SVM Mode on an AMD board, Intel (VMX) Virtualization Technology on an Intel one, and the second switch nobody mentions
The setting you are looking for is in the BIOS under CPU Configuration. On an AMD board it is called SVM Mode. On an Intel board it is called Intel (VMX) Virtualization Technology. It is the same feature under two vendors' names, and on ASUS Intel boards it is already on by default — so check before you go changing things. VT-d, the setting that lets a virtual machine take over a physical device, is a different switch and turning on the first one does not turn on the second.
A processor can pretend to be more than one computer. The hardware support that makes it do so at full speed is what this BIOS setting turns on. Without it, virtual machine software either refuses to start or falls back to translating instructions one block at a time, which is slow enough that most people assume something is broken.
Intel and AMD ship the same capability under different names, and each vendor's BIOS uses its own name for it:
| Intel | Intel VT-x, also written VMX — in the BIOS, Intel (VMX) Virtualization Technology |
| AMD | AMD-V, also written SVM — in the BIOS, SVM Mode |
Android's emulator documentation states the pairing plainly: "Intel Processors with Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x, vmx)" and "AMD Processors with AMD-V (SVM)". Microsoft's Hyper-V requirements describe the same thing from the other end — hardware-assisted virtualization "is available in processors that include a virtualization option: specifically processors with Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) technology."
That is one feature. There is a second, and confusing the two is the most common reason people think the setting did not work. ASUS puts it this way: "Virtualization is also divided into VT-x, VT-d and VT-c." VT-x is the one that lets you run virtual machines at all. VT-d is the IOMMU — the part that lets a virtual machine be handed a real PCIe device. They are separate BIOS settings, covered further down.
Microsoft's own guidance is worth repeating: "Many Windows devices already have virtualization enabled, so you might not need to follow these steps," and "Only change what you need to in the UEFI (or BIOS)." Read the check section first. If the setting is already enabled, the thing stopping your virtual machine is somewhere else, and turning other BIOS options on and off will not find it.
On an AMD board the item is SVM Mode, and it lives under CPU Configuration on the Advanced page.
ASUS documents the path on its own boards as: "Select [Advanced] page and click [CPU Configuration] item", then "click [SVM Mode] item and set to [Enabled]". Getting to the Advanced page first is the part people get stuck on — ASUS's instruction is "Power on the system and press[delete] key to enter BIOS [EZ Mode]", then "Press [F7] key to enter BIOS [Advance Mode]". On ROG boards you may land in Advanced Mode straight away, in which case F7 is not needed.
Save and exit when you are done. On most boards that is F10.
The path above is ASUS's, documented by ASUS. MSI, GIGABYTE and ASRock organise their BIOS menus differently, and we are not going to print a menu path for a vendor that has not published one — a wrong path sends you hunting through the wrong submenu. What is portable is the item name: look for a page called CPU Configuration or CPU Features, and inside it an item called SVM Mode. Microsoft's WSL documentation gives the same vendor-neutral advice: "The instructions on how to do this will vary from computer to computer, and will most likely be under CPU related options." Menu names also change between BIOS versions on the same board.
On an Intel board the item is Intel (VMX) Virtualization Technology, in the same place: CPU Configuration, on the Advanced page.
ASUS documents it as "Click [Advanced] - [CPU Configuration]", then "Select [Intel(VMX) Virtualization Technology] item and set to [Enabled]". Entry is the same as on the AMD side — "Press 'Del' or 'F2' into BIOS after power on, press 'F7' into Advanced Mode (ROG series motherboards can directly enter into Advanced Mode, no need to press 'F7')".
Here is the part that saves most Intel-board owners a trip into the BIOS entirely. ASUS states: "Virtualization is currently defaulted as enabled in the BIOS of the ASUS Intel motherboards." Its own walkthrough ends by telling you what you should expect to see: "You can see [Intel (VMX) Virtualization Technology], the default setting is Enabled". If you are on an ASUS Intel board and your virtual machine will not start, this setting is probably not your problem.
