Must I buy an upgrade to Win8.1Pro to get Hyper-V? Is there a free way to add it to 8.1(non-Pro)?

[NeverDie]

e.g. Hyper-V Server 2012 is available for free: http://blogs.technet...tion-itpro.aspx

Not sure if that gets me there though, as it looks like maybe it's standalone (similar to ESXi)?

I've dabbled only slightly in ESXi and Virtual Box, but I'd like to try Hyper-V with Windows 8.1 as the host if there's an easy way to do so.

 

[HellDiverUK]

The free HyperV is indeed like ESXI - it's a bare metal hypervisor.

The only way to get HyperV on 8.1 is to upgrade to Pro. Or just run VMWare Workstation which may work out cheaper, and can pass through USB devices unlike HyperV.