Fixing OnVUE “Virtual Machine Detected” Error (When You’re Not Using a VM)

Introduction

If you’re a developer taking an online proctored exam using Pearson OnVUE, you might hit this terrifying message during the system check:

❌ “A virtual machine has been detected. Please close all virtual machine software before continuing.”

The problem?

You’re not using a virtual machine.

That’s exactly what happened to me.

Here’s what I did to fix it.

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🧨 The Issue

OnVUE’s system check failed because it believed my computer was running inside a virtual machine.

Reality:

• No VMware
• No VirtualBox
• No obvious VM running
• Just a normal Windows machine

But I do use:

• WSL
• Docker
• Visual Studio Code with container extensions
• Hyper-V

And that’s likely where the problem started.
If virtualization-related services are running in the background, it can fail the pre-check.

Microsoft suggested disabling virtualization and Hyper-V features, but additional steps are required.

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Steps I tried

Note: I’m not 100% sure every step was required, but I’m documenting everything that I did.

🛠 Step 1 – Shutdown wsl, disable Windows Virtualization Features, disable dev drive

I opened Command Prompt as Administrator and ran:

wsl --shutdown
DISM /Online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:VirtualMachinePlatform
dism /online /disable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Hyper-V-All
fsutil devdrv disable

Alternative: using “turn Windows features on or off”

After disabling these features, I restarted the computer.

Restarting after turning off Windows features is important.

Verify dev drive and ubuntu (not 100% certain this was required)

• No Ubuntu distribution visible
• No mounted WSL filesystem
• No Dev Drive attached (click detach if needed)

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🔎 Step 2 – Check Task Manager (Very Important)

After rebooting, I opened Task Manager.

Even though WSL wasn’t in Startup apps, I still saw related background processes.

That means something was triggering it automatically.

So I:

• Looked for any WSL-related processes

• Ended those tasks manually

🧩 Step 3 – Investigate Visual Studio Code ExtensionsMy suspicion: a VS Code extension was starting WSL or container services in the background.

The system test failed again. My suspicion: a VS Code extension was starting WSL or container services in the background.

So I:

1. Opened Visual Studio Code
2. Went to Extensions
3. Searched for:
   • docker
   • container
   • wsl
4. Disabled extensions:
   • Container Tools
   • Dev Containers
   • Renote Development
   • Docker
   • WSL
5. Restarted the computer

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Run the OnVUE system test again and end task some processes.

If it mentions that a specific process is still running (for example, a browser, background service, or unknown app):

• Open Task Manager
• Locate the exact process name shown in the OnVUE warning
• Click End Task
• Retry the system check

OnVUE may detect:

• Background browser processes
• Hidden services
• Dev-related tooling
• Container or virtualization services

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🧠 Why This Happens

Tools like:

• WSL2
• Docker Desktop
• Hyper-V
• Dev Containers

Use virtualization under the hood.

Even if you are not “running a virtual machine,” Windows may still:

• Keep virtualization services active
• Automatically start WSL
• Enable background container services

And OnVUE raises error.

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The key takeaway:

Background services or virtualization can cause OnVUE to fail.
So before your exam:

• Disable Windows virtualization features and restart the computer
• Disable VS Code Docker/WSL/Container extensions and restart the computer
• Open Task Manager and end background processes:

• Run the OnVUE system test. If it mentions that a specific process is still running, use task manager to end it

References

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5656882/how-to-fix-application-can-not-run-under-virtual-m