220-1101 Question 364
Single answerHypervisorsA technician is asked to set up a small test environment on an employee's Windows 11 laptop so the user can run a second operating system for application testing without rebooting the computer. The laptop will continue to use Windows 11 as the main operating system for daily work. Which of the following is the BEST solution?
- A
Install a Type 2 hypervisor on Windows 11 and create a virtual machine for the test operating system
- B
Replace Windows 11 with a bare-metal Type 1 hypervisor and run both operating systems as guest VMs
- C
Configure the laptop for dual boot so both operating systems run at the same time
- D
Use a KVM hardware switch so the laptop can alternate between two operating systems without rebooting
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is to install a Type 2 hypervisor on the existing Windows 11 system. In A+ Core 1, candidates are expected to distinguish between Type 1 and Type 2 hypervisors and apply that knowledge to practical scenarios. Type 2 hypervisors are appropriate when a user wants to keep a standard desktop operating system as the host and run another OS for testing, training, or compatibility purposes. By contrast, Type 1 hypervisors are designed to run directly on hardware and are more common in enterprise or server environments. This aligns with common vendor documentation from VMware, Oracle VirtualBox, and Microsoft, which describes hosted hypervisors as suitable for desktop/lab use and bare-metal hypervisors as suited for dedicated virtualization platforms.
- A. Correct.
Correct. A Type 2 hypervisor runs on top of an existing host operating system such as Windows 11 and allows the user to run a guest operating system in a virtual machine while continuing to use the host OS normally. This matches the requirement to keep Windows 11 as the primary OS and avoid rebooting. Common examples include Oracle VirtualBox and VMware Workstation.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. A Type 1 hypervisor installs directly on the hardware and is typically used on servers or dedicated virtualization hosts. Although it can run multiple guest operating systems, it would not be the best choice for a user's daily-work laptop when Windows 11 must remain the main environment. Replacing the existing OS would add complexity and change how the device is used.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Dual boot allows a system to start one operating system or the other, but not both at the same time. The scenario specifically requires the user to run a second operating system without rebooting, so dual boot does not meet the need.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. A KVM switch is used to control multiple separate computers with one keyboard, video display, and mouse. It does not create virtual machines and cannot let one laptop run two operating systems simultaneously. This distractor targets confusion between KVM switches and KVM as a Linux-based virtualization technology.