We have not verified the shipping default on other vendors' Intel boards, and we are not going to assume ASUS's default is theirs. Check yours rather than trusting the sentence above to cover it.
VT-x lets you run a virtual machine. VT-d — AMD calls the equivalent AMD-Vi, and both are IOMMUs — lets you give that virtual machine direct control of a real piece of hardware in a slot. Passing a graphics card or a USB controller through to a guest operating system is the usual reason to want it. Ordinary virtual machines do not need it.
Microsoft's requirements for discrete device assignment, which is the Hyper-V feature that does this, name the hardware directly: "Interrupt remapping - Intel's VT-d with the Interrupt Remapping capability (VT-d2) or any version of AMD I/O Memory Management Unit (I/O MMU)." And on the firmware side, in Microsoft's own words: "The firmware tables must expose the I/O MMU to the Windows hypervisor. This feature might be turned off in the UEFI or BIOS."
So it is a second setting, in the same neighbourhood of the same BIOS, and enabling SVM Mode or Intel (VMX) does not enable it.
The IOMMU is also what stops a device plugged into a PCIe slot from reading whatever memory it likes. In December 2025 CERT/CC published VU#382314, covering boards whose firmware reported DMA protection as active while the IOMMU had not actually been enabled during early boot. If you are going into the BIOS to look at IOMMU settings anyway, our UEFI early-boot DMA advisory explains what that one is, which vendors are in scope, and the ASUS setting a firmware update does not turn on for you.
Two ways, and the first does not involve rebooting.
From Windows. Microsoft's documented check is to open a command prompt or PowerShell and run:
Systeminfo.exe | Scroll to the Hyper-V Requirements section |
Microsoft's instruction for reading the result: "If all listed Hyper-V requirements have a value of Yes, your system can run the Hyper-V role. If any item returns No, check the requirements listed in this document and make adjustments where possible."
There is one reading that catches people out. If a hypervisor is already running on the machine, the report does not list the individual requirements at all — Microsoft documents that in that case "the Hyper-V Requirements section reads: Hyper-V Requirements: A hypervisor has been detected. Features required for Hyper-V will not be displayed." That is not a failure. It means virtualization is on and something is already using it.
From the BIOS. Go to the item itself, using the path for your platform above, and read its current value. On an ASUS Intel board, ASUS's documented expectation is that you will find it already set to Enabled.
Four hardware requirements sit behind all of this, and no BIOS setting adds them if the processor lacks them. Microsoft lists them as a 64-bit processor with second-level address translation (SLAT), VM Monitor Mode extensions, enough memory, and "Virtualization support turned on in the BIOS or UEFI" — which additionally requires that "Hardware-enforced Data Execution Prevention (DEP) must be available and enabled. For Intel systems, this is the XD bit (execute disable bit). For AMD systems, this is the NX bit (no execute bit)."
If you arrived here from an error message, it was almost certainly one of these.
That last item is worth taking seriously before you blame the motherboard. A machine where virtualization is correctly enabled in the BIOS can still fail to start a virtual machine because two hypervisors are fighting over the hardware.
A firmware update resets the BIOS to its defaults on most boards, which means a setting you changed by hand can quietly go back to how it was. If you are doing both, do the update first and set virtualization afterwards. Our BIOS update guide covers the safe order, and TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot covers the other pair of BIOS settings Windows sends people to find.
Every menu path, default and requirement on this page is quoted from the vendor or platform documentation linked below, all read on 9 September 2026. Nothing here is a test result: no board was flashed, no BIOS was photographed, and no virtual machine was benchmarked. We have documented menu paths for ASUS boards only, because ASUS is the only board vendor that publishes them in a form we could read and cite. Where a path is not sourced, this page gives the item name and says so, rather than guessing at a submenu.
Systeminfo.exe check, and the discrete device assignment requirements that name VT-d and the I/O MMUPublished 9 September 2026. All vendor and platform documentation quoted above was read on 9 September 2026.