Running a virtual machine is a great way to use an operating system without installing it on your PC. For example, you can test the latest version of Windows or a new Ubuntu Linux distribution without any risk. Here's how to create a virtual machine in Windows 10 without installing third-party software.

Microsoft provides a built-in tool called Hyper-V to create a virtual machine on Windows 10. It is only available on these platforms:

While Hyper-V is a useful tool, it may not be the ideal solution for software development. As Microsoft explains with Hyper-V, programs and apps that require specific hardware, such as a discrete graphics processor, may not run properly in a virtual machine.

In fact, simply enabling Hyper-V can cause performance issues for “latency-sensitive, high-precision applications.”