I’m trying to connect a USB dongle to a virtual machine running in Hyper-V, but the VM doesn’t seem to recognize the dongle. I need this for licensing software inside the VM. Has anyone successfully set up a USB dongle on Hyper-V or know any workarounds?
My (Not-So) Glorious Attempts at Passing USB to Hyper-V
Okay, so let’s get real for a sec: I dove into Hyper-V USB passthrough with enough optimism to float an air mattress, but let’s just say the landing wasn’t soft. First I tried Enhanced Session Mode, and yeah, it worked, sort of—if your definition of “worked” is “I hope you enjoy split-second hesitation every time you click.” USB over IP solutions? You better be ready to wade through an ocean of settings panels just for the thrill of watching your device stutter like it’s communicating through dial-up.
If you’re stubborn (like me) and want something that actually feels seamless, there’s this thing called Donglify—it seriously bailed me out after I ran out of patience trying to MacGyver my way through built-in tools. It’s specifically set up for scenarios like Hyper-V USB passthrough and actually works without making your scroll wheel feel like it’s trapped in slow motion.
Hey, if you’ve got a smoother trick up your sleeve that doesn’t involve buying hardware or writing your own drivers in C++, I’m all ears. Until then, just sharing what finally worked after too many cups of cold coffee and one dramatic sigh.
So, Hyper-V and USB dongles – ah, the eternal clash of enterprise convenience and barebones functionality. First off, you’re definitely not alone. Out of all the hypervisors, Hyper-V is weirdly stingy with direct USB device passthrough. @mikeappsreviewer already nailed most of the classic struggles (had a similar Enhanced Session Mode facepalm, lol), but I’ll add a few different angles since going full external software isn’t always the dream.
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Remote Desktop Trickery: Sometimes you can “cheat” USB passthrough by connecting to your VM over RDP and choosing to share local devices, including USB. Sounds clever, right? For regular USB sticks, maybe—but dongles? Licensing software might see the device, might not. My dongle blinked at me like it was offended and then pretended it didn’t exist, so YMMV.
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USB Network Gate (if Donglify’s not your vibe): Yeah, Donglify is made for this and works well (I’ll give it that), but there are similar alternatives like USB Network Gate. Same principle: you plug the dongle into the physical host, run a server app, and the guest “sees” it as if it’s locally plugged in. But, they can get pricey and support is hit-or-miss, especially with oddball security dongles.
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PCI Passthrough? Nah, not happening. Unlike VMware, Hyper-V refuses to just let you assign a USB controller to a VM. Believe me, I wasted time down that rabbit hole. Nada.
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Physical-to-VM Handoffs: Move the dongle to a different, physical computer and access over network using a virtual environment app or physical license server. Again, works best for software that’s not annoyingly married to the USB host.
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Last Resort – Just Test It Again: Hyper-V updates change stuff. Try Enhanced Session one more time after updates (especially if your guest is Windows 10/11 Pro or Enterprise), but don’t set expectations sky-high. If it works for you, cool, if not, then that’s another DM to the void.
Honestly, for anyone looking for a no-hassle option, I’ll grudgingly agree with @mikeappsreviewer that Donglify’s probably your least annoying way. For more tech details, check out this deep dive into using USB license dongles with Hyper-V VMs – it’ll walk you through everything step-by-step.
TL;DR – Hyper-V doesn’t play nice out of the box, RDP/redirection is dicey, software solutions (Donglify, USB Network Gate) are your best bet, and assigning controllers directly? Forget it. If someone has found black magic that doesn’t cost money, drop it here, please.
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Man, Hyper-V and USB dongles is classic Microsoft “half the features, twice the headaches.” Gotta hand it to @mikeappsreviewer for deep-diving all the usual suspects, but honestly I think they’re letting Hyper-V off the hook too easy.
Here’s a hot take: Enhanced Session Mode? Meh. Works for webcams and printers, but security dongles? About as reliable as my New Year’s resolutions. “Remote Desktop magic” is a coin toss—and coin usually lands on ‘nope.’
Before going down the tunnel with paid apps, have you considered good ol’ USB-over-IP open source stuff? Not pretty, but there’s software like VirtualHere or usbip-win. Heads up, it’s a bit hacky, you’ll be playing with drivers and sometimes command line voodoo. But hey, it’s free! My own dongle worked with usbip-win after some fiddling, sort of—it showed in device manager, only crashed twice in an hour, so maybe not “enterprise ready” but worth tinkering if you’re allergic to subscriptions.
Also, rarely mentioned: Some licensing dongles actually support networked license servers. You plug the dongle into a regular PC and have your VM use the license over LAN instead. Not as slick as plugging directly, but if your software supports it, life gets a lot less painful and there’s zero extra cost.
Anyway, I don’t 100% agree paid tools like Donglify are everyone’s best path—sometimes you can wrestle free solutions into submission, if you’re stubborn (like me) and don’t mind getting your hands dirty. But I’ll say, for anyone who values their sanity or has production needs, this product does, uhh, actually work and is about as close to plug-and-play as you can get in Hyper-V. Here’s a solid walkthrough for solving USB dongle passthrough in Hyper-V that skips most of the pain and just gets the thing talking.
So yeah, if your time is worth more than about 10 minutes an hour, stick to something like that—and spare yourself the headache. If you find a totally free black magic Pandora’s box, post it here, I’ll buy you a coffee.