Is this machine real, or a VM?

vm-check answers that question from a weighted set of OS-level heuristics (CPU flags, DMI/BIOS strings, MAC and disk signatures, kernel modules and guest tools) and gives you a confidence score instead of a guess. Command line or GUI, Linux or Windows.

Download latest release View source on GitHub

Download

Ready-to-run archives, always pointing at the latest release. Each archive contains both the CLI (vm-check) and the GUI (vm-check-gui) binary: extract and run, no installer.

Linux

x86_64 · tar.gz

Download for Linux

Windows

x86_64 · zip

Download for Windows

Building for another platform, or want to verify what you're running? See building from source. All past versions are on the releases page.

Why it's not just a yes/no check

Any single signal (a MAC vendor prefix, a BIOS string) can be wrong. vm-check runs every applicable heuristic for the host platform, weighs the results, and only commits to a verdict once the evidence is one-sided.

∑

Weighted, not binary

Each heuristic contributes a weighted signal. Skipped or inconclusive checks are excluded from scoring entirely, rather than diluting the result either way.

⚙

Cross-platform

The same detection engine (vm-check-core) backs a command-line tool and a native desktop GUI, on both Linux and Windows.

🔒

Low privilege by default

Only two Linux checks ever need sudo. Every Windows check (WMI, registry) runs as a normal user. No check needs Administrator/UAC elevation on Windows, ever.

Likely physical Uncertain Likely virtual machine

15% 66%

confidence ≤ 15% between the thresholds confidence ≥ 66%

What it actually checks

Ten heuristics on Linux, six on Windows, run in this order, each with its own weight in the final score. Names match exactly what the CLI and GUI report.

Linux

systemd-detect-virt
CPU hypervisor flag in /proc/cpuinfo
Hypervisor vendor strings in /proc/cpuinfo
Hypervisor MAC address prefix
Hypervisor disk model signature
System manufacturer (dmidecode)may need sudo
BIOS vendor (dmidecode)may need sudo
Hypervisor guest kernel modules
VirtualBox/VMware guest tools installed (dpkg)
Hypervisor modules in dmesgneeds sudo

Windows

Computer system manufacturer/model (WMI)
BIOS manufacturer/version (WMI)
Hypervisor MAC address prefix
Hypervisor disk model signature
BIOS strings (registry)
SCSI disk enumeration (registry)

Screenshots

The same weighted report, from the terminal and the desktop GUI, on a physical Linux host and inside an actual Windows VM guest.

CLI

vm-check CLI output on a physical Linux host: every check PASSes, verdict NOT running in a virtual machine, 0% VM likelihood — **Physical Linux host.** Every check passes: 0% VM likelihood.

vm-check CLI output inside a Windows VM guest: every check FAILs, verdict running in a virtual machine, 100% VM likelihood — **Windows VM guest.** Every check fails: 100% VM likelihood.

GUI

vm-check GUI in light theme on a physical Linux host, all checks pass — **Light theme.** Physical Linux host.

vm-check GUI in dark theme on a physical Linux host, all checks pass — **Dark theme.** Same host; theme follows Light/Dark/System, just like this page's.

vm-check GUI on a Windows VM guest, all checks fail — **Windows VM guest.** Every check fails.

Building from source

Prefer not to run pre-built binaries, or need another target? All you need is a stable Rust toolchain.

cargo build --release --workspace

Binaries land at target/release/vm-check and target/release/vm-check-gui (.exe on Windows). Building vm-check-gui on Linux additionally needs a few GTK/X11 development packages; see the README.

Usage

CLI

vm-check                # run all checks
vm-check --no-elevate    # skip checks needing root/sudo
vm-check -y              # don't prompt, run elevated checks
vm-check --json          # machine-readable output
vm-check -v               # show matched strings / skip reasons

Exit code	Meaning
`0`	Likely physical
`1`	Likely a virtual machine
`2`	Uncertain
`3`	Internal error

GUI

Run vm-check-gui and click Run checks. Elevated checks are opt-in via a checkbox, since a windowed app can't show an interactive terminal sudo prompt, launch the whole GUI as root (sudo vm-check-gui) to include them. On Windows, just run it: no elevation is ever needed.

Built with egui, available in English and German, with persisted theme and language preferences.