Download QEMU for Windows PC v11.1.0 for Windows PC

QEMU 11.1.0 emulates whole computers - x86, ARM, RISC-V and more - so you can boot other operating systems and CPU architectures on a Windows PC.

Features

• QEMU emulates many CPU architectures including x86-64, ARM64, RISC-V, and PowerPC, so you can run operating systems and binaries built for hardware you do not physically own on a normal Windows PC.
• With Windows Hypervisor Platform acceleration enabled, same-architecture guests such as x86-64 Linux run far faster than under pure emulation, making everyday testing and development work genuinely practical rather than a slideshow.
• The bundled qemu-img tool creates, resizes, snapshots, and converts virtual disk images between qcow2, VMDK, VHD, and raw formats, which is invaluable when moving machines between QEMU, VirtualBox, and VMware.
• Every aspect of a virtual machine is controlled by command-line options and monitor commands, so launches can be scripted, repeated exactly, and integrated into automated testing pipelines without clicking through a graphical manager.
• QEMU is free and open source under the GPL with no paid edition, feature tier, account, or guest limit, and the Windows installer bundles all system emulators in one roughly 197 MB setup program.

Considerations

• There is no built-in graphical virtual-machine manager comparable to VirtualBox, so creating and starting a guest means writing a long, error-prone command line by hand until you save it as a script.
• The Windows port is explicitly labelled experimental by its maintainer, and the installer's code-signing certificate is expired, so Windows may show a publisher warning that less technical users will find worrying.
• Pure emulation of a foreign architecture is slow, and performance depends heavily on choosing the right machine type, accelerator, and device options, which takes experimentation to get right.

Get qemu-w64-setup-20260811.exe, the current 64-bit installer containing QEMU 11.1.0, from the Windows builds page linked by qemu.org.

Launch the setup EXE, accept the GPL licence, and keep the default install location of C:\Program Files\qemu unless you prefer another folder.

Leave the system emulation components selected so the qemu-system-x86_64 and qemu-system-aarch64 emulators and the qemu-img tool are all installed.

The installer does not always add itself to PATH, so add C:\Program Files\qemu under Environment Variables if you want to type qemu commands from any folder.

Run qemu-img create -f qcow2 test.qcow2 20G, then boot an ISO with qemu-system-x86_64 -m 4096 -hda test.qcow2 -cdrom your.iso -boot d to start the guest.

Is QEMU for Windows PC free and open source?

Yes. QEMU for Windows PC is completely free and open-source software. You can download and use it at no cost, and its source code is publicly available.

How Do I Run QEMU on Windows?

Install QEMU, create a virtual disk with qemu-img create -f qcow2 disk.qcow2 20G, then start a guest with a command such as qemu-system-x86_64 -m 4096 -smp 2 -hda disk.qcow2 -cdrom ubuntu.iso -boot d. Add -accel whpx to use Windows Hypervisor Platform acceleration for much better speed on same-architecture guests.

Is VirtualBox better than QEMU?

Neither is universally better. VirtualBox is easier for running a desktop guest in a window thanks to its graphical manager, snapshots, and shared folders. QEMU is better when you need to emulate a different CPU architecture like ARM or RISC-V, convert disk images with qemu-img, or script virtual machines from the command line.

QEMU Or VirtualBox: Which Solution is Better for a Virtual Machine?

Choose VirtualBox for a simple, friendly x86 virtual machine you manage by clicking. Choose QEMU when the virtual machine must be a different architecture than your PC, when you need fine control over emulated hardware, or when the VM is launched from scripts and automated tests - QEMU's command-line model fits those jobs far better.

Why is my QEMU guest running so slowly on Windows?

The usual cause is running under pure emulation (TCG) instead of hardware acceleration. Enable the Windows Hypervisor Platform feature in Windows, add -accel whpx to your command, allocate enough memory with -m and cores with -smp, and use virtio disk and network devices where the guest supports them. Emulating a foreign CPU architecture will still be much slower than virtualizing your own.