Advertisement

Windows 10 now does Windows within Windows within Windows

Call it Windows Inception. Microsoft has revealed that the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview supports nested virtualization, which lets you launch a virtual machine within another virtual machine -- yes, you can run Windows inside of Windows inside of Windows. The trick is a new feature that supports hardware-based virtualization within a primary virtual machine, providing for that one extra layer. There are limits, of course. Features like dynamic memory won't work, and nesting currently requires an Intel processor with VT-x support (most chips from the past several years will do). So long as everything lines up, though, you too can create a hall of mirrors effect on your PC -- even if it doesn't serve much of a practical purpose for most people.