Windows 10: Hyper-V Enhanced Mode issues

On my Windows 10 Pro 18363 I have built 3 VM in Hyper-V
2 Windows 10 pro machines
1 Ubuntu

At first, there was no issue at all, when starting the machines I'd get the Enhanced Mode dialog box, I'd choose full screen and everything worked fine. I was able to use the VM for my purposes as if they were just another program on my computer.

More recently, things have gotten a bit crazy, possibly after the latest Windows 10 upgrade (early May 2020), mostly because the availability of "Enhanced Mode" is inconsistent for reasons I cannot discern. Meaning that on any of the 3 VM, enhanced mode may or may not be available in the drop down menu. When it's available, everything works fine, when it's not, it's greyed out and I basically end up with an 800x600 screen in the middle of a 32" screen.

One of my Win 10 VM makes Enhanced Mode (EM) available if I turn the machine on, shut it down and then turn it on again. Not always, but it seems to work more often than not.

My Ubuntu is a complete mystery.
Occasionally in Ubuntu I have been able to make EM work, but only if Ubuntu showed me XRDP login first. Whenever I manage to boot Ubuntu into XRDP then Enhanced Mode works flawlessly.
The problem is that I don't know what I am doing to make XRDP appear on screen. Most of the times I simply start UBUNTU and it shows me its regular login screen, I enter my password and then I am in the 800x600 nightmare.
If I try to change the resolution, nothing is available even close to the resolution I need.

But sometimes, after restarting the Ubuntu VM several times, XRPD magically shows up and then EM is in the menu and I can use it without any issues. The ratio is about 10 to 1 as it mostly boots directly into Ubuntu, bypassing XRDP.

Incidentally, something similar happens with windows. If I start one specific VM, EM is greyed out and if I try to change screen resolution from the desktop, the available resolutions are all much smaller than my screen. If I restart, sometimes EM becomes available, but most of the times it doesn't.
Here too, I cannot explain what I am doing differently when EM is available and works.

For the record, I isolated a few checkpoints on all machines, renaming those where I have the most luck, but this random behavior happens weather I am using the latest state available or one of the checkpoints I was able to start with EM turned on.

It's possible that in two of the VM the issue started happening after a VM OS update, because for a time I was able to revert to an earlier checkpoint and have steady access to EM, but that too has degenerated into randomness recently.

I tried the trick of turning EM off and then back on in the Server settings and that seemed to work, for a while. I can't tell if when it works is because of something I am doing or pure blind luck. Especially when XRDP is concerned.


I was thrilled when I made Hyper-V work, because it is snappier than Virtualbox or other VM I have used, but the screen size issues are just too much and now I am regretting going down this road. I have used VirtualBox for years with a fraction of the problems I am encountering in Hyper-V.

Thank you for any thoughts on this issue.

:)

 

A guide how to run Ubuntu 18.04 in Enhanced Mode in Hyper-V

Well Martin I finally got around to giving it a try.
And.....

If everyone just follows your instructions "step by step" exactly....
it works perfectly!!!*Party

I now have 4k Ubuntu in Hyper-V



Thanks
1080p
(click to enlarge)





4K*Party*Party*Party(change to 200%)
(click to enlarge)

 

A guide how to run Ubuntu 18.04 in Enhanced Mode in Hyper-V

That looks really cool. I am glad it worked ok. I had guide working for a pre-release of 18.04 but something changed on release version, and it fell over.

Others on github site had same issue and eventually a user posted a solution (commenting out two lines in install.sh) and I got guide working.

Interestingly, one of the guys there linked to my guide, presumably as it is more upto date than original 16.04 guide -LOL!

I also get that error message (partly hidden in second screen shot) but I dismiss it and nothing seems to be affected.

 

Hyper-V Enhanced Session Mode 'Intercept' Stopped Working

The RDP config file for a VM is only created when enhanced mode settings are saved. If user switches to enhanced mode without saving the settings, no RDP configuration file will be created.

To save configuration, first switch to enhanced mode:





Click Show Options:





Select Save my settings and click Connect:

In normal mode, resolution can be changed exactly as on physical machines, right click on desktop and select Display Settings.

When switching to enhanced mode on a VM with no configuration saved, use the slider in VM Connect window to set resolution: