Virtualization on Windows#

VirtualBox is the easiest option on Windows and works on all hardware.

  1. Download and install from virtualbox.org
  2. Create a new VM:
    • Type: Linux, version Linux 2.6 / 3.x / 4.x (64-bit)
    • RAM: 4 GB or more
    • Disk: skip (attach the image manually)
  3. In VM settings → Storage, attach the Vitruvian raw image or ISO as a storage device
  4. In VM settings → Display, set adapter to VMSVGA, disable 3D acceleration
  5. Boot the VM

QEMU on Windows#

QEMU runs on Windows and provides better performance than VirtualBox when used with WHPX (Windows Hypervisor Platform) or HAXM acceleration.

Install#

Download the QEMU installer from qemu.org or install via winget:

winget install qemu

Enable Windows Hypervisor Platform#

In PowerShell (as Administrator):

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName HypervisorPlatform

Reboot after enabling.

Boot a raw image#

qemu-system-x86_64.exe `
  -accel whpx `
  -m 4096 `
  -smp 4 `
  -drive file=vitruvian.img,format=raw,if=virtio `
  -vga virtio `
  -net nic,model=virtio `
  -net user `
  -rtc base=localtime

Replace -accel whpx with -accel haxm if you have HAXM installed, or remove it entirely to fall back to software emulation (much slower).

Boot an ISO#

qemu-system-x86_64.exe `
  -accel whpx `
  -m 4096 `
  -smp 4 `
  -cdrom vitruvian.iso `
  -boot d `
  -vga virtio `
  -net nic,model=virtio `
  -net user

Notes#

  • Hyper-V and VirtualBox cannot run simultaneously on the same host. If you use WSL2 or Docker Desktop, Hyper-V is likely already active — use QEMU with WHPX in that case.
  • Vitruvian has not been tested under WSL2 and is not expected to work there.
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