Sometimes you need to identify if something is running inside a Hyper-V virtual machine** before you take action. You can use this method: Determining If Hypervisor Is Installed, or Reporting the Identity of a Guest Operating System.

On a VM running on Hyper-V (and Virtual PC) , the Model property on the Win32_ComputerSystem class will return “Virtual Machine” and the “Manufacturer” will return “Microsoft Corporation”.

This sample VBScript uses the same logic found in the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit to show if a deployment is running in a VM.

If IsVM Then
    WScript.Quit 1
Else
    WScript.Quit 0
End If

Function IsVM

    ' Check the WMI information against known values

    bIsVM = false
    sVMPlatform = ""

    sMake = GetWmiPropertyValue("root\cimv2", "Win32_ComputerSystem", "Manufacturer")
    sModel = GetWmiPropertyValue("root\cimv2", "Win32_ComputerSystem", "Model")
    sBIOSVersion = GetWmiPropertyValue("root\cimv2", "Win32_BIOS", "Version")

    WScript.Echo "Manufacturer=" & sMake
    WScript.Echo "Model=" & sModel
    WScript.Echo "BIOSVersion=" & sBIOSVersion

    If sModel = "Virtual Machine" then

        ' Microsoft virtualization technology detected, assign defaults

        sVMPlatform = "Hyper-V"
        bIsVM = true

        ' Try to determine more specific values

        Select Case sBIOSVersion
        Case "VRTUAL - 1000831"
            bIsVM = true
            sVMPlatform = "Hyper-V 2008 Beta or RC0"
        Case "VRTUAL - 5000805", "BIOS Date: 05/05/08 20:35:56  Ver: 08.00.02"
            bIsVM = true
            sVMPlatform = "Hyper-V 2008 RTM"
        Case "VRTUAL - 3000919"
            bIsVM = true
            sVMPlatform = "Hyper-V 2008 R2"
        Case "A M I  - 2000622"
            bIsVM = true
            sVMPlatform = "VS2005R2SP1 or VPC2007"
        Case "A M I  - 9000520"
            bIsVM = true
            sVMPlatform = "VS2005R2"
        Case "A M I  - 9000816", "A M I  - 6000901"
            bIsVM = true
            sVMPlatform = "Windows Virtual PC"
        Case "A M I  - 8000314"
            bIsVM = true
            sVMPlatform = "VS2005 or VPC2004"
        End Select

    ElseIf sModel = "VMware Virtual Platform" then

        ' VMware detected

        sVMPlatform = "VMware"
        bIsVM = true

    ElseIf sModel  = "VirtualBox" then

        ' VirtualBox detected

        bIsVM = true
        sVMPlatform = "VirtualBox"

    Else
        ' This computer does not appear to be a virtual machine.
    End if

    ' Set the return value

    If bIsVM Then
        WScript.Echo "IsVirtualMachine=True"
        WScript.Echo "VirtualMachinePlatform=" & sVMPlatform
    Else
        WScript.Echo "IsVirtualMachine=False"
    End If

    IsVM = bIsVM

End Function

Function GetWmiPropertyValue(strNameSpace, strClassName, strPropertyName)

    On Error Resume Next

    strPropertyValue = ""
    set oWmiClass = getobject("winmgmts:" & strNameSpace).get(strClassName,&h20000) 'amended
    set oWmiProperties = oWmiClass.Properties_

    Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & "." & "\" & strNameSpace)
    Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * from " & strClassName,,48)

    For Each objItem in colItems
        For Each objProperty in oWmiProperties
            sLine = ""
            'WScript.Echo "- " & objProperty.name & ": " & strPropertyName

            If objProperty.Name = strPropertyName Then
                If objProperty.IsArray = True Then
                    sLine = "str" & objProperty.Name & " = Join(objItem." & objProperty.Name & ", " & Chr(34) & "," & Chr(34) & ")" & vbCrLf
                    sLine = sLine & "strPropertyValue =  str" & objProperty.Name
                'ElseIf objProperty.CIMTYPE = 101 Then
                '    bHasDates = True
                '    sLine =  "strPropertyValue =  WMIDateStringToDate(objItem." & objProperty.Name & ")"
                Else
                    sLine =  "strPropertyValue =  objItem." & objProperty.Name
                End If

                'WScript.Echo sLine
                Execute sLine
            End If

        Next
    Next

    GetWmiPropertyValue = strPropertyValue

End Function

John Kelbley’s book Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V : Insiders Guide to Microsoft's Hypervisor, shares how you can use the root\CIM2 namespace and access  the Baseboard class (full of interesting BIOS information) to get a description of the "physical" system.  This class often includes information about the motherboard and chassis  - manufacture, model, serial number, other.   You can run the following VBS to get this info.

