How to Create a Hyper-V VM via PowerShell (with Modern Automated Provisioning)

Original Archive (January 2020) + 2026 AI Modernization: Preserves the original Hyper-V PowerShell commands and adds modern Secure Boot templates for Linux, TPM 2.0 enabling, and reusable provisioning functions.

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Original Guide (January 2020): Creating a Hyper-V VM via PowerShell

To create a VM in Hyper-V (or any hypervisor for that matter) we need to define a few necessary virtualized hardware components. We need to define memory (RAM), CPU(s), and a boot device. For our purposes we will use a Virtual Hard Disk as our boot and storage device.

Let’s start!

Open an elevated Windows PowerShell prompt or PowerShell ISE (Run as Administrator):

Elevated PowerShell prompt

Now, we are going to create a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) using the following command (name of the VHD, storage path, and capacity are up to you):

New-VHD -Path "C:\VHD_TEST\VirtualHardDisk.vhdx" -SizeBytes 60GB

Let’s define a VM… the following command creates a new Gen2 VM with 2GB of memory. In this example, I have given it a descriptive name of "Andre's CentOS VM":

New-VM -Name "Andre's CentOS VM" -Path "C:\VM" -MemoryStartupBytes 2048MB -Generation 2

(Optional) Let’s adjust the number of processors to 2 (default: 1):

Set-VMProcessor -VMName "Andre's CentOS VM" -Count 2

(Optional) Disable SecureBoot as we are planning on installing CentOS on this VM in the future:

Set-VMFirmware "Andre's CentOS VM" -EnableSecureBoot Off

(Optional) We’re going to add a network adapter and attach it to a virtual switch:

Add-VMNetworkAdapter -VMName "Andre's CentOS VM" -SwitchName "Default Switch"

(Optional) Let’s also add a virtual DVD drive for OS installation media:

Add-VMDvdDrive -VMName "Andre's CentOS VM" -Path "C:\ISO\CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1908.iso"

Alternatively, we could create a VM with a single command using the following:

New-VM -Name "Andre's CentOS VM" -MemoryStartupBytes 2048MB -BootDevice VHD -VHDPath "C:\VHD_TEST\VirtualHardDisk.vhdx" -Path "C:\VM" -Generation 2 -Switch "Default Switch"

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2026 Modernization & Best Practices

1. Keep Secure Boot Enabled on Linux VMs

Instead of disabling Secure Boot (-EnableSecureBoot Off), modern Linux distributions (Rocky Linux 9/10, AlmaLinux, Ubuntu 24.04+) work with Secure Boot enabled if you switch the template to MicrosoftUEFICertificateAuthority:

Set-VMFirmware -VMName "Andre's Linux VM" -EnableSecureBoot On -SecureBootTemplate "MicrosoftUEFICertificateAuthority"

2. Enabling vTPM 2.0 (Required for Windows 11 & Server 2025 Security)

Modern Windows guests require a virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM). You can enable it in two lines of PowerShell:

Set-VMKeyProtector -VMName "Win11-Lab" -NewLocalKeyProtector
Enable-VMTPM -VMName "Win11-Lab"

3. Complete Reusable PowerShell 7 Provisioning Function

Here is a complete, idempotent script you can drop into your PowerShell profile to spin up Linux or Windows Gen 2 VMs in seconds:

function New-LabVM {
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory)][string]$Name,
        [int]$CPUCount = 4,
        [int64]$MemoryGB = 4,
        [int64]$DiskGB = 60,
        [string]$IsoPath,
        [string]$SwitchName = "Default Switch",
        [ValidateSet("Linux", "Windows")][string]$OSType = "Linux"
    )

    $vmRoot = "C:\HyperV\$Name"
    $vhdPath = "$vmRoot\$Name.vhdx"

    New-VHD -Path $vhdPath -SizeBytes ($DiskGB * 1GB) -Dynamic | Out-Null
    New-VM -Name $Name -Path "C:\HyperV" -MemoryStartupBytes ($MemoryGB * 1GB) -Generation 2 -VHDPath $vhdPath -SwitchName $SwitchName | Out-Null
    Set-VMProcessor -VMName $Name -Count $CPUCount
    Set-VMMemory -VMName $Name -DynamicMemoryEnabled $false

    if ($OSType -eq "Linux") {
        Set-VMFirmware -VMName $Name -EnableSecureBoot On -SecureBootTemplate "MicrosoftUEFICertificateAuthority"
    } else {
        Set-VMKeyProtector -VMName $Name -NewLocalKeyProtector
        Enable-VMTPM -VMName $Name
    }

    if ($IsoPath) {
        Add-VMDvdDrive -VMName $Name -Path $IsoPath
        $dvd = Get-VMDvdDrive -VMName $Name
        Set-VMFirmware -VMName $Name -FirstBootDevice $dvd
    }

    Write-Host "VM '$Name' provisioned successfully!" -ForegroundColor Cyan
}