Phyllome OS targets x86 systems with hardware-assisted virtualization, with a strong preference for those providing IOMMU-based hardware-assisted virtualization (AMD Vi or Intel VT-d).
> This requirement scales up with the number of virtual machines running on a dedicated host: the more virtual machines are running, the more ressources Phyllome OS will use.
> For Intel-based configurations, you can check if your model supports Intel VT-x by looking for your model [here](https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/search/featurefilter.html?productType=873&2_VTX=true).
A CPU that supports hardware-assisted virtualization is not be enough, as the motherboard also requires to support this feature. Laptop motherboards seem to be lacking behind desktop motherboards when it comes to supporting this feature.
> For Intel-based configurations, you can check if your model supports Intel VT-d by looking for your model [here](https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/search/featurefilter.html?productType=873&0_VTD=True).
*The Open Virtual Machine Firmware (OVMF), which is based on the TianoCore firmware, is the default firmware for EFI-based virtual machines. It can be accessed using the <kbd>Esc</kbd> key.*
Press the <kbd>Win</kbd> and <kbd>X</kbd> keys simultaneously to make a context menu appears. Then press <kbd>Shift</kbd> and <kbd>a</kbd> to politely ask Windows to open `Powershell` using elevated privileges, and click on the `Yes` button to bypass the User Account Control pop-up. Finally, input the following command inside the command prompt and press `enter`.
```
shutdown /fw /r
```
* **Since Windows 8**: a visual walk-through
* Open the start-up menu and write `start-up`, then select *Change advanced start-up options*
Hardware-assisted virtualization is a hit or miss on Apple computers, as there is no way to access the firmware configuration tool on these computers. Apple users can go to the install section directly, create a USB stick and hope that hardware-assisted virtualization will be supported.
During the POST phase, you need to press a certain key to access the firmware configuration tool for your motherboard, which is part of your BIOS or UEFI.
Just after pressing the `power-on` button, hit the right key to access the firmware configuration tool, usually <kbd>F2</kbd> or <kbd>Del</kbd>, but it may be another keystroke on your model.
For an AMD-based computer, you need to look for references to `AMD SVM`, AMD V or AMD Vi. Conversingly, for an Intel-based computer, you need to look for `Intel VT-x` and `Intel VT-d`. It is also possible that the feature will be refered simply to as `virtualization`. In that case, you may not know it refers to IOMMU-based hardware-assisted virtualization or not.
> While you are there, you could also change the boot order, to make sure that your computer will boot from an attached USB thumb drive first when it will be time to try out Phyllome OS.
> Failing to activate hardware-assisted virtualization will make running virtual machines extremly slow, if possible at all. If, for some reasons, it cannot be activated on your computer, for example because of a lack of hardware support, you would be better off picking a Linux distribution which doesn't require it, such as [Debian](https://www.debian.org/distrib/).
