diff --git a/petri/src/vm/mod.rs b/petri/src/vm/mod.rs
index 4e552a043c..ec76b89c8b 100644
--- a/petri/src/vm/mod.rs
+++ b/petri/src/vm/mod.rs
@@ -2345,13 +2345,15 @@ pub struct MemoryConfig {
     ///
     /// Only applies to the OpenVMM backend; ignored by Hyper-V.
     pub private_memory: Option<bool>,
-    /// Mark private guest RAM as eligible for Transparent Huge Pages (THP),
+    /// Mark guest RAM as eligible for Transparent Huge Pages (THP),
     /// improving performance for large allocations.
     ///
-    /// Defaults to `true`. Only takes effect when the guest RAM is backed by
-    /// private anonymous memory (see [`Self::private_memory`]) and only on
-    /// Linux; it is silently ignored otherwise (shared memory, hugetlb/file
-    /// backing, OpenHCL, PCAT/Gen1, or non-Linux hosts).
+    /// Defaults to `true`. Applies to private anonymous guest RAM and to
+    /// shared memfd-backed RAM, on Linux (via `madvise`) and on Windows (via
+    /// soft large pages). It has no effect on explicit hugetlb/large-page
+    /// backings (see
+    /// [`with_hugepages`](crate::openvmm::PetriVmConfigOpenVmm::with_hugepages)),
+    /// which are already huge.
     ///
     /// Only applies to the OpenVMM backend; ignored by Hyper-V.
     pub transparent_hugepages: bool,
diff --git a/petri/src/vm/openvmm/construct.rs b/petri/src/vm/openvmm/construct.rs
index 67c37d84ee..ad93b75e33 100644
--- a/petri/src/vm/openvmm/construct.rs
+++ b/petri/src/vm/openvmm/construct.rs
@@ -488,11 +488,11 @@ impl PetriVmConfigOpenVmm {
                 None => !private_incompatible,
             };
 
-            // THP is only valid for private anonymous memory and only on
-            // Linux; disable it otherwise to avoid a memory build error.
-            let transparent_hugepages =
-                transparent_hugepages && private_memory && cfg!(target_os = "linux");
-
+            // THP applies to both private anonymous and shared (file/memfd)
+            // guest RAM, and on both Linux (madvise-based) and Windows
+            // (soft large pages). The membacking layer suppresses it where it
+            // does not apply (e.g. explicit hugetlb backings), so pass the
+            // requested value through unchanged.
             let make_mem = |size: u64| openvmm_defs::config::MemoryConfig {
                 mem_size: size,
                 prefetch_memory: false,
diff --git a/petri/src/vm/openvmm/modify.rs b/petri/src/vm/openvmm/modify.rs
index a70dc10f4e..55fc9d5e3c 100644
--- a/petri/src/vm/openvmm/modify.rs
+++ b/petri/src/vm/openvmm/modify.rs
@@ -358,7 +358,6 @@ impl PetriVmConfigOpenVmm {
         for node in &mut self.config.numa.nodes {
             if let Some(mem) = &mut node.mem {
                 mem.private_memory = false;
-                mem.transparent_hugepages = false;
             }
         }
         self
@@ -383,7 +382,6 @@ impl PetriVmConfigOpenVmm {
                 mem.hugepages = true;
                 mem.hugepage_size = hugepage_size;
                 mem.private_memory = false;
-                mem.transparent_hugepages = false;
             }
         }
         self