Run windows on qemu

As virtualization technology continues to evolve, using virtual machines for testing and development has become more prevalent. Among the various options available, QEMU (Quick Emulator) stands out as a versatile and powerful tool for running different operating systems on a host machine. With the recent release of Windows 11, many tech enthusiasts are eager to explore its features but may prefer not to install it directly on their physical hardware. This is where QEMU comes into play, allowing users to safely experiment with Windows 11 in a contained environment.

In this article, we’ll explore the process of installing and running Windows 11 on QEMU. We will cover topics from the prerequisites and installation steps through configuration tips to optimize performance. Whether you are a developer, a tech enthusiast, or simply someone who wants to try out Windows 11 without disturbing your existing operating system, this guide will help you navigate the setup.

Understanding QEMU

Before jumping into the installation process, let’s familiarize ourselves with QEMU. QEMU is an open-source machine emulator and virtualizer. It allows users to run multiple virtual machines on a single physical machine, utilizing either full system emulation or user-mode emulation. Its full system emulation mode is typically used for running complete operating systems, such as Windows 11.

One of the advantages of using QEMU is its flexibility. You can run virtual machines on various architectures (x86, ARM, PowerPC, etc.) and create a highly customizable environment. QEMU is particularly suited for developers needing to emulate different hardware great for testing.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with the installation of Windows 11 on QEMU, you need to ensure that your system meets certain prerequisites:

1. Host Operating System: You can install QEMU on various operating systems, including Linux, macOS, and Windows. For this guide, we will focus on the installation on a Linux-based system, but the principles are similar on other platforms.

2. Hardware Requirements:

   • A CPU that supports virtualization (Intel VT-x or AMD-V).
   • At least 4 GB of RAM (8 GB is recommended for better performance).
   • A minimum of 64 GB of storage is required for Windows 11 installation.

3. QEMU Installation: Ensure that you have QEMU installed on your host system. On Ubuntu or Debian-based distributions, you can install it using the following command:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install qemu qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils

   For Fedora, CentOS, or RHEL, use:

   sudo dnf install qemu-kvm libvirt virt-install bridge-utils

4. Windows 11 ISO: You need a legitimate Windows 11 ISO file. You can download it from the official Microsoft website.

5. VirtIO Drivers: For optimal performance, download the VirtIO drivers ISO, which provides optimized drivers for network and disk devices. You can usually find this on the Fedora project website or the RPM Fusion repositories.

6. QEMU Management Tools: You can also install virt-manager for a graphical interface, making it easier to manage your virtual machines.

Setting Up QEMU

Once you have all the prerequisites in place, you can proceed with the setup of QEMU for running Windows 11. Here are the detailed steps:

Step 1: Create a Disk Image

Before installing Windows 11, you need to create a virtual disk image where Windows 11 will be installed. You can use the qemu-img command to create a disk image:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 windows11.img 64G

This command creates a 64 GB QCOW2 disk image named windows11.img. The QCOW2 format is efficient for storage as it allows for snapshots and dynamic resizing.

Step 2: Launching the Installer

To run the Windows 11 installer, you will use the QEMU command-line tool with the necessary configurations. Here’s a basic command to start the installation:

qemu-system-x86_64 -m 8G -smp 4 -enable-kvm -cpu host -hda windows11.img -cdrom path/to/windows11.iso -boot d -net nic -net user -device virtio-balloon-pci -device virtio-serial-pci -device virtio-rng-pci

In this command:

• -m 8G: Allocates 8 GB of RAM to the virtual machine.
• -smp 4: Allocates 4 CPU cores.
• -enable-kvm: Enables hardware acceleration (KVM) if supported by the host.
• -cpu host: Uses the host CPU model for better compatibility.
• -hda windows11.img: Specifies the disk image to use.
• -cdrom path/to/windows11.iso: Points to the Windows 11 ISO file to boot from.
• -boot d: Boots from the CD-ROM.
• -net nic: Adds a network interface card.
• -net user: Uses user mode networking.
• -device virtio-balloon-pci: Adds a balloon driver for memory management.
• -device virtio-serial-pci: Enables serial support for improved guest communication.
• -device virtio-rng-pci: Adds a random number generator for improved cryptographic strength.

This command will boot up the Windows 11 installer. Follow the on-screen instructions to proceed with the installation. Make sure to format the virtual hard disk during the installation process.

Step 3: Installing Windows 11

During the installation, you will be prompted to select your language, region, and keyboard layout. Once those settings are determined, proceed to the installation type. Select “Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)” and choose the virtual disk you previously created.

