Windows 8.1 Professional or Enterprise versions have a built-in Hyper-V feature, which can be really useful while building a homelab. To sucessfully enable this feature you need to you need the following :
- Operating System version, mentioned before
- BIOS-level Hardware Virtualization support
- At least 4GB RAM
- 64 bit processor with SLAT (Second Level Address Translation)
Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012/2012R2 can be installed without SLAT, however if you want to enable Hyper-V feature on Windows 8/8.1 without SLAT, simply forget about it. Continue reading