On Error Resume Next

Const wbemFlagReturnImmediately = &h10
Const wbemFlagForwardOnly = &h20

arrComputers = Array(".")
For Each strComputer In arrComputers
   WScript.Echo
   WScript.Echo "=========================================="
   WScript.Echo "Computer: " & strComputer
   WScript.Echo "=========================================="

   Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\CIMV2")
   Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_BaseBoard", "WQL", _
                                          wbemFlagReturnImmediately + wbemFlagForwardOnly)

   For Each objItem In colItems
      WScript.Echo "Caption: " & objItem.Caption
      strConfigOptions = Join(objItem.ConfigOptions, ",")
         WScript.Echo "ConfigOptions: " & strConfigOptions
      WScript.Echo "   CreationClassName: " & objItem.CreationClassName
      WScript.Echo "         Description: " & objItem.Description
      WScript.Echo "        HostingBoard: " & objItem.HostingBoard
      WScript.Echo "         InstallDate: " & WMIDateStringToDate(objItem.InstallDate)
      WScript.Echo "        Manufacturer: " & objItem.Manufacturer
      WScript.Echo "               Model: " & objItem.Model
      WScript.Echo "                Name: " & objItem.Name
      WScript.Echo "OtherIdentifyingInfo: " & objItem.OtherIdentifyingInfo
      WScript.Echo "          PartNumber: " & objItem.PartNumber
      WScript.Echo "             Product: " & objItem.Product
      WScript.Echo "        SerialNumber: " & objItem.SerialNumber
      WScript.Echo "                 SKU: " & objItem.SKU
      WScript.Echo "              Status: " & objItem.Status
      WScript.Echo "                 Tag: " & objItem.Tag
      WScript.Echo "             Version: " & objItem.Version
      WScript.Echo
   Next
Next

Function WMIDateStringToDate(dtmDate)
WScript.Echo dtm:
    WMIDateStringToDate = CDate(Mid(dtmDate, 5, 2) & "/" & _
    Mid(dtmDate, 7, 2) & "/" & Left(dtmDate, 4) _
    & " " & Mid (dtmDate, 9, 2) & ":" & Mid(dtmDate, 11, 2) & ":" & Mid(dtmDate,13, 2))
End Function

Here is a screen capture of the script results for a physical system running Windows Server 2008. 

NOTE the motherboard was manufactured by Intel  (model DG45ID).

Running the same script in a virtual machine returns similar information, except on the virtual machine, the "motherboard" is shows as made by Microsoft (Microsoft does not make motherboards!) and is of a virtual type.

The version number shown reflects the version of Hyper-V (Server 2008 RTM), and the Serial Number matches that found in the VM configuration file (XML file on the physical host).

The Perl script version for this is:

use strict;
use Win32::OLE('in');

use constant wbemFlagReturnImmediately => 0x10;
use constant wbemFlagForwardOnly => 0x20;

my @computers = (".");
foreach my $computer (@computers) {
   print "\n";
   print "==========================================\n";
   print "Computer: $computer\n";
   print "==========================================\n";

   my $objWMIService = Win32::OLE->GetObject("winmgmts:\\\\$computer\\root\\CIMV2") or die "WMI connection failed.\n";
   my $colItems = $objWMIService->ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_BaseBoard", "WQL",
                  wbemFlagReturnImmediately | wbemFlagForwardOnly);

   foreach my $objItem (in $colItems) {
      print "          Caption: $objItem->{Caption}\n";
      print "       ConfigOptions: " . join(",", (in $objItem->{ConfigOptions})) . "\n";
      print "   CreationClassName: $objItem->{CreationClassName}\n";
      print "         Description: $objItem->{Description}\n";
      print "        HostingBoard: $objItem->{HostingBoard}\n";
      print "         InstallDate: $objItem->{InstallDate}\n";
      print "        Manufacturer: $objItem->{Manufacturer}\n";
      print "               Model: $objItem->{Model}\n";
      print "                Name: $objItem->{Name}\n";
      print "OtherIdentifyingInfo: $objItem->{OtherIdentifyingInfo}\n";
      print "             Product: $objItem->{Product}\n";
      print "        SerialNumber: $objItem->{SerialNumber}\n";
      print "                 SKU: $objItem->{SKU}\n";
      print "              Status: $objItem->{Status}\n";
      print "                 Tag: $objItem->{Tag}\n";
      print "             Version: $objItem->{Version}\n";
      print "\n";
   }
}sub WMIDateStringToDate(strDate)
{
   return "blah";
}

On the Windows command line you can access  the same information (in Windows XP or newer) by typing  the following:

wmic baseboard get manufacturer, product, Serialnumber, version

 ** For information on VMWare Virtual Machines see the resources below. For information on the (no longer supported) Microsoft Java Virtual Machine that you might need to detect in some versions of Internet Explorer see:
http://www.microsoft.com/About/Legal/EN/US/Interoperability/Java/Default.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifean12http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309620

For more information on how to use Hyper-V PowerShell cmdlets see:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/topics/msh/cmdlets/index.mspx 
New and improved PowerShell Library for Hyper-V.

For 35 sample Hyper-V PS1 scripts in a zipfile, go to: Hyper-V%20PowerShell%20Example%20Scripts.zip-download

See also the Windows Dev Center Forum topic here for additional resources, including:

codeproject Detect if your program is running inside a Virtual Machine. Free source code and programming help.url

Detección de Virtual Servers hilpers.url

How an application can detect if is running inside a Microsoft Virtual PC virtual machine virtualization.info.url

How an application can detect if is running inside a VMware virtual machine virtualization.info.url

How to detect install is running on a VM.url

How to detect virtual machines softwares virtualization.info.url

invisiblethings.org - Red Pill.url

trapkit.de - ScoopyNG.url

trapkit.de - VMM.url

Virtual PC Guy's WebLog Detecting Microsoft virtual machines.url

Virtualization – A Quick Tutorial « Whiteboard.url