Please note:

• If you encounter an issue with installation, it might be because of TPM requirements. Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0, which is usually a challenge in virtual environments. To bypass this, you can create a virtual TPM using the -smbios option in QEMU.

-smbios type=1,uuid=$(uuidgen) -machine pc-q35-6.2

Continue following through the installation, entering your product key (if required), and setting up your Microsoft account.

Step 4: Installing VirtIO Drivers

After Windows 11 is installed, it’s crucial to install the VirtIO drivers for better performance. Here’s how to do it:

1. Mount the VirtIO driver ISO as a secondary CD-ROM:

qemu-system-x86_64 -hda windows11.img -cdrom path/to/virtio-win.iso -boot d

1. From within your Windows 11 VM, navigate to the VirtIO CD drive.
2. The needed drivers will usually be located in the viostor folder for storage and the netkvm folder for network drivers. Install each driver accordingly.

After the drivers are installed, you should notice improved I/O performance and better network connectivity.

Configuration and Optimization

Once Windows 11 is running on QEMU, a few configuration tweaks can significantly enhance performance and usability.

Graphics and Display

To optimize your graphics performance in the virtual machine, you could use the -vga option with QEMU:

-vga qxl

Using the QXL virtual GPU allows for better graphic performance, particularly if you plan to run graphics-intensive applications.

Adding Shared Folders

If you wish to share folders between the host and the Windows 11 VM, you can set this up using a combination of VirtIO and shared drives.

1. Create a directory on your host that you want to share:

   mkdir -p ~/Shared

2. Add the share to your QEMU command with the -virtfs option:

   -virtfs local,path=~/Shared,mount_tag=hostshare,security_model=none,id=hostshare

3. Inside Windows, you can mount this shared folder using the following commands in PowerShell:

   New-PSDrive -Name Z -PSProvider FileSystem -Root \10.0.2.4hostshare

Networking Options

For networking, QEMU provides several backend options. Using -netdev with user network mode is convenient for most users, but to set up a bridge for full network access, you’ll need additional configuration steps to ensure your virtual machine can appear as a device on the network.

Conclusion

Running Windows 11 on QEMU is an excellent way for developers and enthusiasts to try out the latest features without altering their primary operating system. By following the steps outlined in this article, you should be able to successfully install and optimize Windows 11 on a QEMU virtual machine.

QEMU offers flexibility through virtual hardware configuration, enabling you to tailor the virtual environment to fit your needs. Whether you are assessing compatibility, developing applications, or simply exploring Windows 11, QEMU will stand by as a reliable, robust tool in your virtualization toolkit.

This detailed guide should set you up for successful experiences with Windows 11 in a virtualized environment, paving the way for further exploration and development opportunities. Happy virtualizing!

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Хотим мы того или нет, но программы, для которых необходима Windows, никуда из офисов не исчезли. В ситуации, когда их использование безальтернативно, лучше иметь виртуальную ОС, например для того, чтобы подключиться к аудио-конференции через Skype for Business.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

В этой статье я расскажу, как можно с минимальными издержками установить гостевую ОС Windows на гипервизоре QEMU с помощью графического интерфейса virt-manager. Мы нанесем на карту все подводные камни и рифы, а жучков аккуратно посадим в банку.

Подготовка

Самый первый шаг — настройка параметров ядра. Обязательна поддержка KVM и vhost-net, желательна поддержка туннельных интерфейсов^[1] и сетевого моста^[2]. Полный список на Gentoo вики-странице QEMU.

Подготовьте дисковое пространство. Я выделил 70 GiB, и Windows 8.1 за пару месяцев использовала почти 50 GiB так, что для обновления до 10-й версии места на диске не хватило.

Далее, нам понадобится набор редхатовских драйверов virtio-win. Если у вас установлен RedHat, достаточно запустить

[root@server ~]# yum install virtio-win

и образ iso будет записан в каталог /usr/share/virtio-win/. Также можно его скачать с репозитариев Fedora.
Убедитесь, что поддержка аппаратной виртуализация включена в BIOS/UEFI. Без этого KVM не будет активирован, а virt-manager выдаст вот такую ошибку.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

В качестве проверки можно прочитать файл устройства.

(2:506)$ ll /dev/kvm
crw-rw----+ 1 root kvm 10, 232 ноя 9 02:29 /dev/kvm

Если файл не обнаружен, а опции ядра выставлены верно, значит дело в настройках BIOS/UEFI.
Устанавливаем нужные пакеты.

