If you have a Windows 7 Lite ISO (from a trusted source), you can create the perfect qcow2 tailor-made for your hypervisor.
: You can reduce the physical size of your .qcow2 file by using the SDelete tool inside the VM to zero out free space, then running qemu-img convert -O qcow2 on the host to shrink the file. Performance Settings : windows 7 lite qcow2 best
During install:
If you cannot find a trusted pre-built image, you can create a lightweight one from a standard ISO: Start with "Thin PC" or "Starter" Edition If you have a Windows 7 Lite ISO
: You can save the "state" of your VM before trying risky software, allowing you to roll back instantly if something breaks. qemu-system-x86_64 \ -machine q35 \ -m 2048 \
qemu-system-x86_64 \ -machine q35 \ -m 2048 \ -smp 2 \ -cpu host \ -drive file=win7-base.qcow2,if=virtio,cache=none \ -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0 \ -netdev user,id=net0 \ -vga qxl \ -display spice-server,addr=127.0.0.1,port=5930 \ -device virtio-balloon \ -device ich9-intel-hda -device hda-output \ -chardev socket,id=ch0,path=/var/run/qemu-ga.sock \ -device virtio-serial \ -daemonize
