Virtualization on Windows#

Welcome to the official guide to launching Vitruvian on Windows operating systems.

System Requirements#

Before proceeding, please ensure that your PC meets the following minimum requirements:
Operating System: Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit).
Processor: Intel i5 / AMD Ryzen 5 or higher.
RAM: At least 8 GB (16 GB recommended).
Additional Software: QEMU (Link to download: https://qemu.weilnetz.de/w64/qemu-w64-setup-20260811.exe).

Install QEMU and then follow the instructions below.

Post-Installation Steps#

1. Add QEMU to Windows Environment Variables (PATH)

To allow Windows and Vitruvian to run QEMU commands from any terminal window, you must add it to your system PATH:#

  • Press the Windows Key, type env, and select Edit the system environment variables.
  • Click on the Environment Variables… button at the bottom right.
  • In the System variables section (bottom list), find and select the variable named Path, then click Edit….
  • Click New and paste the default installation path for QEMU: C:\Program Files\qemu
  • Click OK on all windows to save and apply the changes.

2. Verify the Installation
Open a new Command Prompt (cmd) or PowerShell window and type the following command to verify that QEMU is correctly recognized:

qemu-img.exe --version

Expected result:

qemu-img version 11.1.0 (v11.1.0-12130-ge470268ff4`  
Copyright (c) 2003-2026 Fabrice Bellard and the QEMU Project developers

3. Launching Vitruvian#

Boot a raw image#

qemu-system-x86_64.exe `
-accel whpx,kernel-irqchip=on `
-drive file=vitruvian.img,format=raw,if=virtio `
-boot menu=on `
-m 8G -cpu host -smp sockets=1,cores=2,threads=2 `
-netdev user,id=mynet,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 `
-device virtio-net-pci,netdev=mynet `
-audiodev id=snd0,driver=dsound `
-device ich9-intel-hda -device hda-output,audiodev=snd0

Boot an ISO#

qemu-system-x86_64.exe `
-accel whpx,kernel-irqchip=on `
-drive file=vitruvian.iso,format=raw,if=virtio `
-boot menu=on `
-m 8G -cpu host -smp sockets=1,cores=2,threads=2 `
-netdev user,id=mynet,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22 `
-device virtio-net-pci,netdev=mynet `
-audiodev id=snd0,driver=dsound `
-device ich9-intel-hda -device hda-output,audiodev=snd0
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