While you can download pre-made images from some cloud providers, creating your own ensures you have a clean, secure installation. 1. Prepare the Windows 10 ISO

Using a (QEMU Copy-On-Write) image is the gold standard for running Microsoft’s operating system on open-source hypervisors like KVM, QEMU, Proxmox, and OpenStack. Unlike raw disk images, QCOW2 offers advanced features like thin provisioning, snapshots, and compression, making it ideal for both homelab enthusiasts and enterprise cloud environments. Why Choose the QCOW2 Format for Windows 10?

Set your cache mode to none or writeback depending on your host's UPS status to maximize throughput. Common Use Cases