If you’re running VirtualBox on Windows 11 and notice a green turtle icon in the bottom right corner of your VM window, you’re not alone. This icon indicates that VirtualBox is running without hardware virtualization (VT-x/AMD-V), which severely impacts performance and compatibility.

The culprit is usually Hyper-V and Device Guard. These Windows features reserve virtualization resources, preventing VirtualBox from accessing them. Even if you haven’t explicitly enabled Hyper-V, it can be turned on by other Windows features.

How to Fix It:

1. Check and Disable Virtualization Features:

   # Check Current Status
   Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online | Where-Object {$_.FeatureName -match 'Hyper|Virtual'}
   
   # Disable Features
   Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All
   Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform
   Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName HypervisorPlatform

2. Check and Disable Hypervisor at Boot:

   # Check BCD Status
   bcdedit /enum | findstr -i launchtype
   
   # Disable BCD
   bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
   bcdedit /set vsmlaunchtype off

3. Disable Core Isolation Memory Integrity
   Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Windows Security > Device Security,
   Click on Core Isolation Details and toggle Memory Integrity to Off.
4. Disable Device Guard and Credential Guard:
   (Not certain this actually does anything useful.)

   DG_Readiness_Tool_v3.6.ps1 -Disable

5. Disable Device Guard, etc. in Registry:

   Disable System Guard (aka "Firmware Protection")
     reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard\Scenarios\SystemGuard" /v "Enabled" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
   Disable Credential Guard 
     reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard\Scenarios\CredentialGuard" /v "Enabled" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f 
     reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa" /v "LsaCfgFlags" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
   Disable Memory Isolation (Virtualization-Based Security)
     reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard\Scenarios\HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity" /v "Enabled" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
   

6. Check whether Virtualization-Based Security is running using msinfo32.exe.
   (Look for Virtualization-based security in the System Summary.)

You will need to reboot your computer for many of these changes to take effect.

References

• https://www.elevenforum.com/t/windows-11-24h2-hyper-v-virtualbox-7-1-4-extrension.30515/
• https://www.xda-developers.com/disable-hyper-v-windows-11/
• https://notes.benheater.com/books/windows-administration/page/virtualbox-getting-rid-of-the-turtle
• https://youtu.be/FLUFPyKOnW4
• https://simpleoracle.com/tag/virtualbox-turtle/
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53337