Windows 10qcow2 -

QCOW2 allows you to use a backing file . You keep a pristine, untouched Windows 10 base image, and create "overlay" images for different projects. Each overlay writes changes to a separate tiny file, saving massive amounts of disk space.

Regardless of your method, Windows will boot from the ISO and start the installation.

qemu-img convert -O qcow2 -c win10.qcow2 win10_compressed.qcow2 Use code with caution. Managing Snapshots windows 10qcow2

The drive list will appear completely blank because Windows cannot see the VirtIO virtual hard drive. Click →right arrow Browse .

| Device | Driver path on ISO | | :--- | :--- | | Disk controller | viostor\w10\amd64 | | Network | NetKVM\w10\amd64 | | Balloon (memory) | Balloon\w10\amd64 | | QEMU Guest Agent | guest-agent\qemu-ga-x86_64.msi | QCOW2 allows you to use a backing file

Optimize-Volume -DriveLetter C -ReTrim -Verbose

Create a base image (golden master) and never modify it: Regardless of your method, Windows will boot from

: Windows does not natively include drivers for the paravirtualized VirtIO devices that KVM uses for optimal performance. You must download the virtio-win.iso driver image from the Fedora project's repository. You can download the latest stable build using wget :