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WinBookUnofficial

Lab downloads: Proxmox VE, VirtIO drivers, Rufus, Ventoy

Verified 2 min read

The utilities this site's Windows lab actually uses — Proxmox VE ISO, VirtIO Windows drivers, USB writers and 7-Zip — with the verification steps before first boot.

The short list that actually gets used

Section titled “The short list that actually gets used”

Nothing here is Microsoft, and none of it is required to read this site. It is the set that shows up in every Windows lab build: a hypervisor, the drivers that make Windows work inside it, and something to write USB media with.

  • ISO · x64AGPLv3; subscription optional

    Proxmox VE ISO installer

    The hypervisor used by this site’s lab. Verify the SHA256 published next to the ISO before booting it.

    Channel
    Current stable
    Vendor
    Proxmox
    Open vendor page

  • ISO · Windows driversOpen source (Red Hat/Fedora)

    VirtIO drivers — stable

    Required for Windows guests on KVM/PVE: virtio-blk/scsi, netkvm, balloon, serial. Load the storage driver during setup or the disk is invisible.

    Channel
    Stable virtio-win
    Vendor
    Fedora
    Open vendor page

  • ISO archive by versionOpen source (Red Hat/Fedora)

    VirtIO drivers — archive

    Pin a driver version for a reproducible lab, or go back when a new virtio-win breaks an old guest.

    Channel
    Historical builds
    Vendor
    Fedora
    Open vendor page

  • Portable EXEGPLv3

    Rufus

    Fast Windows USB writer with a TPM/Secure Boot bypass option — that bypass is a lab convenience, not a supported production configuration.

    Channel
    Latest stable
    Vendor
    Open source
    Open vendor page

  • USB multibootGPLv3

    Ventoy

    Boot many ISOs from one USB by copying files. Handy for Windows/Server/PVE media; keep the stick’s Ventoy version updated.

    Channel
    Latest stable
    Vendor
    Open source
    Open vendor page

  • Desktop appApache-2.0

    balenaEtcher

    Cross-platform image writer with read-back verification. Slower than Rufus on Windows but harder to get wrong.

    Channel
    Latest stable
    Vendor
    Open source
    Open vendor page

  • MSI / EXELGPL

    7-Zip

    Extract ISOs, WIM/ESD archives and driver packages without mounting. Useful when you need one file out of a 6 GB image.

    Channel
    Latest stable
    Vendor
    Open source
    Open vendor page

VirtIO is the one people forget

Section titled “VirtIO is the one people forget”

A Windows guest on KVM/Proxmox boots to “Where do you want to install Windows?” with an empty disk list, because Setup has no VirtIO storage driver. Two ways out:

  1. Attach the virtio-win.iso as a second CD-ROM and load the vioscsi or viostor driver from it during Setup.
  2. Pre-inject the driver into boot.wim with DISM — more work, better for repeatable templates.

After install, the guest tools installer (in the same ISO) adds the network, balloon and serial drivers. Without netkvm, a Windows VM has no working NIC at all.

Pin the driver version if you care about reproducibility: the archive directory keeps every past build, which is also your rollback when a new release breaks an old guest.

Media writers: pick one

Section titled “Media writers: pick one”
  • Rufus — fastest on Windows, portable, and offers the TPM/Secure Boot bypass. That bypass makes an unsupported configuration boot; it does not make it supported. Fine for a lab, wrong for anything you document as a production build.
  • Ventoy — one USB stick, many ISOs, just copy files. Best when you rebuild machines constantly. Keep Ventoy itself updated; its boot chain has had security fixes.
  • balenaEtcher — cross-platform and verifies the write. Slower, harder to get wrong.

For VMs you need none of them: mount the ISO.

Proxmox VE

Section titled “Proxmox VE”

The hypervisor this site’s lab runs on. Two operational notes that are not on the download page:

  • The ISO is signed/hashed by Proxmox; verify the published SHA-256 before booting.
  • The no-subscription repository is fine for a lab but is not a supported enterprise patch path. If you use it, you own the upgrade risk.

Verify, then boot

Section titled “Verify, then boot”
Terminal window
Get-FileHash .\proxmox-ve_9.2.iso -Algorithm SHA256
Get-FileHash .\virtio-win.iso -Algorithm SHA256

Compare against the value the vendor publishes on the page you downloaded from. A download that arrived through a “faster mirror” or a chat app is not verified by a hash you found in the same chat.

What this lab uses

Section titled “What this lab uses”

For reference, the Windows lab on this site runs Proxmox VE 9.2.2 on a single host, with Windows guests on VirtIO SCSI disks and OVMF firmware. Everything in the Windows install and Server evaluation guides assumes that setup.

Section titled “Related”

Sources