"Virtualization: Creating a Windows 10 Virtual Machine in Linux - Comprehensive Tutorial"

In this video I cover creating a CPU and memory efficient installation of Windows 10 running in a virtual machine on Linux using KVM Kernel Virtual Machine).

Step 1 – Install KVM (Kernel Virtual Machine).

This can be installed using your distribution's package manager.

For example, for Ubuntu based distributions, KVM is installed using the following Terminal command:

sudo apt install virt-manager -y

Alternatively for Arch based distributions, run the below Terminal commands in sequence.

sudo pacman -S --needed virt-manager qemu-desktop libvirt edk2-ovmf dnsmasq iptables-nft
sudo systemctl enable libvirtd.service
sudo systemctl start libvirtd.service
sudo usermod -a -G libvirt $USER

Once KVM is installed, reboot your system.

Step 2 – Download the Windows 10 & KVM VirtIO drivers ISOs.

Windows 10 ISO

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

KVM VirtIO Drivers ISO

https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/stable-virtio/virtio-win.iso

Step 3 – Create the Virtual Machine.

https://github.com/Fmstrat/winapps/blob/main/docs/KVM.md#create-your-virtual-machine

I recommend following the above section in it's entirety, but see below as well.

Please note that Under Boot options, you also need to tick Enable boot menu, and move SATA CDROM 1 to the top of the list.

This will prompt you later on to boot from CDROM, which you must do to start the Windows 10 installation process.

Step 4 – Install Windows 10 In The Virtual Machine.

https://github.com/Fmstrat/winapps/blob/main/docs/KVM.md#install-the-virtual-machine

I recommend following the above section, but see below as well.

If you get a message along the lines of "KVM guest: "network 'default' is not active" when you start the installation then run the following Terminal command and try again.

sudo virsh net-start default

Please note when you get to the stage when the Windows 10 setup is saying "We couldn't find any drives. To get a storage driver, click Load driver".

You have to click Load driver, Browse, and navigate to CD Drive (E:) virtio-win-0.1.225 \ amd64 \ w10 to get the drivers to appear.

From here choose the Red Hat VirtIO SCSI controller (E:\amd64\w10\viostor.inf) from the list and continue the Windows 10 installation.

The installation will reboot a couple of times, so do not do anything until you get to the Lets connect you to a network screen.

From here continue following the guide, but after you have installed the Virtio-win-driver-installer, you do not need to do anything further.

#windows10 #virtualmachine #kvm