How to install Windows 11 on Proxmox 7

There are a couple of important steps that need to be followed in order to install Windows 11 on Proxmox 7. One the main changes between installing Windows 11 and previous Windows version is the mandatory TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) requirement. This module is used for security related features in Windows 11. Thankfully Proxmox 7 has support for TPM.

Pre-install steps

  1. Download the Windows 11 ISO. Be sure to select the Windows 11 ISO.
  2. Download the VirtIO ISO driver disk.
  3. Upload both of these ISO images to a disk in Proxmox which has support for ISO storage

Creating the VM

Create a new VM in Proxmox with the following config

GENERAL tab: Input the name of your VM
OS tab: select the uploaded Windows 11 ISO image. Change the type to Microsoft Windows (v2022).
SYSTEM tab: Select VirtIO SCSI for the SCSI Controller. Tick QEMU Guest Agent. Change BIOS to OVMF (UEFI) and select the same storage location as the VM's primary storage. Change the Machine Type to q35. Tick Add TPM and select the same storage location as the VM's primary storage, with the version as 2.0. 
HARD DISK tab: Select VirtIO Block, with the same storage location selected for the UEFI and TPM. Input a minimum drive size of 64GB.
CPU tab: Input the number of sockets and cores needed. I generally leave CPU type as KVM64, as this allows for good compatibility when migrating the VM between different hosts.
MEMORY tab: Input 8192 to provision your VM with 8GB RAM. Leave ballooning device on.
NETWORK tab: Select the vmbr0 bridge and select model as VirtIO

Click next and then confirm. Don’t start the VM up just yet.

Click on the hardware tab and add another CD/DVD drive, select the ISO storage location and select the previously uploaded VirtIO ISO. Now start the VM up.

Installing Windows 11

  1. Press any key and click click on Install Now.
  2. Click “I don’t have a product key”.
  3. Select Windows 11 Pro and click next, accept the terms and conditions and click next.
  4. Select custom install. You’ll notice that Windows 11 cannot find any disks. This is where the VirtIO ISO uploaded previously comes into play.
  5. Click on load drivers, and navigate to the mounted VirtIO disk, select the AMD64 folder, and select w11. You’ll now see the RedHat VirtIO SCSI controller driver, select this, and click next.
  6. You’ll now see the mounted disk will appear. It is recommended to load the network drivers as well. To do this select the VirtIO disk again, navigate to NetKVM -> w11 -> amd64. The network driver will be loaded.
  7. Click next, and wait for Windows 11 to install. Next, reboot Windows 11.
  8. Input all required options throughout the Windows 11 install process. Windows 11 will check for updates etc throughout the installation process, provided that you followed step 6 where the network driver was selected.
  9. Once Windows 11 is installed, navigate to the VirtIO disk and double click the x64 installer to install all required drivers. Once all drivers are installed, reboot Windows 11.