How to Install Windows 11 on Proxmox

This article explains how to install Windows 11 on a VM hosted in Proxmox.

 

1. Getting Started

To start, access Proxmox by following this article.

After turning on your Windows 11 VM, wait for the message that says, “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD." When you see this message, quickly click in the Proxmox VM's screen and press any key to start the installation.

 

2. Setting up the Initial Windows Installation

Once you see the installation screen, run an installation with the following settings:

  1. Use the default language, time and currency format, and keyboard settings.
  2. For the setup option, select Install Windows 11 and accept the agreement.
  3. For the installation location, you will see that no hard disk is listed. This is because we need to first install a driver to allow the server to run on Proxmox.

The next subsection will list the steps needed to install the driver and complete the installation.

 

3. Installing the VirtIO Driver:

To install the VirtIO driver for hard disks, please follow these steps:

  1. On the Select location to install Windows page, select the Load Driver option.
  2. On the resulting page, select Browse.
  3. In the Browse for Folder window. expand CD Drive (D:), which should be labelled virtio-win-0.1.266 or something similar.
    • NOTE: The version number may be different for you.
  4. When the disk’s folders are displayed, navigate to viostor\w11\amd64.
    • This folder contains the driver necessary for the VM to use its hard disks.
  5. Click on the amd64 folder (the one with all lowercase letters), then press OK.
  6. In the driver list, you should see a driver named Red Hat VirtIO SCSI controller.
  7. Click it and press Install (if duplicates of the driver appear, just select one of them).
  8. You should now see the server’s hard disks displayed in the installation wizard.
  9. Select the Disk 0 Unallocated Space disk, then run the installation.
  10. After the installation finishes, use the default settings for your region and keyboard.
  11. When prompted for an Internet connection, select the I don’t have internet option.
  12. If prompted, select Continue with limited setup.
    • This message may not appear.
  13. Set the username and password to your liking.
  14. For the security questions section, use the questions and answers of your choice.
  15. For privacy settings, deselect all the settings to maximize your privacy.

 

4. Installing the Post-Installation VirtIO Driver

After you are logged in, you will notice that the VM does not have Internet. This is because you need to install the rest of the VirtIO drivers to help Windows fully function on Proxmox.

To install the drivers, please follow these steps:

  1. On the VM, open File Explorer.
  2. Select the CD Drive (D:) disk drive with the virtio-win-0.1.266 disk in it.
  3. On the resulting page, scroll down to the bottom.
  4. Double-click the virtio-win-gt-x64 file. Go through the wizard and accept all the default settings.
    1. In other words, for the page listing all the drivers, just press Next; don’t select or deselect anything.
  5. After the installation is complete, also install the virtio-win-guest-tools file. Use the default settings in the wizard.
  6. Once both installs are complete, open Control Panel,.
  7. In Control Panel, navigate to Programs > Programs and Features.
  8. Verify that the driver-installer and guest-tools are both listed.

 

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