Why does virtualbox only have 32-bit option, no 64-bit option on Windows 7?

308

I have downloaded and installed the newest virtualbox 4.3.20 for my Windows 7 (64-bit OS), but when I want to install 64-bit Linux, the New->Create Virtual Machine only displays 32-bit option, no 64-bit option. Could anyone give any clues about this issue? Thanks very much in advance!

Nan Xiao

Posted 2015-01-20T05:52:28.993

Reputation: 3 535

1You're sure you installed the amd64 version, correct? – heavyd – 2015-01-20T06:05:20.207

possible duplicate of Running a 64-bit VirtualBox archive on a 32-bit machine

– Ramhound – 2015-01-20T12:22:58.127

3@Ramhound: Not a duplicate, this is for a 64-bit host. – Andreas Magnusson – 2018-06-04T07:12:47.323

1@AndreasMagnusson My comment was submitted 3.5 years ago. – Ramhound – 2018-06-04T12:00:18.703

1To remedy this on my Win10 machine I needed to go into Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features and Turn Windows Features on or off. From here I needed to UNCHECK the Hyper-V feature that was installed. After rebooting the machine, the 64bit options were displayed – Malcolm Swaine – 2019-06-21T09:15:04.433

3In addition to disabling the Hyper-V feature in the Windows features, I additionally had to go to the Task Manager and manually stop all running "Hyper-V ..." services and the "HV Host Service" from the "Services" tab. After rebooting, the 64bit options were finally displayed. – KiraMichiru – 2019-08-01T09:18:15.813

Answers

302

Take a look: http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2014/11/virtualbox-showing-32-bit-guest-versions-64-bit-host-os/

If VirtualBox is only showing 32-bit versions in the Version list make sure:

You have an x64 CPU installed. (Optimally, a 64-bit OS should also be installed to receive acceptable virtualization performance.)
Hardware virtualization is enabled in the BIOS. (Your CPU must support it.)
- For Intel x64: VT-x (Intel Virtualization Technology) and VT-d are both enabled
- For AMD x64: AMD SVM (Secure Virtual Machine) is enabled
Hyper-V (or any other form of bare-metal hypervisor) is not installed

duDE

Posted 2015-01-20T05:52:28.993

Reputation: 14 097

1@Tonny On top of this, as far as I remember, if you try to start something like XP Mode when you have VirtualBox VMs running, it will shut down your VirtualBox VMs abruptly without warning. – Bruno – 2015-01-20T20:49:33.620

@Bruno I never used XP Mode myself. But I do know it is basically a version of Hyper-V that is dumbed down to just provide a XP VM and nothing else. I'll take your word for it that it shows such behavior. Makes sort of sense to prevent conflicts with other hypervisors and the people who would typically run XPMode would most likely not run another hypervisor anyway. Even so...Without warning is just being a jerk IMHO. – Tonny – 2015-01-21T17:15:37.080

1@duDE How I can use Hyper-V and Virtualbox at the same time? – user2284570 – 2015-02-13T14:29:04.937

2@ user2284570: Nope, you can't: only one hypervisor can run at a time – duDE – 2015-02-14T09:01:52.040

3On win7, after installing VB a restart was required to get the 64 bit options. – T.Coutlakis – 2015-10-16T18:48:23.147

5Any technical reason as to why Hyper-V be disabled? I mean, Virtual box gives the option of 32 bit virtualization even when Hyper-v is enabled; so why not 64 bit? – Mayank Singh – 2016-06-23T20:52:16.303

1What do I do if following these instructions does not fix the problem? – Jon Deaton – 2017-08-17T19:02:27.607

Did the steps mentioned in this answer and the 64 bit versions still don't show up! – arun – 2017-10-27T04:33:16.567

What do you do if your motherboard doesn't support this? – Menios – 2018-05-08T08:05:16.023

I know this question is about Win7 but since it was the first that popped up for my Win10 search without solving it, I thought I'd add a link to the fix here, I know it's from VMware and about BSOD but the fix is the same: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2146361

– Andreas Magnusson – 2018-06-04T07:13:25.200

@AndreasMagnusson Thank you, Andreas for sharing this helpful link! – duDE – 2018-06-04T11:03:47.760

1VT-d is not needed. I tested this on a laptop with an Intel® Core™ i5-430M Processor which doesn't have this functionality. – Flip – 2018-06-08T00:37:42.233

If you want to emulate 64 bit apps on a 64 bit host, your cpu needs a feature for that. Which duDE says, is an intel-specific copy-paste. The same support exists on AMDs too, there its name is AMD-v - maybe he forgot to mention.

If your cpu doesn't have this support, it won't ever work. If it has, maybe you need to switch this on in your bios.

There are bad BIOSes which can't turn this feature on. Sometimes a BIOS upgrade can in this case help.

peterh - Reinstate Monica

Posted 2015-01-20T05:52:28.993

Reputation: 2 043

Had the same problem, only seeing 32-bit versions for the host OS's. Started working after updating asus p8z77-v pro bios to latest and enabling virtualization support. Before the bios update, virtubox showed only 32-bit OS's.