I always suggest reviewing our community article How to setup Cloudera Quickstart Virtual Machine as it reviews some of the common errors. In this particular case you may be hitting on the first common issue discussed. Here is the section to avoid you having to click through.    VMWare and VirtualBox versions of the VM on Windows: In Windows machines, sometimes virtualization needs to be enabled in the BIOS.  Enabling virtualization in a PC is usually a step you take during boot up. As your system boots up, it will flash a message telling you to press a key (e.g. F1, F2, escape) to configure BIOS settings. If you have never run a VM on your laptop before, you will likely have to take this step.The BIOS settings that must be enabled for VT-x support vary depending on the system vendor. Here is a VMware knowledge base article that may help: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003944 .   I would also check the Intel website to make sure your processor supports CT-x due to its age. Here is a link with instructions for that.   Aside from that error message here is what else I have noticed. Since you posted in the Cloudera Manager board I am assuming you are attempting to use the Cloudera Express or Cloudera Enterprise (trial) version which require 8GB and 12GB of RAM respectively assigned to the VM While your system only has 8GB of RAM total. As the host system will require some of that RAM to run the operating system and VM program you will not have the minimum 8GB required for Cloudera Express. You would need to add RAM to your system (if it can accept more) or use the CDH 5 (default) version without Cloudera Manager.    ... View more