Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteTo share a Linux host folder with a Windows guest in KVM, add a virtiofs filesystem device to the VM, enable shared memory, install WinFSP and the VirtIO-Win virtiofs driver and service in Windows, then start VirtioFsSvc. The host folder is configured separately from the mount tag Windows uses to identify the share.
Before you start
- On the Linux host, install the
virtiofsdpackage using your distribution’s package manager. The virtio-win project’s quick start listssudo dnf install virtiofsdfor Fedora; package names and installation steps may differ on other distributions. See the virtio-win Virtio-FS quick start. - In the Windows guest, you will need WinFSP with its Core feature and the virtiofs driver and service from the VirtIO-Win package.
- Choose the Linux directory to share and a simple, unique tag, such as
mount_tag0. The tag is not a Windows drive letter.
Configure the VM in Virt-Manager
- Shut down the Windows VM if it is running, then open its hardware details in Virt-Manager.
- On the Memory tab, enable Shared memory. The vhost-user virtiofs connection requires shared guest memory.
- Select Add Hardware → File System.
- Set Driver to
virtiofs, enter the Linux host directory as Source Path, and enter the tag (for example,mount_tag0) as Target Path. - Apply the configuration and start the VM. If Virt-Manager does not offer a shared-memory control, add the memory-backing XML below through the VM’s XML configuration.
Configure the VM with libvirt XML
Alternatively, edit the VM’s libvirt domain XML and add both the shared-memory backing and filesystem device. Replace /home/user/viofs with the actual host directory and choose a tag that matches the one you will use in Windows. The structure follows the examples in the libvirt virtiofs guide and the virtio-win quick start:
<memoryBacking>
<source type='memfd'/>
<access mode='shared'/>
</memoryBacking>
<devices>
<filesystem type='mount' accessmode='passthrough'>
<driver type='virtiofs' queue='1024'/>
<source dir='/home/user/viofs'/>
<target dir='mount_tag0'/>
</filesystem>
</devices>Place memoryBacking in the domain configuration and the filesystem entry inside devices. With the Linux memfd memory backend, libvirt says no additional host setup is required for the memory backend itself. The host still needs the virtiofsd daemon for the filesystem device.
Install and start the Windows components
- Install WinFSP, including its Core feature.
- Install the virtiofs driver and service from the VirtIO-Win package. If using Device Manager for manual driver installation, the virtio-win quick start identifies an unrecognized Mass Storage Controller under Other devices as the device to update. The project also documents installation with
pnputil.exe. - Start the service from an elevated Command Prompt:
sc start VirtioFsSvc - Open File Explorer → This PC and look for the share. If you did not configure a mount point, it normally uses the first available drive letter starting at Z: and works backward.
The virtio-win project’s manual service-registration example is sc create VirtioFsSvc binPath="<path to the binary>virtiofs.exe" start=auto depend=VirtioFsDrv. Use the actual installed path in place of the example text; do not enter the placeholder literally. Follow the project’s quick-start instructions for the installation route appropriate to your setup.
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Check the setup if the share is missing
- The VM will not start or the filesystem device fails: Confirm shared memory is enabled,
virtiofsdis installed on the host, and the configured source directory exists. - Windows does not show a share: Check that WinFSP and the virtiofs driver are installed, start
VirtioFsSvc, and look under This PC. Make sure the Windows service uses the same tag as the VM’s filesystem device. - The share disappears after a reboot: Red Hat’s instructions for RHEL 10 say to restart
VirtioFsSvcafter each VM reboot to regain access. That guidance is specific to the documented RHEL 10 procedure; it does not establish identical behavior across every host distribution and software version. See Red Hat’s RHEL 10 Windows VM documentation.
If behavior remains inconsistent, record the host distribution, libvirt and QEMU versions, Windows version, and VirtIO-Win and WinFSP versions before investigating further. The current virtio-win quick start describes Virtio-FS as supported and points to its issue tracker for known issues. An older project wiki page edited September 21, 2023 called the Windows implementation an early-stage “Tech Preview”; that older wording should not be treated as the current project status. See the virtio-win wiki page.
Account for snapshots and backups
Libvirt warns that managed snapshots do not snapshot files shared through virtiofs, so reverting a VM snapshot will not restore the host directory’s earlier contents. Keep a separate host-side backup if you need to recover those files. See libvirt’s virtiofs documentation.
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What this setup does—and does not establish
These instructions describe a documented virtiofs configuration for a Linux host and Windows KVM guest; they do not establish a measured performance advantage over SMB or another sharing method. The cited setup documentation provides no dated benchmark for this Windows guest scenario, so choose an alternative based on your network, permissions, and integration needs rather than assuming a universal speed winner.
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