The virtual QCOW2 disk will now appear. Proceed with the standard installation partitions. 5. Post-Installation Configuration and Drivers
: If you have a Windows 8 virtual disk in another format like VMDK (from VMware) or VHD (from VirtualBox/Hyper-V), you can easily convert it using qemu-img : windows 8 qcow2
Select the drive and proceed with the standard installation prompts. Step 5: Post-Installation and Network Setup The virtual QCOW2 disk will now appear
Inside the Windows 8 VM, turn off automatic defragmentation for the virtual disk. QCOW2 handles fragmentation differently; defragging inside a VM actually increases the physical image size. Post-Installation Configuration and Drivers : If you have
Why keep Windows 8 alive at all? Why not jump straight to Windows 10 or 11?
Once Windows 8 boots to the desktop, you must install the remaining drivers (network and display) to optimize performance.