To easily bypass this restriction during the ISO installation:
This is the most reliable way to get a clean, permanent installation. You create a blank QCOW2 "disk" and install Windows 11 onto it using an ISO. Step A: Download the Essentials windows 11 qcow2 download
During installation, mount the virtio-win.iso you downloaded to ensure high-speed disk access. Summary Checklist Windows ISO Microsoft Official VirtIO Drivers Fedora People QEMU/KVM Tool qemu-img & virt-manager Disk Format .qcow2 If you'd like, I can: Provide a full virsh command example for creating the VM. To easily bypass this restriction during the ISO
Run the following command to start the VM, mounting both the Windows 11 ISO and the VirtIO driver ISO: windows 11 qcow2 download
Note: Windows 11 requires a minimum disk size allocation of 64 Gigabytes. Essential Configuration for Windows 11 KVM/QEMU
Using Windows 11 in a QCOW2 format is a standard approach for Linux-based virtualization (KVM/QEMU), but it comes with specific performance and configuration trade-offs.
Several platforms offer pre-built Windows 11 images optimized for KVM: