msproject-merge

Running Windows with QEMU

This guide helps you set up a Windows VM using QEMU to test the Windows build of MS Project Merge.

Prerequisites

QEMU is already installed via Homebrew.

Setup Windows VM

1. Download Windows 11 ISO

Download the Windows 11 ISO from Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11

Save it to a location outside the git repository (e.g., ~/Downloads/).

2. Create a Virtual Disk

# Create a directory for VM files (gitignored)
mkdir -p vm

# Create a 50GB virtual disk
qemu-img create -f qcow2 vm/windows11.qcow2 50G

3. Install Windows

# Start the VM with the Windows ISO
qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -m 4G \
  -smp 2 \
  -cpu host \
  -accel hvf \
  -drive file=vm/windows11.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -cdrom ~/Downloads/Win11_English_x64.iso \
  -boot d \
  -device virtio-net,netdev=net0 \
  -netdev user,id=net0 \
  -display default

Follow the Windows installation wizard. This will take 15-30 minutes.

4. Run Windows VM (After Installation)

# Start the installed Windows VM
qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -m 4G \
  -smp 2 \
  -cpu host \
  -accel hvf \
  -drive file=vm/windows11.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -device virtio-net,netdev=net0 \
  -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:3389 \
  -display default

5. Transfer Files to VM

Option A: Shared Folder (Recommended)

# Start VM with shared folder
qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -m 4G \
  -smp 2 \
  -cpu host \
  -accel hvf \
  -drive file=vm/windows11.qcow2,if=virtio \
  -device virtio-net,netdev=net0 \
  -netdev user,id=net0,smb=$(pwd)/target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/release \
  -display default

In Windows, access the shared folder via: \\10.0.2.4\qemu

Option B: HTTP Server

# In a separate terminal, start a simple HTTP server
cd target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/release
python3 -m http.server 8000

In the Windows VM browser, go to: http://10.0.2.2:8000/

6. Test the Windows Build

1. Copy MsProjectMerge-v1.0.0.exe to the Windows VM
2. Right-click → “Run as administrator” (if needed)
3. Test the application

Useful QEMU Commands

Create Snapshot

qemu-img snapshot -c clean_install vm/windows11.qcow2

List Snapshots

qemu-img snapshot -l vm/windows11.qcow2

Restore Snapshot

qemu-img snapshot -a clean_install vm/windows11.qcow2

Check Disk Usage

qemu-img info vm/windows11.qcow2

Performance Tips

• Use HVF acceleration: -accel hvf (macOS Hypervisor Framework)
• Allocate more RAM: -m 8G (if you have enough RAM)
• More CPU cores: -smp 4 (if you have a multi-core CPU)
• Enable KVM (on Linux): -accel kvm

Troubleshooting

VM is slow

• Increase RAM: -m 8G
• Increase CPU cores: -smp 4
• Make sure HVF is enabled: -accel hvf

Can’t access shared folder

• Use HTTP server method instead
• Or use SCP/SFTP if you enable SSH in Windows

Display issues

• Try different display backends: -display cocoa or -display sdl

Alternative: Use UTM (GUI for QEMU)

If you prefer a GUI, install UTM (free, open-source):

brew install --cask utm

UTM provides a user-friendly interface for QEMU on macOS.

Notes

• All VM files are stored in the vm/ directory (gitignored)
• The Windows ISO should be kept outside the repository
• QCOW2 format supports snapshots and compression
• The VM will use about 20-30GB of disk space after Windows installation