This post will explain how to use the free Hyper-V Windows 2019 Server edition. This version does not come with any GUI interface provided in the full Windows 2019 Server version. It comes with a character interface instead, but you can easily get a fully functional Hyper-V server for free with the help of some third-party tools.
. Before downloading, you must register. After download you need to burn this ISO to a DVD or USB drive. For both options, you can use the Windows USB / DVD download tool available at https://ift.tt/1GfK6DI.
Click Next and Install Now. You will need to accept the license terms. Then choose Custom: Only install the newer version of Hyper-V (advanced). Select your target drive and click Next. This will install Hyper-V on your machine:
It will restart when finished. After restarting, it will continue with the setup process and ask you to change the Admin password. Click OK and enter the password. When complete, you will see the following screen:
This is the standard HyperV 2019 Core interface.
Select option 1 and 2 first to set the workgroup and computer name. In this case, I’ll leave the workgroup and just change the computer name to hyperv2019.
Now you don’t need to reboot the box. Add a local administrator using option 3. The easiest solution is to add a user whose username and password are exactly the same on the computer that will be used to manage this box.
Next, enable the remote desktop using option 7:
Next we want to enable file sharing. Use this to copy files to the server, but you can also use it to move virtual hard drives or use part of the server for backup. Type powershell in the command prompt window and give the following command:
Install-WindowsFeature -name File Services
Next, execute the following command to disable password expiration dates:
net accounts / MAXPWAGE: UNLIMITED
Now restart your server for the changes to take effect. After restarting, log in with your new user account. Normally, you can use remote desktop in the box using only the server name, but if that fails, use option 8 from the menu to get the IP address and use the IP address instead. Using the Remote Desktop, you should get the same screen you see on the console, which means you can now remotely manage this box.
Also, you should be able to browse the C $ network share from a remote client in this box:
You can use this network connection to copy files to the server so we can install extra utilities.
The first tool we will install is the Windows Admin Center. Download the MSI for free from https://ift.tt/39cvH4i and copy it to your new Hyper-V 2019 server. This tool allows remote management of the server through a secure web interface, ideal for Hyper-V Server without GUI remote tools installed. On the server, you can run this downloaded MSI file from command prompt:
Accept the license agreement, choose to use Microsoft Update to check for updates, let Windows Admin Center change the trusted host settings, use port 443, also check HTTP port 80 traffic redirect to HTTPs .
After installation, you should be able to open a website on your server, which should lead to a secure site. You can safely ignore security warnings because the server uses a self-signed certificate.
This tool allows you to manage your server including Virtual Switches and Virtual Machines. As an example, we will add a very simple VM running SliTaz (https://ift.tt/1hegxbr). First connect to the machine, then browse Virtual Machines. Click Inventory, then click New. Name it SliTaz, choose Generation 1, Virtual Processors 1 and 0.5 GB of memory. You don’t need to connect it to a network. Add a new hard drive with a size of 2 GB, then select the SliTaz ISO you uploaded to your server. Click Generate and click on the tag to view the details once it’s created.
Click Start, wait a few seconds and it should be running. The tool has the functionality to connect to the virtual machine from the web, but that doesn’t work for me. Instead, you can download the RDP file to connect to the VM via RDP:
There is another tool that allows us to connect to the VM via a web page called Freerdp. You can download it from this web page: https://ift.tt/36279sJ
Copy the MSI to your server and run it.
Accept the license agreement, select HTTP port 8080 and HTTPS port 8443, select Redirect HTTP to HTTPS, and make sure the firewall rules check box is selected.
Do not enable OpenStack integration, then click Install. Once installed, you should be able to open a web page on port 8080, which should forward to secure port 8443. Once again, you can ignore the security warnings.
Usually I edit \ hyperv2019 c $ Program Files Cloudbase Solutions FreeRDP-WebConnect etc wsgate.ini and the following lines [rdpoverride] part – this means I don’t always need to provide these values (just use the correct password in this file):
host = localhost
port = 2179
user = Administrator
pass = password
Save this file, then run the taskmgr command on your server. Go to the Services tab, search for wsgate service, right click and choose Restart.
To connect, you must use the VmId. To get the vmId you need to run a powershell command on the server:
get-vm SliTax | fl VmId
Copy this VmId to the FreeRDP web page. When you open the FreeRDP page, you will see the hostname, username and password. Click on Advanced and paste the VmId into the PCB input field. Go back to the General tab and click Connect.
Note: Usually I also edit \ hyperv2019 c $ Program Files Cloudbase Solutions FreeRDP-WebConnect WebRoot index.html and make the following changes:
- Remove the line referring to //Cloudbase.it/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/CBSL_web_logo3.png. You can remove
label completely.
- Move the IDs with the rdphost, rdpuser and rdppass input fields from the General form to the Advanced form.
- Move the sections with the Rdppcb ID from the Advanced form to the Public form.
- Save and don’t forget to refresh your client web browser to get the new file.
There are also some tools to make the standard text UI a little more like a GUI. First download the 64-bit versions of bbLean from https://ift.tt/Onnspl and Explorer ++ from https://ift.tt/ViFpZx. Copy both to your server.
bbLean is the window manager that provides us a better GUI interface, and Explorer ++ will provide you with an Explorer-like interface. From a command prompt, run the bbLean file you downloaded to install it. In my case I used the default target directory of c: bbLean. Click “Start” after installation.
Right click anywhere on the desktop and choose Blackbox – Configuration – Plugins – Install / Uninstall. Deselect the following add-ons:
- bbKeys
- bbLeanSkin
- bbAnalog
- bbIconBox
- bbColor3dc
Right click again anywhere on the desktop and select Styles – 3 colors – blue.
Then copy the explorer executable to c: Windows explorer.exe.
Now, when you right click the desktop and select “Explorer”, you will see an Explorer type window that allows you to browse and copy files:
To automatically start bbLean at startup, you need to add a registry entry. From the command prompt, type regedit, then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Windows CurrentVersion Run. Add a new string value with name “bbLean” and value set to “c: bbLean blackbox.exe -nostartup”. The nostartup parameter is to instruct bbLean not to run any start commands defined in the registry – because they were run by the local GUI and there is no need to rerun.
