Using Qemu to boot any Linux ISO from within Windows

The following tutorial explains how to use Qemu to boot any Linux ISO version from a portable USB flash device while still working within Windows 98, 2000, NT, XP and Vista. This Enables the user to have both systems running at the same time eliminating the need to restart the PC and set your BIOS options to boot Linux from USB.

Qemu-Linux-Windows Screenshot:

Qemu SLAX Linux on Windows Screenshot

Requirements:

Windows Computer
USB portable storage device
Your favorite Live Linux CD image (ISO)
Custom StartLinux.exe including Qemu, Kqemu files

The Process:

Create a directory on your USB device named QStart
Download the self extracting 7-z StartLinux.exe file
Run StartLinux.exe and extract the contained files to the QStart directory on your flash drive
Download your favorite Linux CD (ISO) Image and copy it to the QStart directory on the flash drive
Double click the StartLinux.bat file to boot linux directly from the portable flash device

Note that Qemu boot is slightly slower than booting directly from the USB flash drive or CD at startup. However, it's nice to be able to run Linux from the device even if the computer doesn't support USB boot.

This configuration reserves 256MB of system memory for the virtual Linux operating environment. If you wish to increase or decrease this capacity, edit the -m value on the last line of the StartLinux.bat file.

Notes: Qemu was produced by Fabrice Bellard. For more information, visit the Qemu site

Update 9/24/07: Now Works on Windows Vista hosts