Installing QEMU on Windows

While QEMU is primarily developed for Linux, it has been ported to Windows. The chief caveat is that hardware virtual machine acceleration is generally unavailable on Windows as of early 2023.

Additionally, my examples for QEMU are generally designed for Linux hosts. It will be necessary to do a small amount of translation to get the examples working on Windows.

Video Demonstration

I do not run Windows often, so a video of me demonstrating how to do something on Windows is rare :).

Installation

Download QEMU from the Download QEMU page for Windows. You will need to bypass multiple security warnings to be able to run the installer. This code is open-source and is compiled by a volunteer.

When running the installer, use the default location (C:\Program Files\qemu). You will need to add this location to the system PATH, which I demonstrate in the video (above).

Testing

After installing QEMU, it is a good idea to test to be sure that it is working properly. I have two test demonstrations available (with videos):

Automation

As demonstrated in the above tests, I recommend using a batch file (or PowerShell script) to automate running a QEMU virtual machine. Please see the following document:

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