(5:519)$ sudo emerge -av qemu virt-manager

Для RedHat 7 достаточно установить только virt-manager, так как QEMU устанавливается по умолчанию.

[root@server ~]# yum install virt-manager

Дебианщикам надо установить пакет qemu.

root# aptitute install qemu

Можно теперь переходить к установке.

Запуск и инсталляция

Запускаем virt-manager и создаем новую виртуальную машину из локального хранилища.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Указываем путь к установочному iso образу Windows.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Далее, на 3-м и 4-м шаге будет выбор количества CPU, объем RAM и размер дискового пространства, после чего на 5-м шаге следует выбрать дополнительные конфигурации перед настройкой.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Окно дополнительных настроек нужно для того, чтобы выполнить финт ушами. Его смысл в том, чтобы добавить виртуальный флопарь с драйверами из набора virtio-win. Это даст возможность изменить тип жесткого диска: удалить диск с шиной IDE и добавить его же, но с шиной VirtIO. Подробно, в доках RedHat.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Прописываем драйвер /usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.vfd и добавляем виртуальный флоппи-диск. Затем переходим на вкладку [Шина] Диск № и проделываем финт с заменой шины диска: удаляем с IDE и добавляем с VirtIO.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Чуть не забыл сказать, для чего нужен этот фокус. Специалисты утверждают, что с шиной VirtIO, производительность диска ощутимо выше.

В принципе, уже можно начинать инсталляцию, но мы забыли добавить CD-ROM с драйверами virtio-win, а они нам пригодятся, когда диспетчер устройств засверкает желтыми иконками вопросительного знака.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Ну вот теперь можно начать установку.

Ну хорошо, начали мы установку. А что, если установщик Windows попросит сменить диск? Мне из-за этого пришлось пару раз прервать и начать всю карусель заново, но с вами такого уже не случится.

(qemu) change ide1-cd0 /tmp/windows_8.1_x64_disk2.iso

Драйвера и доводка

По окончанию процесса установки диспетчер устройств недосчитается некоторых драйверов. Предположительно, это могут быть:

Ethernet Controller
PCI Simple Communication Controller
SCSI Controller

Нужно скормить им драйвера из набора virtio-win, что подключены через IDE CD-ROM в предыдущем разделе.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Делается это стандартно: правой кнопкой на желтый знак вопроса, обновить драйвера, путь к файлам.

Вот весь список, а это соседняя страница RedHat доков, где установка драйверов показана подробнее.

• Balloon, the balloon driver, affects the PCI standard RAM Controller in the System devices group.
• vioserial, the serial driver, affects the PCI Simple Communication Controller in the System devices group.
• NetKVM, the network driver, affects the Network adapters group. This driver is only available if a virtio NIC is configured. Configurable parameters for this driver are documented in Appendix E, NetKVM Driver Parameters.
• viostor, the block driver, affects the Disk drives group. This driver is only available if a virtio disk is configured.

Оборудование

Тут постепенно начинается область безграничных возможностей и 101 способов сделать по-своему, поэтому я покажу, как это работает у меня, а вы можете настроить более точно под свои нужды.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

У меня выбран дисплей Сервер Spice и звуковое устройство ich6. Нет, конечно, если у вас уйма времени и желание во всем разобраться до самых тонкостей — дерзайте и пробуйте альтернативные подходы, но у меня звук взлетел, вернее завибрировал, только с такими настройками. Во второй части, посвященной прогулке по граблям и отлову багов, я расскажу об этом подробнее. В закладке видео я выставил QXL, ибо с этой опцией, благодаря волшебному драйверу, мне удалось добиться нормального разрешения экрана.

Подключаться к ВМ можно разнообразно.

1. Через графический интерфейс virt-manager
2. Выбрать дисплей VNC-сервер и подключаться через vnc-клиента
3. Установить Spice-клиента и подключаться через него
4. К Windows можно подключиться через rdp, если включен терминальный сервер

У меня вариант 3, для Gentoo это программа spice-gtk

$ eix spice-gtk
[I] net-misc/spice-gtk
     Доступные версии:      0.31 ~0.32-r1 ~0.32-r2 **9999 {dbus gstaudio gstreamer gstvideo gtk3 +introspection libressl lz4 mjpeg policykit pulseaudio python sasl smartcard static-libs usbredir vala webdav PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7 python3_4" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_4"}
     Установленные версии:  0.31(16:05:41 18.06.2016)(gtk3 introspection pulseaudio python usbredir -dbus -gstreamer -libressl -lz4 -policykit -sasl -smartcard -static-libs -vala -webdav PYTHON_SINGLE_TARGET="python2_7 -python3_4" PYTHON_TARGETS="python2_7 python3_4")
     Домашняя страница:     http://spice-space.org https://cgit.freedesktop.org/spice/spice-gtk/
     Описание:              Set of GObject and Gtk objects for connecting to Spice servers and a client GUI

