A user is unable to install virtualization software on a Windows 8.1 computer. The user verified the host has sufficient RAM, plenty of available free disk space, and a multicore processor.

Which of the following is the most likely cause for this behavior?

a. Windows 8.1 does not support Type 2 hypervisors.

b. The motherboard does not support hardware-assisted virtualization.

c. The user does not have a valid product license key.

d. The system is incompatible with Type 1 hypervisors.

The correct option is C. The user does not have a valid product license key. Both the OS installed on the bare metal (that the host) and the client OS must have a valid license key.

Explanation:

There is a powerful virtualization tool is built into every copy of Microsoft Windows 8.x Pro and Windows 8.x Enterprise, Client Hyper-V.

This is the very same Type-1 hypervisor that runs virtualized enterprise workloads and comes with Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2. The virtual machines you create on your desktop with Client Hyper-V are fully compatible with those server systems as well.

If you need to do testing as a software developer, or simply want an additional operating system(s) running on your computer, such as Linux, Hyper-V can be a great feature to have enabled on your PC.

To have the Hyper-V feature on your PC, you'll need to meet some basic requirements like your computer will need 4GB of RAM with a 64-bit processor that has Second Level Address Translation (SLAT).

Many PCs on the market have this feature, while many PC BIOSes have virtualization features turned on by default, your PC might not.

As BIOS menu layouts are not universal, you'll want to consult your PC BIOS documentation as to where the feature is located in your firmware setup and what it is called.

a.   Windows 8.1 does not support Type 2 hypervisors.

 This option is wrong. All 64-bit Windows 8.1 OS except for the Home version supports hypervisors type 2 as well as type 1

b.   The motherboard does not support hardware-assisted virtualization.

Most of the PC that can run Windows 8.1 has visualization, all that is needed is to have it enabled if it was it enabled by default in the BIOS

c.   The user does not have a valid product license key.

This is the correct answer. For you to successfully install visualization software on Windows 8.1, both the host OS and the client OS must have a valid product key

d. The system is incompatible with Type 1 hypervisors.

This option is wrong. The Windows 8.1 OS does not only support the installation of visualization software, it came with its hypervisor called Hyper-V.