If you have a Windows 7 install on VirtualBox (VDI) or VMware (VMDK), you can convert it in 2021 easily:
: Windows 7 does not natively include VirtIO drivers. To achieve high performance in a QCOW2/KVM setup, you must manually load VirtIO drivers
: Includes SP1 + Rollup updates through 2020/2021.
: Allocate at least 2 CPU cores and 4GB (4096MB) of RAM for stable performance. : Create a new disk image using the format, ideally sized at 50GB or larger. Networking network card for the best throughput. OpenNebula 2. Creating the .qcow2 Image
Windows 7 reached its End of Life (EOL) on . By 2021, no free security updates were officially available for standard consumers. However, enterprises with Extended Security Updates (ESU) or enthusiasts continued running Windows 7 in virtualised environments. The QCOW2 format is the native disk image format for QEMU/KVM, offering features like snapshots, thin provisioning, and compression.
If you are converting an existing physical installation or another image type (like ), use the # Convert a VHD to QCOW2