Сеть

Сеть для ВМ можно настроить по-разному, на Хабре умельцы уже об этом писали. Я перепробовал несколько способов, и в конце простота опять взяла вверх. Сама ВМ запускается из под рута^[3], но графический интерфейс spice-gtk — из под обычного непривилегированного пользователя. Это позволяет решить дилемму: для сетевых опций нужны права рута, а для звукового демона pulseaudio, рут запрещен. Я пробовал навешать все права на обычного пользователя, но ничего не получалось, то pulse не пульсирует, то сеть не создается, там много а тут мало. В итоге решил так и доволен. Буду рад, если в комментариях будет найден лучший способ.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Такой простой выбор сетевых опций дает результат превосходящий ожидания. Создаются 3 дополнительных сетевых интерфейса: virbr0, virbr0-nic, vnet0.

$ ip addr
...
4: virbr0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:cc:2a:1e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.102.1/24 brd 192.168.102.255 scope global virbr0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
5: virbr0-nic: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master virbr0 state DOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 52:54:00:cc:2a:1e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
11: vnet0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master virbr0 state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether fe:54:00:fb:50:45 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet6 fe80::fc54:ff:fefb:5045/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

В iptables создается свод правил, вот основные:

$ sudo iptables -L
...
Chain FORWARD (policy ACCEPT)
target     prot opt source               destination         
ACCEPT     all  --  anywhere             192.168.102.0/24     ctstate RELATED,ESTABLISHED
ACCEPT     all  --  192.168.102.0/24     anywhere 

Windows ВМ:

C:\Users\user>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration
Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::90c3:a458:6645:7b9a%7
   IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.102.203
   Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.102.1

Tunnel adapter isatap.{BD8F0DA4-92A8-42BD-A557-23AC89AED941}:

   Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :

Tunnel adapter IPHTTPSInterface:

   Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
   IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2620:0:a13:8a7:51af:79ae:92b8:828a
   Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2620:0:a13:8a7:b49d:81fe:e509:16e7
   Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::51af:79ae:92b8:828a%15
   Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . :

Повторяю, все это libvirtd создает сам, ничего для этого делать не надо. В результате имеем нормальный роутинг между хостом и ВМ, можно обмениваться файлами по ssh / scp. Можно пойти дальше и создать шару на Windows, а на Linux хосте настроить samba, но мне это показалось избыточным.

В завершение

Трудно рассказать в одной статье обо всех аспектах Windows + QEMU/KVM, поэтому завершим в следующей. А там будет самый смак, командный интерфейс, разрешение экрана максимум 1024×768, Сцилла pulseaudio и Харибда сети, команда virsh и настройка ВМ из конфиг файла, фейл с tpm, двоичный синтаксис устройств и прочие тихие радости.

1. ↑TUN/TAP interfaces
2. ↑Ethernet bridging
3. ↑От английского root

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This article describes the setup of a Windows guest using QEMU.

Configuration

Host

To create a disk image for the virtual machine, run:

Tip
Consider allocating more space if you are aiming for newer Windows versions as e.g. Win 10 Pro 22H2 after fresh install already occupies 20G. You may extend disk images easily by qemu-img resize later on, but as Windows rescue partition is located at the end of the disk this needs further steps.

Download a Windows driver image from this location.

Since QEMU requires a lot of options, it would be a good idea to put them into a shell script, e.g.:

FILE WindowsVM.sh

#!/bin/sh
exec qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
        -cpu host \
        -drive file=WindowsVM.img,if=virtio \
        -net nic -net user,hostname=windowsvm \
        -m 1G \
        -monitor stdio \
        -name "Windows" \
        "$@"

Change the path to the disk image WindowsVM.img in the script. Additional options can be used when calling the script. To boot the disk image, run:

Install the Windows guest. See the guest section for optimum support. After the installation start the script without the additional options.

Note
When upgrading to QEMU 1.3 the -enable-kvm must be added to keep the guest responsive. Also change -net nic to -net nic,model=rtl8139 to have a network interface in the guest.

