How to Download for Hyper-V Server 2016 Free Edition

Note: This post has been updated to cover the latest version of Hyper-V Server 2016.

Like the VMware vSphere Hypervisor (free edition), there is also a free edition of Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V. Free Hyper-V offers many the  advanced features of Windows Server 2016 . Here's what you'll get:

• Shared Nothing Live Migration
• Storage Migration
• Virtual Fibre Channel
• Failover Clustering
• RemoteFX
• Extensible virtual switch
• Dynamic memory

So what's the downside to using Free Hyper-V 2016?



Just two things:

1. There's no local graphical interface on the console
2. There's no Windows client rights to run the Windows OS as a guest operating systems in virtual machines. In other words, unlike Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V Standard (the commercial edition where you receive rights to run 2 Windows virtual machines)

How to Download for Hyper-V Server 2016 Free Edition

So how do you download it and get started? It's simple!

Go to the Microsoft Evaluations Center and download the unlimited Microsoft Hyper-V 2016, as you see in the graphic below:

Once installed, here's what the console will look like (no there's no Start button but you do get SCONFIG.CMD):

And here's what it will look like when you manage it remotely with Hyper-V Manager:

For more information, visit visit the Microsoft's Hyper-V Server 2016 documentation.