How to Install Windows 8.1 in a QCOW2 Virtual Disk Using a QCOW2 virtual disk image is the most efficient way to run Windows 8.1 on Linux-based hypervisors like QEMU and KVM. QCOW2 (QEMU Copy-On-Write) optimizes storage by growing dynamically and supporting snapshots.
A breakdown of these important options:
Open Device Manager inside Windows and update any "Unknown Devices" by pointing them to the VirtIO ISO. windows 81 qcow2 install
: Forces the QCOW2 disk to use the high-performance VirtIO block storage pipeline. How to Install Windows 8
The QCOW2 format allocates physical host storage only as data is written inside the virtual machine. windows 81 qcow2 install