To keep the QCOW2 file size small (sparse), occasionally run the following from the host: qemu-img convert -O qcow2 windows_xp.qcow2 windows_xp_compressed.qcow2
In 2023–2024, security researchers caught several malware strains disguised as “Windows XP gaming patches.” One notable sample, ow2_fix.exe , dropped a backdoor that allowed remote access to industrial control systems still running XP. windows xpqcow2 patched