These are my notes on setting up a Windows 11 VM using virt-manager. This is assuming that virt-manager is already set up; I wrote notes on how to set up virt-manager on Artix Linux here.

Download

Firstly, obtain a Windows 11 iso. You can download from Microsoft here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows11

Microsoft blocks VPN users from downloading Windows 11. If you are a VPN user, or if you just don’t want to download from Microsoft’s servers, MASSGRAVE is a reputable source of genuine Windows isos.

These are my notes for setting up virt-manager with QEMU/KVM on Artix Linux. I’m using runit, but anything runit-specific should be easily converted to other init systems/service managers.

This is largely the same as tomit4’s instructions, but I’m doing networking over a bridge rather than a NAT.

Install virt-manager

Firstly, install relevant packages:

# pacman -S qemu virt-manager virt-viewer vde2 openbsd-netcat libvirt libvirt-runit

If you need virtualised TPM (e.g. for Windows 11), you also need to install swtpm. Also, for Windows VMs in general, install virtio-win from the AUR for virtio drivers for Windows guests.