files, and 'Run as Administrator'. The files will prompt you to reboot. So to run VMware run HyperVOff, and to run VS2012 for Windows Phone 8 with emulator support, then run HyperVOn.
Alternately, you could dual boot the system. To do this, first of all run the command prompt as administrator, and then key in
bcdedit /copy {default} /d "Boot without Hypervisor for VMware"
This will return you a GUID in the format {1xxx2x34-567x-89x0-1234-x56789x01x2x}
using this GUID key in
bcdedit /set {1xxx2x34-567x-89x0-1234-x56789x01x2x} hypervisorlaunchtype off
When you reboot, you will be presented with 2 options - Windows 8 and Boot without Hypervisor for VMware
Alternately you can use the excellent EasyBCD from NeoSmart
Using either of these techniques should make it easier to develop for Windows Phone 8 and use VMware
Originally posted 1/Nov/2012