How to install and use Virt-Manager on Windows 10

Installing Virt-Manager on Windows 10 is not like any other application method because it is a Linux program and is meant to manage Linux-running virtual machines. However, don’t forget we have a Windows Subsystem for Linux on Windows 10, thus it is quite possible to run the GUI interface of Virt-Manager on Windows like any other application. Here are the steps to follow…

Virt-Manager is an open-source app that provides a graphical user interface to command line Type 1 hypervisor platforms such as Qemu, KVM, and Xen.

Install Virt-Manager on Windows 10 using WSL

1. Enable WSL – Windows 10 subsystem for Linux

The steps given here are straightforward, however, before following them make sure on your Windows 10, you have WSL enabled and have at least Ubuntu 20.04 or 18.04 LTS version running over it. If you don’t know how to do that then see our tutorial on how to enable WSL and install Ubuntu over it.

 

2. Download and install MobaXterm

MobaXterm is a free application that provides a wide range of tools and server services to make the job of developers and administrators a lot easier. In short, it is an enhanced terminal for Windows with an X11 server, tabbed SSH client, network tools, and much more. Here is the link to download the MobaXterm home edition. After downloading, install it like any other normal Windows software.

 

3. Open MobaXterm and run WSL Linux

As you open this advanced terminal for Windows 10, the WSL-installed Ubuntu app will show on the left side panel of it. Double-click on that to start the WSL session.

Start WSL Ubuntu app on MobaXterm

 

2. Install Virt-Manager

Once you have started the WSL on your Windows 10 installed MobaXterm, the next thing is to run the Ubuntu system update command.

sudo apt update

After that in the command line terminal of Linux, simply run the Virt-Manager installation command as we do on any regular Linux distro of Debian.

sudo apt install virt-manager

 

3. Run Virt-Manager GUI on Windows 10

Everything is ready, we already have our Linux Virtual Machine Manager installed on Windows 10 WSL, so it’s time to open its GUI interface. For that run:

sudo virt-manager

Note: Remember the Graphical user interface of applications installed on Linux can only be accessed on MobaXterm, directly on WSL  1, it is not possible because of no X server availability.

Run Viirt Manager on Windows

 

4. Connect Remote KVM on Virt- Manager

As we cannot install KVM on the Windows platform, thus obviously the reason for using this Linux Virtual Machine manager is to connect some remote Linux server running with KVM. Therefore, click on the File menu of Virt-Manager and select “New Connection“.

Then check “Connect to a remote host over SSH” and enter the user and hostname of the remote KVM server you want to connect.

Connect to remote KVM using Virt Manager on Windows 10

 

5. Start managing KVM Virtual Machines

Once connected, you will have the list of Virtual machines running on remote KVM on Windows 10 running Virt-Manager. Now, you can directly control or view them.

Virt manager on WIndows 10 to manage KVM installed Virtual Machines

 

Other Tutorials:

 

14 thoughts on “How to install and use Virt-Manager on Windows 10”

  1. hi ,
    I have followed all steps and now getting error “Configure SSH key access for the remote host, or install an SSH askpass package locally.”

    Reply
  2. It’s sad you have to do all this JUST to get a graphical UI on Qemu. I feel that the programmers of QEMU are snobs and it makes me blood boil! I can see why BLM people feel so cheated in life as they have to put up with this shit off camera ALL THE damn time!!! No wonder they felt resorted to burning Portland down till Trump was removed.

    Reply
  3. curious if you could convince Virt-Manager or any alternative on WSL to work with a Windows version of QEMU, because you can access the Windows drive from /mnt/c in WSL(2)

    Reply
  4. Hello, i followed the instructions on Windows 11 but receive the error when starting virt-manager on WSL-Ubuntu on MobaXTerm:

    Unable to connect to libvirt qemu:///system.

    Verify that the ‘libvirtd’ daemon is running.

    Libvirt URI is: qemu:///system

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/usr/share/virt-manager/virtManager/connection.py”, line 923, in _do_open
    self._backend.open(cb, data)
    File “/usr/share/virt-manager/virtinst/connection.py”, line 153, in open
    conn = libvirt.openAuth(self._open_uri,
    File “/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/libvirt.py”, line 148, in openAuth
    raise libvirtError(‘virConnectOpenAuth() failed’)
    libvirt.libvirtError: Failed to connect socket to ‘/var/run/libvirt/libvirt-sock’: No such file or directory

    root@C11-JR3RRVL9IEV:~# sudo systemctl start libvirtd
    System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can’t operate.
    Failed to connect to bus: Host is down

    root@C11-JR3RRVL9IEV:~# sudo systemctl start dbus
    System has not been booted with systemd as init system (PID 1). Can’t operate.
    Failed to connect to bus: Host is down

    Reply

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