People keep asking me the same question about AQEMU: "Why would I use this instead of Hyper-V / VirtualBox / VMware, or just QEMU itself?" Fair question. Those are mature tools, and for plenty of jobs they're the right answer.
So instead of a pitch, here's a table. For the other four tools I've only filled in what their own official docs say, and where I couldn't find it documented I've written "not documented" rather than guess. If I've got something wrong, tell me in the comments and I'll fix it.
The table
| AQEMU 1.6.0 | Hyper-V | VirtualBox 7.2 | VMware Workstation Pro | Plain QEMU on Windows | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on Windows on ARM64 (e.g. Snapdragon) | Yes, native ARM64 build. WHPX acceleration for ARM64 guests since 1.6.0, TCG for everything else | Yes, Arm64 VMs on Windows 11 22H2+ Arm PCs | Windows 11 Arm64 host is listed as an Experimental Feature | No. Docs require a 64-bit x86/AMD64 CPU | qemu.org lists x86_64 Windows builds (Stefan Weil, MSYS2); no ARM64 Windows build listed |
| Hardware acceleration on x64 Windows | WHPX, with TCG fallback (KVM on Linux) | Yes (it is the hypervisor) | Yes | Yes | WHPX accelerator available; you set it up by hand |
| Retro guests (DOS, Windows 9x) | Yes, profiles from DOS and Windows 1.x up; Win9x guests are forced to TCG | Not in Microsoft's supported guest list (oldest Windows client listed is Windows 7 SP1) | Manual says it can run DOS on x86; DOS/9x aren't in the supported-guest table | Not documented (I didn't find it in the docs I checked) | Yes, QEMU emulates the PC hardware, but you write the flags yourself |
| Non-x86 guest architectures | 29 QEMU target architectures (PowerPC, RISC-V, MIPS, IBM Z, ARM and more) via TCG | Arm64 VMs on Arm hosts only; an x64 host can't run Arm64 VMs | x86/x64 on x86 hosts, Arm64 on Arm hosts | x86/x64 only (x86 hosts only) | Yes, same architectures, command line only |
| GUI with per-OS profiles | 195 guest profiles with machine, CPU, disk, NIC, video and audio presets | Hyper-V Manager and Quick Create; no per-OS hardware profiles documented | New VM wizard picks settings per OS type | New VM wizard with guest OS selection | No official GUI |
| Drag-and-drop file copy into the guest | Yes, dropped files are presented to the guest as floppy A: or a USB drive, so it also works on DOS/9x with no guest tools | Not documented | Yes, needs Guest Additions | Yes, needs VMware Tools (Windows, Linux, Solaris 10 guests) | No |
| Licence | GPL-2.0, source on GitHub | Proprietary, part of Windows | Base package GPLv3; Extension Pack separately licensed | Proprietary | GPL-2.0 |
| Price model | Store build is a one-time purchase with a 7-day free trial (no subscription); you can also build from source | Included with Windows 10/11 Pro or Enterprise, not available on Home | Free download | Free for personal, educational and commercial use since Nov 2024 | Free download |
Sources for the other columns: Microsoft Learn (installing Hyper-V, Arm64 VMs, supported guests), the VirtualBox manual and 7.2 changelog, Broadcom's Workstation Pro processor requirements and drag-and-drop docs, VMware's free-for-all announcement, and qemu.org/download.
How I'd actually read it
If you just want a fast Windows 11 or Linux VM on an x64 PC, Hyper-V, VirtualBox or VMware will do the job well, and they have guest tools for things like shared clipboards and seamless windows. AQEMU isn't trying to beat them there.
AQEMU is for the stuff those tools don't cover. It's a GUI around QEMU, so it inherits QEMU's reach: DOS and Windows 9x, PowerPC Mac OS X, RISC-V, IBM Z, IRIX, embedded boards, all from a wizard instead of a page of flags. The profiles exist because getting the right machine, CPU, disk bus and NIC for, say, a PowerPC guest is exactly the part that makes people give up on plain QEMU.
On Windows on ARM the gap is bigger. VMware Workstation doesn't run there, VirtualBox's Arm host support is still marked experimental, and Hyper-V only runs Arm64 guests. AQEMU runs natively on ARM64, uses WHPX for ARM64 guests since 1.6.0, and falls back to TCG (QEMU's software CPU emulator) for x86 and everything else. TCG is slower than hardware virtualisation, so a Win98 box is happy but don't expect a modern x64 desktop to fly.
And plain QEMU? Everything AQEMU does, QEMU can do, because AQEMU bundles QEMU 11 and drives it. The difference is that you don't have to know the incantations, and things like drag-and-drop file copy (the file shows up as floppy A: or a USB stick, which even DOS understands) are one gesture instead of building a disk image by hand.
Where AQEMU is weaker
To be fair to the others:
- The other three have their own guest tools (Guest Additions, VMware Tools, Hyper-V integration services) built over many years.
- Cross-architecture guests run on TCG, so they're emulated, not virtualised.
- It's a small project, so the big vendors have far more testing behind them.
Try it
- Microsoft Store (7-day free trial, then a one-time purchase): AQEMU on the Microsoft Store
- Source, issues and releases (GPL-2.0): chronic8000/aqemu on GitHub
If a cell in that table is wrong or out of date, leave a comment with a link to the doc and I'll update it.
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