Lab 01: Install Ubuntu on Hyper-V (Free, No Dual Boot)

If you're building a cybersecurity homelab on Windows, Hyper-V is the best starting point — it's built into Windows 10/11 Pro, completely free, and runs Linux VMs without slowing down your main machine.

This guide takes you from zero to a fully updated Ubuntu 22.04 LTS desktop inside Hyper-V. No third-party software, no dual-booting, no BIOS changes needed on most modern machines.

Prerequisites

• Windows 10/11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education — Home editions do not include Hyper-V
• 64-bit CPU with hardware virtualisation (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) — enabled by default on most machines made after 2015
• At least 8 GB RAM (4 GB for the host + 4 GB assigned to the VM)
• 20+ GB free disk space for the virtual hard disk

Step 1 — Enable Hyper-V

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All

Restart when prompted. Alternatively go to Control Panel → Programs → Turn Windows features on or off, tick Hyper-V (both Platform and Management Tools), and restart.

Step 2 — Download Ubuntu ISO

Go to ubuntu.com/download/desktop and grab the latest LTS release (22.04 or 24.04). Save it somewhere easy to find — you'll point Hyper-V at it in the next step.

Step 3 — Create the VM in Hyper-V Manager

Open Hyper-V Manager (search it in Start). Click New → Virtual Machine on the right panel and work through the wizard:

1. Name: Ubuntu-Lab01
2. Generation: Generation 2 (UEFI — required for Ubuntu 22.04+)
3. Memory: 4096 MB minimum. Enable Dynamic Memory so Hyper-V manages it automatically
4. Network: Select Default Switch for NAT internet access through your host
5. Virtual Hard Disk: Create a new VHD — 25 GB is comfortable
6. Installation Media: "Install from a bootable image file" → browse to your Ubuntu ISO

Before hitting Start, open the VM's Settings → Security and either disable Secure Boot or change the template to Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority. Ubuntu will not boot with the default Windows Secure Boot template.

Step 4 — Install Ubuntu

Start the VM. It boots the Ubuntu live environment. Click Install Ubuntu and follow the prompts:

• Installation type: Normal installation, check "Download updates while installing"
• Disk: "Erase disk and install Ubuntu" — this only touches the virtual disk, not your real drive
• Set your name, username, and a strong password even for a lab VM

Installation takes 5–10 minutes. The VM restarts automatically when done.

Step 5 — Update Everything

Log in and open a terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T). Run:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

This pulls all pending security patches. Reboot after it finishes.

Step 6 — Install Hyper-V Guest Tools

For automatic screen scaling and clipboard sharing between host and VM:

sudo apt install -y linux-tools-virtual linux-cloud-tools-virtual

Restart the VM. You can now resize the Hyper-V window and the Ubuntu desktop scales with it.

What's Next

You now have a free, clean Ubuntu VM running inside Windows. From here:

• Install security tools — Nmap, Wireshark, Burp Suite, Metasploit
• Set up Splunk or Elastic to start ingesting logs
• Take a Hyper-V Checkpoint before each lab exercise — revert in 10 seconds if something breaks
• Clone the VM to spin up multiple machines for network lab scenarios

Hyper-V Checkpoints are the killer feature for security labs. Take one before every exercise, revert instantly if you break something. VMware charges for snapshots on the Pro tier — Hyper-V gives you unlimited checkpoints for free.

The next lab in this series covers installing Splunk Free inside this VM to start ingesting Windows event logs from your host machine.