When I start the Hyper-V management console, the option for adding a new virtual machine is not present. I'm running Windows 2008 Server x86 (not R2).
Is there a service I need to start, or could it be that only the x64 version can run virtual machines locally?
Hyper-v role can only be installed / enabled on X64 Based machines and processors with Intel-VT extensions (execute disable bit) ; Hardware virtualization is normally switched on or off from the server / computer BIOS.
only x64 machine can run hyper-v virtual machines
you can use vmware server , virtual box to run a virtual machine locally on a x86 system.
virtualbox can use vhd files too.