Note
When upgrading to QEMU 1.5.3, add -display sdl,frame=off,window_close=off" to keep a full screen session full screen. Without this option there may be a (new) menu bar at the top of the screen, pushing the Windows bottom menu off screen.

Note
When upgrading to QEMU 2.0.0 replace qemu-kvm with qemu-system-<CPUTYPE> (e.g. qemu-system-x86_64) (-enable-kvm switch may need to be added); the qemu-kvm wrapper has been removed — see bug #506566

Note
German (and perhaps other) localized Windows versions likely are not able to setup any virtual network card properly on QEMU >=6.0 due to a problem in Windows — see QEMU issue #774

Guest

• During installation at the partition step Windows doesn’t detect the VirtIO hard drive. Windows will require the viostor driver from the driver image listed above.
• After installation the VirtIO Ethernet adapter will appear without a driver. Windows will require the netkvm driver from the driver image listed above.

• For 32-bit Windows 7 a sound driver for the Intel 82801AA AC97 exists.

• For 64-bit Windows 7 Intel HDA is available as an option (QEMU option: -soundhw hda)
• Windows 10 guest audio emulation is tricky for ALSA users. Pass these options to QEMU:-audiodev alsa,id=snd0,out.try-poll=off -device ich9-intel-hda -device hda-output,audiodev=snd0
  • This assumes use of the default ALSA device for playback.
  • we cannot use AC97 for Windows 10 because there is no driver for it.
  • out.try-poll=off is an odd option, but without it I got nothing but clicks and pops during playback.
  • there may be more options required for line-in and line-out (-device hda-duplex) or microphone and line-out (-device hda-micro).
  • For PulseAudio, see ArchWiki

• USB 2.0 pass through can be configured from host to guest with variations of: -usb -device usb-ehci,id=ehci -device usb-host,bus=ehci.0,vendorid=1452

• For Windows 8.1 USB tablet is available only with USB 2.0 pass through (QEMU option: -device usb-ehci,id=ehci -device usb-tablet,bus=ehci.0
  • The USB tablet device helps the Windows guest to accurately track mouse movements. Without it mouse movements will be jerky.
• Another device that can be presented to the Windows guest is the random number generator. Add QEMU option: -device virtio-rng-pci . Now install the viorng driver from the driver image.
• For Windows 10, to boot using UEFI the sys-firmware/edk2-ovmf is required on the host, then add QEMU option: -bios /usr/share/edk2-ovmf/OVMF_CODE.fd. to the qemu call. This option is essential for running Hyper-V guest images.

SPICE

QEMU with SPICE support enables (among other things) the more powerful QXL display device and makes clipboard sharing possible (copy/paste between clients and the virtual machine).

To use SPICE with QEMU enable the following USE flag in package.use:

FILE /etc/portage/package.useSetting USE variable

Build QEMU:

To connect spice server, a client like net-misc/spice-gtk is required.

Guest

On Windows guests, install Windows guest tools.

On Windows 8.1 guest, to set screen resolution more than 1024×768, install drivers from https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Windows_Virtio_Drivers#Direct_download and QXL WDDM DOD driver. If trying to install Windows guest tool, QXL WDDM DOD driver won’t work well because of Windows SPICE agent .

To try the new qlx-dod driver linked above, in order to use the driver, update’ the basic windows display adapter driver and point it to the unzipped folder for the new driver. This can be found by: Right click the Start button -> Device Manager. Expand ‘Display adapters’ and right click on the sub entry and hit update driver.

Initialization script

To run QEMU from a script (the spicy viewer requires net-misc/spice-gtk):

FILE WindowsVM.sh

#!/bin/sh
SPICE_PORT=5924
qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -daemonize \
    -cpu host \
    -drive file=WindowsVM.img,if=virtio \
    -net nic -net user,hostname=windowsvm \
    -m 1G \
    -vga qxl \
    -spice port=${SPICE_PORT},disable-ticketing=on \
    -usbdevice tablet \
    -device virtio-serial \
    -chardev spicevmc,id=vdagent,name=vdagent \
    -device virtserialport,chardev=vdagent,name=com.redhat.spice.0 \
    "$@"
exec spicy --title Windows 127.0.0.1 -p ${SPICE_PORT}

Or remote-viewer (app-emulation/virt-viewer):

FILE WindowsVM.sh

#!/bin/sh
SPICE_PORT=5924
qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -daemonize \
    -cpu host \
    -drive file=WindowsVM.img,if=virtio \
    -net nic -net user,hostname=windowsvm \
    -m 1G \
    -vga qxl \
    -spice port=${SPICE_PORT},disable-ticketing=on \
    -usbdevice tablet \
    -device virtio-serial \
    -chardev spicevmc,id=vdagent,name=vdagent \
    -device virtserialport,chardev=vdagent,name=com.redhat.spice.0 \
    "$@"
exec remote-viewer --title Windows spice://127.0.0.1:${SPICE_PORT}

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What are QEMU’s requirements?

