Qumi — QEMU Virtual Machine Manager

A VirtualBox-style graphical frontend for QEMU on Windows. Create, configure, and launch QEMU virtual machines without touching the command line.

Features

• VirtualBox-style interface — left sidebar VM list, right-side detail panel, toolbar with New / Settings / Start / Clone / Remove / Import / Export
• Auto-detect OS from ISO — select an ISO file and the app identifies the operating system from the filename (Windows versions, 20+ Linux distros, macOS codenames back to Tiger, BSDs, Solaris, FreeDOS, and more)
• Smart presets — detected OS auto-configures recommended RAM, graphics card, sound card, NIC, BIOS type, USB version, and acceleration based on what that OS needs
• Incompatibility prevention — changing architecture auto-filters graphics and NIC options to only show compatible hardware. UEFI auto-reverts on unsupported architectures. Yellow warnings appear for bad combos (QXL without Spice, sound card without audio driver, multiple accelerators, etc.)
• Platform-aware acceleration — detects your host OS and grays out unavailable accelerators (KVM on Windows, WHPX on Linux, etc.). WHPX automatically gets kernel-irqchip=off to prevent interrupt injection crashes
• Profile management — VMs save automatically as JSON files in ~/.qemu-gui/machines/. Clone, rename, import/export profiles. Old JSON profiles from other tools can be imported directly
• Command preview — see the exact QEMU command that will be generated before launching
• Create disk images — built-in dialog for creating qcow2, raw, vdi, vmdk, and vhdx disk images via qemu-img

Requirements

• Windows 10/11 (built for Windows, QEMU path defaults to C:\Program Files\qemu)
• QEMU for Windows — install to the default path C:\Program Files\qemu
• Python 3.8+ (only needed if running from source or building the exe)

Installation

Option A: Download the exe (easiest)

1. Go to the Releases page
2. Download QEMU-GUI.exe
3. Double-click to run — no Python needed

Option B: Run from source

1. Make sure Python 3.8+ is installed
2. Clone the repo:

   git clone https://github.com/judahhuckaby-rgb/Qumi.git
   cd Qumi
   

3. Install PySide6:

   pip install PySide6
   

4. Run:

   python qemu_gui.py
   

Option C: Build your own exe

1. Clone the repo and cd into it
2. Run the build script:

   python BUILD_EXE.py
   

   This will automatically install PyInstaller and PySide6 if needed, then produce a standalone exe at dist/QEMU-GUI.exe.
3. Copy QEMU-GUI.exe anywhere you want and delete the rest

Quick Start

1. Install QEMU to C:\Program Files\qemu if you haven't already
2. Launch QEMU-GUI
3. Click New in the toolbar
4. Browse for an ISO — the app will auto-detect the OS and fill in recommended settings
5. Adjust the name and RAM if you want, optionally create or attach a disk image
6. Click OK to create the VM
7. Select it in the sidebar and click Start

Supported OS Detection

The ISO filename is matched against patterns to identify the OS. Some examples:

ISO filename	Detected as	Preset highlights
Win11_English_x64.iso	Windows 11	4 GB RAM, QXL, HDA sound, UEFI, WHPX
Win7_64_bit.iso	Windows 7	2 GB RAM, std graphics, AC97, SeaBIOS
ubuntu-24.04-desktop-amd64.iso	Ubuntu 24	4 GB RAM, VirtIO graphics + NIC
archlinux-2024.01.01-x86_64.iso	Arch Linux	2 GB RAM, VirtIO, intel-hda
alpine-standard-3.19.0-x86_64.iso	Alpine Linux	512 MB RAM, lightweight config
Sonoma.iso	macOS Sonoma	8 GB RAM, VMware graphics, Penryn CPU, UEFI
Tiger.iso	macOS Tiger	512 MB RAM, PowerPC arch, G4 CPU
FreeBSD-14.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso	FreeBSD	1 GB RAM, e1000, SeaBIOS
freedos.iso	FreeDOS	64 MB RAM, i386 arch

Full list includes all Windows versions (XP through 11, Server editions), 20+ Linux distros, macOS codenames (Tiger through Sonoma), BSDs, Solaris, ReactOS, Haiku, TempleOS, KolibriOS, and more.

Acceleration Notes

Accelerator	Host OS	Notes
WHPX	Windows	Uses Windows Hypervisor Platform. kernel-irqchip=off is added automatically to prevent crashes. Requires Hyper-V or Windows Hypervisor Platform enabled in Windows Features
KVM	Linux	Best performance. Requires /dev/kvm access
HAX	Windows/macOS	Intel HAXM — must be installed separately. Intel CPUs only
TCG	Any	Software emulation (no checkbox needed). Slower but always works. If CPU model is set to host with no accelerator, the launcher automatically uses qemu64 instead

If a VM crashes or won't boot, try disabling acceleration in Settings → Acceleration. TCG (software emulation) is slower but the most reliable fallback.

VM Profiles

Profiles are stored as JSON files in:

%USERPROFILE%\.qemu-gui\machines\

Each VM is a single .json file. You can:

• Import profiles from JSON files (including ones hand-written or from other tools)
• Export profiles to share with others
• Clone VMs to quickly duplicate a config
• Back up the whole machines folder to save all your VMs

Files

File	Description
qemu_gui.py	Main application
BUILD_EXE.py	One-click exe builder (installs dependencies automatically)

Troubleshooting

"QEMU executable not found" — Install QEMU to C:\Program Files\qemu or edit the QEMU_PATH variable at the top of qemu_gui.py.

VM crashes immediately with WHPX — The kernel-irqchip=off flag is added automatically, but WHPX can still be unstable with certain guest OSes. Try unchecking WHPX in Settings → Acceleration to fall back to TCG.

VM freezes during boot — If using WHPX, the CPU model might be incompatible. The app defaults to host which usually works with WHPX + kernel-irqchip=off, but you can try changing CPU model to qemu64 in Settings → System → Processor.

No sound — Make sure both a sound card AND an audio driver are selected in Settings → Display. The app warns you if they're mismatched.

White text on white background (dark mode) — This was fixed in the current version. If you see this on an older version, update to the latest.

License

MIT