Android Studio Virtual Device on a Windows 7 VM not compatible

enable intel virtualization in bios

Read this post from virtual box as well and see if it applies to your situation please. :) https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=69076. If this is the case I'm afraid that as you requested there would be no free option, as you may have to go for a software such as VMWare which is license based.

What you could otherwise do is not use Intel HAXM inside your existing VirtualBox. That is by using an Android image that does not need hardware acceleration. This is because it is not possible to run two different emulation stacks on your processor at the same time. So since you are already running Virtual Box it would be better to use an emulator that does not need hardware acceleration. You could refer this post: Can I run an emulator without HAXM in Android Studio? if you like. Cheers

EDIT: phil did you try this? It would seem like the only viable option since VMWare isn't free

I had the same issue, solved it by Installing the Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager. Download it with the SDK Manager, it's in Extras. After this, go to the folder

[Android SDK Root]\extras\intel\Hardware_Accelerated_Execution_Manager

then run IntelHaxm.exe and install.

Here the link of the Intel Hardware Accelerated IntelHaxm.exe for Microsoft Windows,Mac OS* X, and Linux Ubuntu

You'll get the following message if you don't have virtualization enabled in your BIOS:

The below process works if your system supports Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x):

1. Go to BIOS using F10 on Boot-up.
2. Go to System Configuration/System Settings.
3. Enable Virtualization Technology.
4. Press F10 to Save and Exit.
5. Reboot and your VT-x should be working.