Qemu is a hypervisor that conducts hardware virtualization and is available for free and open-source use. QEMU v2.6.0 added the virtual NVDIMM (vNVDIMM) capability, which allows users to emulate a virtual NVDIMM.

Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

The memory type (pmem) is the only one that has been implemented. In terms of feature enhancements, the block window type (blk) is one that should be deployed in the near future. If there are any changes, please refer to the QEMU release notes.

To get TPM 2.0 emulation, you’ll need to have QEMU 4.0 or higher installed on your computer. Other hardware requirements for Windows 11 include 4GB of RAM and a hard drive with a capacity of 64GB.

Unless you match the basic requirements, which include TPM and Secure boot, you will see an error message stating that your PC is unable to run Windows 11.

How can I easily install Windows 11 in QEMU?

1. Use the QTEMU GUI

1. You’ll need to download the Windows 11 ISO and mount it and go through the setup process. If you are already familiar with the process, head to Microsoft’s website to download the Disk Image ISO.
   

   Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

2. Install the Qtemu graphical user interface. If you are using Windows 10 to run QEMU, click on the Windows x86_64 installer to download the needed GUI.
   

   Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

3. After the installation of Qtemu run it from the Windows Start menu.
4. In the first column QEMU binaries path copy-paste the following command or enter the path where you have installed the QEMU: C:\Program Files\qemu\
   

   Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

5. For the second column enter the path of the Qemu-img file that is: C:\Program Files\qemu\qemu-img.exe
   

   Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

6. Now create a folder anywhere on your computer where you want to save the virtual machines created by QEMU. Click on the folder icon given in the front of the third column to select that particular folder.
   

   Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

7. Now, from Qemu GUI manager Qtemu, simply click on Machine and select New Machine.
   

   Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

8. Configure the Virtual Machine hardware, then select the CPU.
9. By Default, the HAXM- Hardware Accelerated Execution will be selected in the Qtemu but in case the HAXM is not supported by your system or not available, thus uncheck it and check TCG- Tiny Code Generator.
10. Set the amount of RAM you want to assign to your VM.
11. Right-click on the created VM on the QTEMU interface and select Machine Settings.
    

    Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

12. There select the Boot options from the right-side panel and after that check the Enable boot menu and then the CD ROM option following the Save button.
    

    Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

13. Under the Machine settings, go to the Media menu and click on the CD icon. This will open the Windows file explorer, navigate to the ISO file of the OS with which you want to boot in QEMU, and click on the Save button.
    

    Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

14. Now, on the main interface of the Qtemu GUI, select the created VM and click on the Start button. This will open the boot screen.
    

    Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

As we know, the QEMU uses the command line to create virtual machines by default. But it would be not feasible for standard computer users using CLI to manage virtual machines, thus we install another open-source application to provide a Graphical user interface (GUI) to QEMU.

How can I make QEMU run faster?

If you are unfamiliar with the terms virtualization and emulation, you might think that they are interchangeable. However, this is as far from the truth as you could possibly go.

Virtualization is the process of emulating the operation of computer hardware, such as the CPU, CD-ROM, graphics controller, and other components.

Картинка с сайта: windowsreport.com

In contrast, in an emulator, the virtual machine duplicates the entire hardware environment in software. In this way, an operating system designed for one computer architecture can be used to run on another computer architecture for which the emulator has been written.

In the case that you are running qemu-system-x64 on an x64-compatible processor, you can take advantage of the hardware virtualization capabilities provided by KVM (hardware virtualization). To make use of KVM, send the command enable-kvm to QEMU.

If you find that QEMU is slower than usual, examine your BIOS settings first, and make certain that VT-x (or Virtualization Technology, depending on your BIOS) is turned on.

Assuming there is also an option for the Execute Disable Bit, make certain that it is also enabled. In the vast majority of circumstances, both options are enabled by default.

Loredana is a passionate writer with a keen interest in PC software and technology. She started off writing about mobile phones back when Samsung Galaxy S II was on top of the world and she fell in love with tech of all sorts.

Whenever she’s not at her work desk, you’ll find her enjoying refreshing tea flavors, spilling stories on paper, and listening to the radio.