{"id":369,"date":"2025-09-04T17:24:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T23:24:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.d5.ca\/?p=369"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:52:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:52:00","slug":"improve-virtualbox-performance-and-remove-turtle-icon-in-windows-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.d5.ca\/?p=369","title":{"rendered":"Improve Virtualbox Performance and Remove Turtle Icon in Windows 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

The culprit is usually Hyper-V and Device Guard. These Windows features reserve virtualization resources, preventing VirtualBox from accessing them. Even if you haven\u2019t explicitly enabled Hyper-V, it can be turned on by other Windows features.<\/p>\n

How to Fix It:<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Check and Disable Virtualization Features:\n
    # Check Current Status\r\nGet-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online | Where-Object {$_.FeatureName -match 'Hyper|Virtual'}\r\n\r\n# Disable Features\r\nDisable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All\r\nDisable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform\r\nDisable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName HypervisorPlatform<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
  2. Check and Disable Hypervisor at Boot:\n
    # Check BCD Status\r\nbcdedit \/enum | findstr -i launchtype\r\n\r\n# Disable BCD\r\nbcdedit \/set hypervisorlaunchtype off\r\nbcdedit \/set vsmlaunchtype off<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
  3. Disable Core Isolation Memory Integrity
    \nGo to Settings > Privacy & Security > Windows Security > Device Security,
    \nClick on Core Isolation Details and toggle Memory Integrity to Off.<\/li>\n
  4. Disable Device Guard and Credential Guard:
    \n(Not certain this actually does anything useful.)<\/p>\n
    DG_Readiness_Tool_v3.6.ps1 -Disable<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
  5. Disable Device Guard, etc. in Registry:\n
    Disable System Guard (aka \"Firmware Protection\")\r\n  reg add \"HKLM\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\DeviceGuard\\Scenarios\\SystemGuard\" \/v \"Enabled\" \/t REG_DWORD \/d 0 \/f\r\nDisable Credential Guard \r\n  reg add \"HKLM\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\DeviceGuard\\Scenarios\\CredentialGuard\" \/v \"Enabled\" \/t REG_DWORD \/d 0 \/f \r\n  reg add \"HKLM\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Lsa\" \/v \"LsaCfgFlags\" \/t REG_DWORD \/d 0 \/f\r\nDisable Memory Isolation (Virtualization-Based Security)\r\n  reg add \"HKLM\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\DeviceGuard\\Scenarios\\HypervisorEnforcedCodeIntegrity\" \/v \"Enabled\" \/t REG_DWORD \/d 0 \/f\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/li>\n
  6. Check whether Virtualization-Based Security is running using msinfo32.exe.
    \n(Look for Virtualization-based security in the System Summary.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    You will need to reboot your computer for many of these changes to take effect.<\/p>\n
    References<\/h3>\n