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07 - Windows Virtualization.md

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Windows Virtualization - Tips and Tricks

You can virtualize almost any Windows version. These observations are valid for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Besides these few observations, everything else should work as expected.

Observations

Installation:

  • For Windows 11 installations, make sure that Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 are configured in the virtual machine.
  • Installation runs fine with the GPU passthrough, you don't need to attach a virtual display to run installation.
  • The correct network interface model is also important for internet access. See the notes below for more details.
  • Make sure you have the VirtIO ISO configured as a CDROM device during the installation process.
  • Once you are in the disk selection process of Windows installation, you must install the VirtIO drivers from the CDROM if disks are not visible.
  • After installing, remember to install VirtIO software from the VirtIO ISO. This software includes drivers for QEMU Guest Agent and SPICE guest agent and drivers.
  • Do you want a Windows installation without bloatware? Set time and currency format as English (World) in the installation process.

Graphics:

  • Remember to use the patched VGA BIOS on Nvidia GPUs.
  • Just install the GPU driver of the manufacturer (AMD/Nvidia) and GPU should work.
  • After the driver has been installed, remove the virtualized display graphics if you are having display issues.

USB:

  • Live USB passthrough does not work on Windows before login. You need to start Windows with an attached USB mouse/keyboard device and then after logging in, every USB device should work as expected.

Network:

  • For Windows, there are basically 3 network interfaces models on Qemu: virtio, igb and e1000e.
  • You must set the network interface model as igb or e1000e to have internet access during the Windows installation process.
  • Once Windows has been installed, install the VirtIO drivers and set the network as virtio because this model will always have more performance than others - supports 10G networks for example.
  • If you are having issues streaming the VM to any other devices, this maybe is not a network issue. Try disable the GPU Scheduler on "Settings" > "Display" > "Graphics" > "Change default graphics settings" first and see if that solves the problem.

Sample XMLs:

  • You can check some configurations for Windows machines in the Samples/ folder.
  • These settings are very good for gaming, including gaming with VR headsets.

Others tips and tricks: