Windows - 7qcow2

A .qcow2 file is the virtual hard disk for a Windows 7 virtual machine. Unlike .vhd or .vmdk, it supports:

cpupower frequency-set -g performance

Windows 7 must have the VirtIO Balloon driver installed. Then run: windows 7qcow2

-device virtio-balloon-pci

The host can dynamically reclaim unused RAM from the Windows 7 guest. Windows 7 must have the VirtIO Balloon driver installed

qemu-img convert -f vdi -O qcow2 windows7.vdi windows7.qcow2

After Windows 7 is installed, boot from the QCOW2 disk (-boot order=c). Install the remaining VirtIO drivers (network, balloon, QEMU guest agent). Then, inside Windows 7, disable automatic updates (to avoid unwanted EOL nags) and set the power plan to “High Performance.” The host can dynamically reclaim unused RAM from

Your windows 7 qcow2 base image is now ready.

# Offline
qemu-img snapshot -a before_patches windows7.qcow2