You now have a portable, legal, malware-free windows10.qcow2 file. Part 5: One-Click Download Options (Third-Party Repositories) If you truly do not want to create your own, a few trusted open-source projects provide automated build scripts or pre-built images for open-source Windows alternatives (like ReactOS). For actual Windows, the only reputable third-party source is OSBoxes (Linux-focused VM distribution) – but even they typically provide .vdi for VirtualBox.
But here is the hard truth:
qemu-img convert -O qcow2 windows10.qcow2 windows10_optimized.qcow2 This removes "holes" and reduces file size dramatically (from 80GB to ~10-15GB actual usage). Windows 10.qcow2 Download
Leave a comment below, and our virtualization engineers will assist you. This article is for educational purposes. Always use licensed copies of Windows 10 in compliance with Microsoft’s EULA.
# Convert from VDI to QCOW2 qemu-img convert -f vdi -O qcow2 Windows10.vdi Windows10.qcow2 qemu-img convert -f vmdk -O qcow2 Windows10.vmdk Windows10.qcow2 Convert from raw IMG or VHD qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 Windows10.img Windows10.qcow2 You now have a portable, legal, malware-free windows10
qemu-system-x86_64 \ -enable-kvm \ -cpu host \ -smp 4 \ -m 4096 \ -drive file=windows10.qcow2,format=qcow2 \ -drive file=/path/to/Win10_22H2_English.iso,media=cdrom \ -boot menu=on Proceed through the Windows installation wizard. This will take ~15 minutes. Once Windows is installed, shut down the VM. Convert the image to discard unused space:
Using the qemu-img utility (available on Windows, Linux, and macOS via Homebrew): But here is the hard truth: qemu-img convert
Published by TechVirtual Labs