Virtualize Windows 11 with Proxmox the Right Way!

Windows 11 is here and with it comes new hardware requirements. These requirements not only affect physical hardware but also virtual hardware too. The TPM 2.0 requirement for Windows 11 is shaking the tech community, HomeLab community, and even virtualization too. Well have no fear, today we're going to virtualize Windows 11 with a virtual TPM chip! We're going to create a virtual machine according to proxmox best practices and even install a virtual TMP chip so that you can test Windows 11 with your hardware and software before upgrading Windows 10 in your HomeLab or production environment without any hacks!

*Bonus* This guide will work with previous versions of Windows too!

(Affiliate links may be included in this description. I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.)

00:00 - Intro
00:38 - Why Virtualize Windows 11
01:08 - What is the Windows 11 TPM 2.0 Requirement
02:05 - What are we going to do today with Windows 11 and Proxmox?
02:23 - Requirements
02:38 - Get Windows 11 ISO
03:11 - Get the latest VirtIO Drive Disk
03:29 - Create our Windows 11 VM and all settings
06:48 - Installing Windows 11 on a VM
08:49 - Windows 11 First Boot & Configuration
10:48 - Installing VirtIO drives on Windows 11
12:02 - Windows 11 with all drivers
12:36 - What do you think of virtualizing Windows 11
13:05 - Stream Highlight - "We're scared to do technical interviews at large companies"

"Rehearsal " is from Harris Heller's album Groove.

#Windows11 #Proxmox #Virtualization

Thank you for watching!

[AndrewWilliamsFW]

"Microsoft recommends 2 or more cores, so I'm gonna give mine 24" 😂
Another great video! I always get excited when I see the notification pop up in Discord... Now I just need to get a new server that can handle Rancher, Plex, Zoneminder AND Windows 11

[LostOnTheLine]

In both your Windows 10 & your Windows 11 guides (Which I love, thank you for them) you miss 1 thing that is very important. It may be that it's a thing about old hardware (I'm on a 3rd Gen i7), I'm not sure, but when starting the VM to do the install I always have to make sure I'm in the console when it starts & fairly quickly hit a key to "Boot from disc" or else I have to reboot Proxmox because the VM won't stop. I consider this a fairly important step, but you've left it off both times, I assume because maybe it's not necessary if you are on more modern hardware, I'm not sure, but since the VM loads the Windows ISO as though it were an optical disc the Windows Images are designed to not boot automatically so you don't have to eject it midway through the install.

[Bogomil]

Dont fill out the password field and you dont have to answer the 3 stupid questions. And after finishing the installation yout can press CTRL-ALT-DEL and there you can set a password..

[LeftBeef]

3:18 You can skip a step. Right click the link > copy link address > Click download from URL button in proxmox > paste the link
This will have your proxmox machine fetch the iso itself instead of you downloading and uploading it

[si]

few extra tips too: 1. if you run the other setup thats on the root of the virtio cd, it will install the qemu agent AND drivers, 2. if you select the graphics as virtio GPU, after you install the drivers or select them during the windows install, it will allow resizing of your screens properly in the html console

[thomasmartha]

Thanks a lot @TechnoTim!
Even after more than 2 years, this is still relevant. Biggest delta to Proxmox 8.1 is the integrated VirtIO CDDrive dialog within the VM creation wizard. Cheers from the EU!

[MichaelBehrnsMiller]

Dude you have to edit out the part where you hit NEXT by accident BEFORE you install the nw driver. I saw you click it, I clicked it (before adding NW driver) and the whole process went for a while then bricked when it could not find a network driver and at that point, since it was a proxmox QEMU failure, you can't stop the VM and everything (yes your entire proxmox system) is borked, you have to reboot the whole thing to get that pesky Windoze vm to stop. Ha. UPDATE: I waited a bit and was able to kill the VM by opening the console and using the NOVNC shutdown button... then Shift-F10 to open command prompt... type OOBE\BYPASSNRO, then it reboots and lets you skip the network stuff, and you can update the driver and do a windows update. sigh!

Other than that, VERY HELPFUL video, thanks much!

[audigex]

I'm not an "I hate change!" kinda guy, but I never upgrade to a new full version for a while - there are always bugs and changes, I'm happy to let the early adopters work them out for me and then join them later.

[MrGambit]

Good video. Thanks, Tim just got proxmox set up on my machine and created a Windows 11 Vm following your instructions. This was very helpful.

[jamesklinger]

You need to add even though you mentioned in the beginning of the video that you need to have Proxmox 7 it needs to be 7.0-13 i had 7.0-11 and that version does not have the TPM option in VM creation.

[LinuxthePeople]

WTF!… I had no idea VM tutorial could be this pleasant. I wish I had found this channel a few years ago.😢❤😂

[seths]

7:50 perfect...install windows 11 here by selecting the windows 10 driver which is a red hat controller to run on a hypervisor built on debian...got it 👍

[RaidOwl]

I just created a Win 11 VM in Proxmox a few days ago. I haven't had much time to mess around with it, but my initial impressions are positive.
*knocks on wood*

[martyg]

Still works flawlessly on Promox VE 8.2.4 two years later. Thank you for the tutorial. Liked and sub'd.

[bobsodman]

Tim, you are such a huge help. Thanks for this guide!

[robertbishop]

Just made a new Proxmox server with updated hardware. Installed Windows 11 on it thanks to this video. Due to Windows 11 I have moved to POP OS as my main desktop, using Cinnamon. I am dual booting. A few months back I upgraded 10 to 11, but am very rarely in that side. This Win11 VM is to have a common VM regaurdless of wich machine I am using, Main desktop, mentioned before, or my laptop running Ubuntu. I plan on using Tailscale to have the VM accessible where ever I am. I was using Virtualbox on both Windnows and POP OS pointed to the same VM. Something happened in the last month, the Windows side has the VM running dog slow. This happened Sep 2023, when last I tried to upgrade to Win 11, I did reinstall Win 10 at that time. This time, I am moving forward, with a VM in Proxmox instead of Virtualbox. Also, one less system to update, 2 if you count the VM on my laptop.

[wilwad]

Thank you very much. We just moved to Proxmox from ESXi. Loving Proxmox.
Had an issue with Windows 11 boot loop after install. Could not shutdown the VM ~ had to kill -9 the vm in order to delete it and start over. Changed CPU type to Default and not to Host. Windoze 11 now installed.

[JustaFan-ssyy]

Just to add one more bit of useful info. I'm running Proxmox version 8.1.4 and they added a new option under the OS tab when creating the VM that lets you add an additional drive for VirtIO drivers right from the start! So we can skip the additional step in this video of adding this additional drive.

[MrTechnician_]

This is exactly what I'm looking for! I want to virtualize a pc for streaming media and was torn between windows 10 and windows 11.

[IvanRosaT]

Thanks for the video, I'd like to add that the skip the microsoft account button might had dissappear from the OOBE,
if this is the case, shift + F10 > this will bring CMD > type: OOBE\BYPASSNRO
This wil restart the system and allow you to skip