Before clicking finish, check . In the hardware modifications pane:
Select and point it to your Windows 8.1 ISO.
: Consider automating Windows 8.1 installations using autounattend.xml answer files. These allow fully unattended installations, perfect for creating reproducible master images. You can generate custom answer files at schneegans.de and use them with the -drive file=fat:rw:path/to/answer/files option in QEMU.
Once ready, move the .qcow2 file to your target storage pool. For standard KVM installations, the default path is usually /var/lib/libvirt/images/ . 3. Importing the QCOW2 Image into KVM/QEMU windows 81 qcow2 install
On the storage screen, choose and navigate to your win81_system.qcow2 file created in Step 1.
Allocate your RAM and CPU cores (a minimum of 2 Cores and 4GB RAM is recommended for optimal operation).
# Create a clean master installation qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o preallocation=metadata win81-master.qcow2 40G # Install Windows once, configure it, then use it as a backing file qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b win81-master.qcow2 win81-child.qcow2 Before clicking finish, check
Right-click it, choose , and select Browse my computer .
This guide covers creating, configuring, and installing Windows 8.1 in a qcow2 virtual disk, with tips for performance, drivers, licensing, troubleshooting, and optional features (UEFI, virtio drivers, snapshots). Assumes you’re using a KVM/QEMU-based hypervisor (libvirt/virt-manager, qemu-system-*) on Linux. Adjust command prefixes for your environment.
If you have existing virtual machines in other formats, you can convert them to QCOW2 using qemu-img : For standard KVM installations, the default path is
: During the "Where do you want to install Windows?" step, the drive list will be empty because Windows doesn't have VirtIO SCSI drivers. "Load driver" Browse to the VirtIO CD-ROM. Navigate to vioscsi\w8.1\amd64 (for 64-bit) and select the driver. Complete Setup
These flags improve Windows guest stability and performance under KVM.