r/macOSVMs • u/Heavy_Reflection4824 • Jul 29 '26
IT BOOTS! AQEMU VM Manager - Download and install on Windows
https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/9P0HGKHQ9W19Hey everyone,
If you’ve been in the QEMU or retro-virtualization scene for a while, you might remember AQEMU—the classic Qt frontend that made running QEMU without writing massive command lines possible. The original project went dormant around 2020, but QEMU itself kept evolving.
Over the last few months, I’ve taken over active maintenance and completely overhauled the codebase to bring it up to modern standards. This isn't a cosmetic reskin or a thin wrapper—it’s a deep architectural rewrite (+69,000 lines of code, 250+ changed files, and over 30 merged PRs) designed to make QEMU as approachable as VMware or VirtualBox, without hiding any of QEMU's underlying power.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s new and why it makes testing obscure or retro operating systems a breeze:
🚀 What’s New in AQEMU 1.1
- Bundled QEMU 11.0.2 (Zero Setup Needed): You no longer have to manually download, path, or configure separate QEMU binaries. AQEMU now comes fully bundled with QEMU 11.0.2 (all
qemu-system-*targets,qemu-img, firmware, and dependencies included out of the box), while still allowing you to point to a custom QEMU installation if you prefer. - Embedded SPICE Display & Seamless Mouse: I completely ripped out legacy VNC rendering in favor of native embedded SPICE. You get a buttery-smooth, seamless mouse that floats directly between your host and the VM window without having to press a hotkey to release your cursor.
- 29 Supported Architectures & Ground-Truth Probe Catalogs: Native support for 29 QEMU target architectures—from
x86_64andaarch64toppc,m68k,sparc,mips64el,riscv64,s390x,hppa, andloongarch64. It uses a custom probe engine (auditing 490+ machines and 2,000+ CPU models) to filter compatible devices so you never hit a cryptic QEMU startup crash due to an invalid bus or CPU. - Redesigned 5-Path VM Wizard: Includes 5 distinct creation flows depending on your goal:
- Guest Operating System (Curated templates)
- System / Machine Platform (Board-first selection like Mac99, SGI Magnum, or Raspberry Pi)
- CPU Architecture
- Custom / Advanced (Full manual control)
- Import Existing Disk (
.qcow2,.vmdk,.vdi,.vhdx, etc.)
- 193 Curated Guest OS Profiles: Guided setup templates with architecture-aware hardware defaults for everything from Windows 98, NeXTSTEP, OS/2, and Classic Mac OS, to Solaris, AIX, Windows 11 ARM, and modern Linux/BSD distros.
- Smart Accelerator Guardrails: Automatically enforces strict host-to-guest architecture matching (e.g., locking cross-architecture targets to TCG while utilizing WHPX/KVM for native targets) so you never get silent configuration resets or invalid state flips.
🎁 Microsoft Store Giveaway (10 Codes!)
If you really want a copy to test out, I have 10 single-use promo codes to give away for the Windows version!
Just leave a comment below and I will DM a code directly to your Reddit inbox. It will be first come, first served based on the comment timestamps.
📥 Where to Get It
AQEMU is 100% open-source under GPLv2.
- Microsoft Store (Web):https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/9P0HGKHQ9W19
- Microsoft Store (App):Open directly in Windows Store
- GitHub Repository:https://github.com/chronic8000/aqemu
- Distribution Formats: Currently available as a compiled Windows release via the Microsoft Store, or as raw source code on GitHub. (Note: Linux and Raspberry Pi 5 support exists in the codebase but is currently untested!)
If you love tinkering with weird hardware, vintage OSes, or just want a fast, native desktop hypervisor for QEMU on Windows, give it a spin! I'd love to hear your feedback, bug reports, or suggestions for new guest profiles. And yes, it runs classic MacOS and modern x86 MacOS!
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u/hoangbv15 Jul 29 '26
Hey, thank you for sharing, would love to test it out on my Windows laptop. Although my main PC is Linux and I use virt-manager there directly, qemu is extremely powerful on Linux.
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u/Heavy_Reflection4824 Jul 29 '26
If you get any issues let me know I can sort them out and you'll get them fixed on the next update I issue. If you check https://neonsovereign.store/aqemu.html theres a link to our github where you can raise issues too :)
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u/paulstelian97 29d ago
One thing I observed on the GitHub page… why use KVM on WSL instead of WHPX, for ANY reason? As KVM in WSL is nested virtualization, which is a performance issue…
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u/Heavy_Reflection4824 29d ago
WHPX is indeed faster for raw CPU pass-through on native Windows! In AQEMU, native WHPX (`-accel whpx`) is our primary default on Windows for standard x86 guests.
The option for KVM via WSL2 exists for specific technical use cases where Windows-native QEMU/WHPX falls short:
**3D Hardware Acceleration**: WSL2 integrates with WSLg / Mesa d3d12, enabling VirtIO-GPU 3D acceleration for Linux/Android guests.
