Running Windows 10 on Raspberry Pi KVM

You might not know this, but Windows 10 is in fact completely compatible with ARM64. ARM architectures are very power-efficient, which makes them perfect for mobile devices, including laptops. There is a version of Windows that can run on ARM64, but it’s not easy to download. However, once you have an ISO, you can run Windows 10 on a Raspberry Pi 3/4 at near-native speed.

Let’s get started.

1. Prerequisites

   • QEMU
   • 64-bit Kernel (NOT default in Raspbian yet, run getconf LONG_BIT to check)
   • At least 32GB of free space

2. Get the ISO

   Go visit this website and download an ARM64 version. Go through the steps, and choose “Download and convert to ISO” to obtain an ISO file.

3. Make the newest QEMU (optional)

   To make sure you get the newest features and bugfixes, compile QEMU from tbe latest source. Visit the QEMU download page and and follow the build instructions under the Source tab. You’ll want to uninstall your distribution’s QEMU packages and run sudo make install once you’re done building QEMU. However, this isn’t necessary and most QEMU versions should still work.

4. Make the QCOW2 disk file

   Go run qemu-img create -f qcow2 disk.qcow2 32G on your Raspberry Pi, wherever you want to store the files. It must be at least 25GB, because that’s how big the Windows installation is.

5. Get VirtIO drivers

   Download the stable VirtIO driver ISO for Windows.

6. Get EDK2 files

   Download the edk2.git-aarch64 RPM file from here. Then, extract QEMU_EFI.fd and vars-template-pflash.raw from it (using 7zip). This will be used later.

7. Create start script

   Finally. It’s time to get started. Use your favorite text editor to create start.sh:

    qemu-system-aarch64 \
        -M virt,virtualization=true \
        -cpu host \
        -smp 4 -m 2048 \
        -device qemu-xhci \
        -device usb-kbd \
        -device usb-tablet \
        -drive file=disk.qcow2,if=virtio \
        -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci \
        -drive file="Windows.iso",media=cdrom,if=none,id=cdrom \
        -device usb-storage,drive=cdrom \
        -drive file="virtio.iso",media=cdrom,if=none,id=drivers \
        -device usb-storage,drive=drivers \
        -bios QEMU_EFI.fd \
        -device ramfb \
        -enable-kvm \
        -vnc 0.0.0.0:99
    # Remember to set Windows.iso and virtio.iso to the names or paths of the ISO files you have. 
    # You can also remove VNC if you are not using a headless Pi.
   

8. Set Up Windows

   Run chmod 755 start.sh && ./start.sh and install Windows. When it can’t find any storage devices to install to, choose “Install Drivers”, select the VirtIO driver disk, and open viostor/w10/ARM64. Install the driver, then repeat the same process for the NetKVM/w10/ARM64 driver. Continue and install Windows as normal.

9. Optimize Windows (optional)

   Windows isn’t really expecting to be run on a low-end virtualized device, so we’re going to add some small tweaks to make it faster.

   Open Command prompt and run:

    REM Disable Printing
    sc stop "Spooler"
    sc config "Spooler" start= disabled
    REM Disable Windows Search Indexing
    sc stop "WSearch"
    sc config "WSearch" start= disabled
    REM Disable Automatic Defragmentation
    schtasks /Delete /TN "\Microsoft\Windows\Defrag\ScheduledDefrag" /F
    REM Disable Pagefile
    wmic computersystem set AutomaticManagedPagefile=FALSE
    wmic pagefileset delete
    REM Disable Hibernation
    powercfg -h off
   

10. Change Display Resolution (optional)

    If you built QEMU from source and your QEMU version is higher than 5.1.0, you can increase your display resolution.

    We can use the vars-template-pflash.raw file we got from the EDK2 RPM file to do this.

    Add the following somewhere in your start.sh: -drive file=vars-template-pflash.raw,if=pflash,index=1

    Then, set your display resolution up to 1024x768 in Device Manager > OVMF Platform Configuration. It’s limited to a relatively small resolution, due to standard VGA support not being supported, and having to use ramfb instead. This may change in the future, but we have to use ramfb for now.

11. Done! You’re now done installing Windows 10 in a Raspberry Pi KVM! You can connect to it via VNC at raspberrypi.local:5999 if you’re on the same network as the Pi.

This guide is based on this one by Kitsunemi.