How to enable Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT) in Windows® 10 by disabling Memory Integrity feature
- Unable to use Intel® Virtualization Technology in Windows® 10 on Intel® Processors that support this feature.
- Intel® Processor Identification Utility also indicates Intel® Virtualization Technology as "No"
- Third-party software like Leomoon*, Securable* also indicates Intel® Virtualization Technology as "No"
When Memory Integrity is enabled it makes the code run on a hypervisor layer to protect the internal process. At this point even the Virtualbox*, VMware* will throw the error about virtualization disabled. It is a known issue.
The feature known as Memory Integrity in the Windows 10 interface is also known as Hypervisor protected Code Integrity (HVCI) in Microsoft’s documentation.
Memory Integrity is disabled by default on PCs that upgraded to the April 2018 Update, but you can enable it. It will be enabled by default on new installations of Windows 10 going forward.
This feature is a subset of Core Isolation. Windows normally requires digital signatures for device drivers and other code that runs in low-level Windows kernel mode. This ensures they haven’t been tampered with by malware. When Memory integrity is enabled, the code integrity service in Windows runs inside the hypervisor-protected container created by Core Isolation. This should make it nearly impossible for malware to tamper with the code integrity checks and gain access to the Windows kernel.
As Memory integrity uses the system’s virtualization hardware, it’s incompatible with virtual machine programs like VirtualBox or VMware. Only one application can use this hardware at a time.
You may see a message saying Intel VT-X is not enabled or available if you install a virtual machine program on a system with memory Integrity enabled.
In VirtualBox, you may see the error message “Raw-mode is unavailable courtesy of Hyper-V” while Memory Protection is enabled.
Disable Memory Integrity in Windows 10
- Search for “Windows Defender Security Center” in your Start menu or head to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Security > Open Windows Defender Security Center.
- Click the “Device Security” icon in the Security Center.
- To enable (or disable) Memory Protection, click the “Core Isolation Details” link.
- Disable Memory Integrity, by flipping the switch to “Off”
Core isolation/Memory integrity feature is enabled in Windows 10.