Top | Windows 7 Qcow2

Windows 7 services that thrash the qcow2 image:

Disable them via services.msc.

The qcow2 file can be perfect, but if Windows 7 lacks the right drivers and settings, performance will be abysmal. windows 7 qcow2 top

This synchronizes with QEMU’s cache='writeback' for a significant performance boost. Windows 7 services that thrash the qcow2 image:

To spin up multiple Windows 7 test VMs from a single base image: Disable them via services

qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b win7_base.qcow2 -F qcow2 win7_clone1.qcow2
qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b win7_base.qcow2 -F qcow2 win7_clone2.qcow2

Each clone is <1MB initially and writes only changes to its own file. Performance is "top" because reads come from the base qcow2 cache.

By default, Windows 7 uses IDE or SATA drivers, which are slow.