Proxmox: Windows 11 Installation

Here’s how I installed Windows 11 onto Proxmox:

• Install Proxmox > 7.0
• Upload the Windows 11 installation ISO from Microsoft and the latest virtio-win iso from GitHub - virtio-win/virtio-win-pkg-scripts: Scripts for packaging virtio-win drivers
• Create a new VM. Pay attention to the following configuration settings:

When running through the installation wizard, check the following:

In the System

Make sure the SCSI controller is VirtIO SCSI

Turn on the Qemu Agent

Ensure UEFI BIOS is chosen

Use the same drive location for the primary drive, the EFI disk and the TPM storage

Add the virtual TPM, ensure it’s version 2.0

Ensure machine type is Q35

Hard Disk

Bus Device: SCSI, I think, VirtIO Block will also work, but slower

CPU

CPU type should be Host (to passthrough everything)

Network

Model VirtIO

Once all this is configured, create your lovely new VM, but don’t start it yet:

• Next, add the VirtIO disk so that the additional drivers will be available when installing Windows 11: Go to the VM, Click Hardware, and add a new CD/DVD ROM. Attach the virtio-win ISO..
• Now you can boot the virtual machine. It should boot into the installation wizard.
• Continue, with a custom install.
• Eventually, you will given an opportunity to install more drivers. Browse to the virtio ISO
• Pick the amd64 folder, w11 folder, and add the SCSI controller.
• Next, add the network driver too: Pick the NetKVM folder, w11, amd64

• Go through the rest of the installation process, then when complete, run the driver installation exe on the virtIO iso to install any remaining drivers required: Open windows explorer, Open the root directory, and install the extensions.

  If you have problems it may be because the virtIO developer certificates are not trusted by Windows 11. You will need to manually trust them. Try:

  • Go into windows settings -> drivers, and manually adding a certificate. There will be at least two different certificates across the range of folders containing drivers.
  • Once you’ve added them both, go to the Drivers panel in system settings and Add Driver.
  • Then choose the browse... options and check the box to automatically find drivers recursively. All the drivers should then be added, and things should start working correctly.

  If that didn’t help, check Error: 8004E00F when trying to access COM+ Applications in - Microsoft Community

Also, to make admin easier, you might need to enable SSHing into windows. I used this so I could update the Nvidia BIOS on my graphics cards.

You might also want to enable Proxmox GPU Passthrough or Proxmox GPU Virtualisation.