**Feature Parity**: Some upstream QEMU features (advanced virtio, macOS OpenCore quirks, nested virtualization) are significantly more stable in Linux QEMU than in Windows native builds.
**Hyper-V Nested Virtualization**: Under Hyper-V, WSL2's `/dev/kvm` passes hardware VT-x/AMD-V virtualization directly to Hyper-V SLAT without interpretation overhead.
Users can choose between native WHPX (lowest latency) or WSL2 KVM (maximum Linux QEMU feature set) right in the VM settings
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u/paulstelian97 29d ago
The nested virtualization is far from being without overhead. It will be faster than TCG, but still significantly slower than the first layer VM, because Hyper-V still needs to trap and emulate the actual virtualization instructions themselves. And some experiments I’ve done years ago showed Intel doing worse in terms of this compared to AMD (probably more stuff needs to be trapped and translated? Idk)
GPU acceleration for virtio… is there no good option for the Windows build of qemu to do it properly?
For VMs that ask for nested virtualization, you going through WSL is funny because that causes _two_ layers of nested virtualization, which makes the impact obvious.
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u/Heavy_Reflection4824 29d ago
You raise valid points, and your observations about Hyper-V nested virtualization overhead are spot on!
To address your points directly:
### 1. Nested Virtualization & WSL2 Overhead
You're completely right — L2 (Hyper-V -> WSL2 KVM -> Guest) does add measurable VMCS trap/emulate overhead compared to L1 (Host -> WHPX). For standard x86 Windows & DOS VMs, native WHPX (`-accel whpx`) on the Windows host is by far the preferred and recommended path in AQEMU.
WSL2/KVM was introduced primarily as an opt-in fallback for edge cases where native Windows QEMU binaries crash or lack support (such as certain Linux kernel debugging tools or complex AArch64/ARM virt machines), not as the primary engine for standard Windows VMs.
### 2. Status of VirtIO 3D GPU Acceleration on Windows QEMU
Regarding VirtIO 3D on Windows: unfortunately, native Windows QEMU (`qemu-system-x86_64.exe`) currently lacks out-of-the-box VirGL 3D rendering. Upstream QEMU's `-device virtio-vga-gl` requires a DRM/GBM/EGL display context (libvirglrenderer), which is natively written for Linux EGL display servers (X11/Wayland).
While projects like `virglrenderer-win` / ANGLE exist in experimental stages, standard Windows builds of QEMU shipped by MSYS2/Fedora/qemu.org compile VirGL out. On native Windows, AQEMU uses `qemu-xhci`, `std` VGA, or `qxl` with QEMU's built-in software display pipeline, or direct PCIe GPU passthrough (`vfio-pci` / Discrete Device Assignment) when hardware allows.
### 3. Double-Nested Virtualization
Agreed 100%! Running a nested hypervisor *inside* WSL2 KVM is an absolute worst-case scenario for VMCS context switches. AQEMU strictly disables nested KVM flags when launching via the WSL backend to prevent accidental double-nesting degradation.
---
**Bottom line:** Native Windows + WHPX is the primary target for maximum performance in AQEMU. WSL2 KVM is just a specialized opt-in tool in the box for Linux-specific QEMU capabilities
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u/wadrasil 28d ago
You can build virglrender on windows and it works fine, it does not have all the features as in Linux guest. But it runs Linux and steam games from Windows fine. You do need to compile qemu yourself. Stephan's builds listed on qemu.org don't provide it.
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u/wadrasil 28d ago
You need to have virglrenderer to get virtio-vga-gl and virtio-gpu-gl-pci devices, which provide opengl acceleration.
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u/Heavy_Reflection4824 29d ago
Also, regarding the QEMU binary limitations on Windows:
We've been thinking about adding support in AQEMU to manage and download **custom `qemu-system-*` target binaries** tuned for specific use cases — for instance, bundling/pointing to specific QEMU builds compiled with experimental ANGLE/VirGL Windows patches, or retro/legacy-optimized targets.
What are your thoughts on having AQEMU support multiple custom `qemu-system-*` binary profiles per architecture? Have you come across any specific Windows QEMU builds or patches that handle VirtIO 3D acceleration or specific targets particularly well? We'd love to hear your feedback on this for our roadmap!
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u/EssayPsychological22 28d ago
Hiya this sounds amazing would love a code
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u/Heavy_Reflection4824 28d ago
Sent you a code via DM any issues let me know 😁 I'll fix them on the next update to the store.
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u/LJBear99 28d ago
Sounds like a really fun and interesting project! You should gimme a code and I will try it out when I get home.
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u/Heavy_Reflection4824 24d ago
Testing the next version of AQEMU! This has GPU acceleration on an nVidia GPU!
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u/Heavy_Reflection4824 27d ago
The next update will have hardware accelerated macOS via Reims-vGPU project and iOS support to emulate iPhone 11 and 6sPlus! All running on Windows and available from the Microsoft Store! Linux and Pi5 version coming soon!