Windows 81 Qcow2 — Install

For a similar footprint with security updates, use Windows 10 LTSC 2021 (but it’s heavier). For pure speed, try ReactOS (unstable) or a Windows 7 VM (also EOL).

A well-tuned Windows 8.1 on QCOW2 (with VirtIO) should achieve near‑bare‑metal disk speeds – over 1 GB/s sequential with NVMe backend and cache=none.

After installation, start the libvirt service and add your user:

: QCOW2 supports internal compression, which is useful for archiving old VM builds.

Need help with or setting up a shared folder for your new Windows 8.1 VM?

qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 Windows8.1.raw windows81.qcow2