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This guide will help you create a Windows 11 virtual machine from a fresh install.

Obtain Windows

The easiest way to obtain a Windows installer ISO is with CrystalFetch on macOS, a free utility for legally obtaining the newest Windows builds from Microsoft.

 Download on the App Store Download from GitHub

Alternatively, you can also download an older ISO directly from Microsoft (you may have to use Firefox or Chrome to download as Microsoft’s website sometimes does not work properly with Safari):

Note that regardless of how you obtain the Windows installer, you must have a valid license from Microsoft to run Windows.

Instructions

  1. Use CrystalFetch to download the latest installer ISO.
  2. Open UTM and click the “+” button to open the VM creation wizard.
  3. Select “Virtualize”.
  4. Select “Windows”.
  5. Make sure “Import VHDX Image” is unchecked and “Install Windows 10 or higher” is checked. Also make sure “Install drivers and SPICE tools” is checked. Press “Browse” and select the ISO you built in step 1.
  6. Pick the amount of RAM and CPU cores you wish to give access to the VM. Press “Next” to continue.
  7. Specify the maximum amount of drive space to allocate. Press “Next” to continue.
  8. If you have a directory you want to mount in the VM, you can select it here. Alternatively, you can skip this and select the directory later from the VM window’s toolbar. The shared directory will be available after installing SPICE tools (see below). Press “Next” to continue.
  9. Press “Save” to create the VM. Wait for the guest tools to finish downloading and press the Run button to start the VM.
  10. Press any key to start the Windows installer and follow the instructions on screen. If you have issues with the mouse, press the mouse capture button in the toolbar to send mouse input directly. Press Control+Option together to exit mouse capture mode. Sometimes, due to driver issues, you can enter and exit capture mode and the mouse cursor works normally again.

Installing the Microsoft Store and UWP apps (optional)

WIP

On the latest pre-release builds the Microsoft Store should be installed automatically. Older versions can follow this guide or check this issue for more information.

Troubleshooting

Boots into EFI shell instead of Windows installer

First, make sure that you pressed any key during boot to enter the installer. Also, make sure you generated the right ISO for your architecture. Note that arm64 is for Apple Silicon and amd64 is for Intel.

Installer crashes with BSOD SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

You are using a version of Windows that is too old. The build number should be 21390 or higher.

“This PC can’t run Windows 11”

If you get this message trying to install Windows 11, there can be a number of possible reasons.

Secure Boot

On newer versions of UTM, Secure Boot and TPM should be enabled automatically. You can also enable it manually in Settings under QEMU. If you are on an older version of UTM, you can disable the checks in the Windows installer:

  1. Press Shift+F10 to open Command Prompt and type in regedit.exe to launch Registry Editor.
  2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup
  3. Right click on the Setup key on the left size and choose New -> Key.
  4. Create a key named LabConfig
  5. Select the LabConfig key.
  6. Create two new values: Choose New -> DWORD (32-bit) and create BypassTPMCheck and BypassSecureBootCheck. Set both values to 1.
  7. Close out of Registry Editor and Command Prompt.
  8. In setup, press the back button and then Next to continue installation.

Core count

Windows require at least 2 cores to install. If you are installing x86_64 Windows on an Intel Mac or ARM64 Windows on an Apple Silicon Mac, the default setting will be to use the number of cores on your system. However, if you are installing x86_64 Windows on an Apple Silicon Mac, the default setting is to use only a single core. This is because due to memory ordering requirements, emulating multiple x86_64 cores on an ARM64 system will be done on a single core and thus reduce performance.

At the cost of correctness, you can force multiple cores by going to the System settings and changing the number of cores to 2 or higher and checking “Force multicore.” Note that you may occasionally experience odd crashes as a result of this.

Ping does not work

Note that due to libslirp limitations, ping will not work and so Windows may think that there is still no internet connection.

Networking does not work

Make sure you installed the SPICE guest tools, which includes the network drivers.

If Windows 11 setup is stuck due to lack of network connection:

  1. Go to the language select screen (you may need to restart the setup if you are past this screen).
  2. Press Shift + F10 to launch Command Prompt.
  3. Type in OOBE\BYPASSNRO and press Enter.
  4. Your VM should reboot and at the setup screen you should see an option for “I don’t have internet.”
  5. Once Windows setup is completed, make sure to install the SPICE guest tools for network drivers.

SPICE tools did not install automatically

See this page for more details.

Windows installer loads and then goes into a black screen

Windows 11 24H2 has a compatibility issue with the graphics drivers that are provided by the UTM guest tools ISO. You can eject the guest ISO from the CD menu and reboot to access Windows installer. After the installation is complete, you can re-mount the guest tools from the CD menu and selecting “Install Windows Guest Tools”. After you install the guest tools, you may see a black screen again. If this happens, you should reset the VM to allow the drivers to properly load at boot.