Windows 7 SP1 Virtiosf Drivers

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Madbyte

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Oct 29, 2025
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Hi,

I am trying to set up a Windows 7 SP1 virtual machine that I migrated from VirtualBox (VDI converted to QCOW2). The VM boots fine and I already uninstalled the VirtualBox Guest Additions. I want to add a shared folder from my Ubuntu 25.04 host using Virtio-FS (installed virtiofsd using apt). In Windows 7 Device Manager, it shows as a "Storage controller" but with no drivers installed. Inside the guest, QEMU Guest Agent is installed and working. While reading the some questions and documentation, it looks like I need virtio-win 0.1.173, so I tested the following versions:

- virtio-win-0.1.173-1
- virtio-win-0.1.173-4

However, Windows 7 still cannot find a proper driver for this device and keeps saying the driver is missing. It never mounts the shared folder.

Questions:
1. Is Virtio-FS actually supported/usable on Windows 7?
2. Is there a specific Virtio-FS driver version required for Win7?
3. Should I instead use SMB/Samba for shared folders in Windows 7 guests?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Madbyte said:
1. Is Virtio-FS actually supported/usable on Windows 7?
Click to expand...
Not sure, the Windows based driver was initially developed in 2020, which is the year that Windows 7 official wen EOL.

But you nowhere mention if you installed WinFsp (Windows File System Proxy) as per the Guest how-to:
https://virtio-fs.gitlab.io/howto-windows.html
or
https://github.com/virtio-win/kvm-guest-drivers-windows/wiki/Virtiofs:-Shared-file-system#guest

So you might get lucky with that if the Windows 7 was initially tested or APIs used are compatible with it.

Madbyte said:
3. Should I instead use SMB/Samba for shared folders in Windows 7 guests?
Click to expand...
Might be the better option, and just to avoid not stating it: Not using Windows 7 might be the even better option, well if somehow possible for your use case. As Windows 7 is out of support since a while and thus doesn't receive any security updates anymore.
 
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