…bundled as ISO images, so that you can easily mount and use them in a KVM guest.
UPDATE: It seems that Fedora started to provide the latest drivers bundled as an ISO. Check the official Windows VirtIO Drivers page for links.
Download locations follow:
- Both Virtio network and storage drivers for Windows (4.0M)
- Virtio network drivers for Windows (2.8M)
- Virtio storage drivers for Windows (1.6M)
These are static ISO images, and I’ve built them by downloading the ZIP sources dated 24.09.2009 from the official WindowsGuestDrivers KVM page and then converting them to ISO image files by using K3b.
Note that Virtio provides noticeably faster disk and network access.
Please review the official page of Virtio for sample KVM command line arguments which set up Virtio storage and network devices. You may notice that there is an (undocumented) parameter “boot=on” specified for the “-drive” option. This “boot=on” parameter is vital for the “-drive” option, or else Windows 7 won’t like your drive and won’t install on it.
Note about Virtio storage drives and the Windows 7 installer
I was able to install Windows 7 right from the start by using a Virtio storage drive within the KVM guest. At first the Windows installer didn’t see the Virtio disk at all but there is an option to install additional storage drivers. I installed the Virtio Windows drivers from the above ISO images, the Windows installer detected the Virtio storage disk properly and everything went quite smooth afterwards.
Resources:
- Preview of Redhat 5.4 Windows Virtio Drivers Part 1
- Official WindowsGuestDrivers KVM page. The drivers are provided by the RedHat folks.
- Comprehensive information about KVM and the DOS/Windows family. In German, but you may try Google translate to read it if you don’t read German well.
/contrib/famzah 
January 21, 2010 at 8:20 pm
Super, thanks for the images!
February 18, 2010 at 5:07 am
I just tried this on server 2008 x64 and it says the drivers are not signed and refuses to use them during the install. Am I doing something wrong?
February 18, 2010 at 3:06 pm
The official WindowsGuestDrivers KVM page says that drivers should be signed for Windows 64bit platforms. There are some links at that page which you can follow, in order to sign the drivers yourself. I haven’t tried it myself. If you manage to sign the drivers, please send me a mail with instructions and I’ll publish them, as well as an ISO image with the signed drivers. Thanks.
February 25, 2010 at 7:26 pm
I have followed the links, however even after signing the drivers myself, Windows 64-bit doesn’t want them. The only solution that I have found is:
– Install your Windows with 1 normal device (ide) and 1 virtio drive.
– When Windows is successfully installed, add virtio driver for the second disk.
I don’t know if it is really necessary but in cmd.exe:
Bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING ON
See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd419910.aspx
Shutdown VM.
Change the first disk from ide to virtio, Windows knows the driver from the second drive and use it for the first which have just been changed.
There is probably a better solution to install but I don’t know it.
HOW SIGN YOURSELF:
Download Windows SDK for makecert and signtools: http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/A/B/7ABD2203-C472-4036-8BA0-E505528CCCB7/winsdk_web.exe
Generate certificate:
In C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDK\…….\bin
MakeCert -r -pe -ss TestCertStoreName -n “CN=CertName” CertFileName.cer
Sign driver:
SignTool sign /v /s TestCertStoreName /n CertName /t http://timestamp.verisign.com/scripts/timestamp.dll viostor.sys
Now if you right click on viostor.sys, you can see certified by “…”.
Sorry for my English 😉
September 25, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Heyyya, it should be possible (windows 2008 x64 and similar) to temporarily switch off “driver signature “feature”” by pressing F8 when your win guest booting and somewhere on the screen you’ll find an option to disable this function for actuall session! k.
June 8, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Any idea on how to change the storage controller drive in Windows AFTER install with IDE?
June 8, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Take a look at the following article: http://blog.bfccomputing.com/articles/2009/09/14/converting-a-windows-vista-kvm-virtual-machine-to-redhat-virtio-drivers
June 17, 2010 at 4:53 am
Hi,
I am trying to find information about porting virtio drivers for 2.4.18-3 linux. Do you kinow if any work has been done on linux 2.4.18-3… will appreciate any help in this direction.
-Sanjay
June 17, 2010 at 9:26 pm
Unfortunately, I myself cannot help you out. If someone else knows anything in this regards, don’t hesitate to share.
March 22, 2012 at 8:02 pm
Even the latest February 2012 drivers are unreliable. (61.63.103.2200 – 13/02/2012). I still get BSOD – and examining the crash dump tells me the culprit was viostor.sys.
May 22, 2012 at 8:23 am
There was a bug in the driver under heavy load. You can download the prewhql drivers here:
http://people.redhat.com/vrozenfe/build-26/virtio-win-prewhql-0.1.zip