Update-VirtIO-QemuGA

A PowerShell script to automatically update VirtIO Windows drivers and the QEMU Guest Agent. Useful for keeping Windows VMs on QEMU/KVM or Proxmox VE up to date.

Features

• Detects currently installed versions and diff's with current latest version
• Resolves and downloads the latest MSI from a manifest.json committed in this repository
• Checks for a vioscsi device and offers to also run a script to install a dummy vioscsi device for seamless migration from e.g. VMware
• Compatible with PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7
• Non-interactive mode for use in scheduled tasks or RMM tools (-Force implies -AutoCleanup and -AutoReboot)
• Supports version pinning via -VirtIOVersion and -QemuGAVersion

Requirements

• Some Windows OS (Tested on Windows 11, Server 22 and Server 25)
• Administrator privileges
• Internet access

Usage

Interactive

.\Update-VirtIO-QemuGA.ps1

Fully automated (no prompts)

.\Update-VirtIO-QemuGA.ps1 -Force -AutoCleanup -AutoReboot

Pin a specific VirtIO and QEMU Guest Agent version

.\Update-VirtIO-QemuGA.ps1 -VirtIOVersion "0.1.285" -QemuGAVersion "110.0.2"

Pin a version, fully automated

.\Update-VirtIO-QemuGA.ps1 -VirtIOVersion "0.1.285" -QemuGAVersion "110.0.2" -Force -AutoCleanup -AutoReboot

If the pinned version is not present in manifest.json the script aborts with a non-zero exit code and lists the available versions - it will not silently install something you did not ask for!

Interactive loaded directly from GitHub

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fs1n/Update-VirtIO-QemuGA/refs/heads/main/Update-VirtIO-QemuGA.ps1 | iex

Interactive loaded from GitHub with Parameters

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fs1n/Update-VirtIO-QemuGA/refs/heads/main/Update-VirtIO-QemuGA.ps1" -UseBasicParsing))) <Parameter of your choice>

e.g. :

& ([scriptblock]::Create((irm "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fs1n/Update-VirtIO-QemuGA/refs/heads/main/Update-VirtIO-QemuGA.ps1" -UseBasicParsing))) -Force

To find all possibilities look at the script header!

Parameters

Parameter	Description
-Force	Skips ALL interactive prompts and runs non-interactively. Implicitly enables -AutoCleanup and -AutoReboot. Use this for fully automated / RMM-driven runs.
-AutoCleanup	Deletes downloaded MSI files after installation without prompting. Implicitly enabled by -Force.
-AutoReboot	Reboots automatically after installation if required (exit code 3010) without prompting. Implicitly enabled by -Force.
-InstallVioSCSI	Automatically installs the vioscsi dummy device without prompting. Has no effect if a vioscsi device is already present.
-VirtIOVersion	Pin a specific VirtIO version (e.g. 0.1.285-1). Default latest. Must match a version listed in manifest.json exactly — see the version-format note below.
-QemuGAVersion	Pin a specific QEMU Guest Agent version (e.g. 110.0.2-1). Default latest. Must match a version listed in manifest.json exactly — see the version-format note below.

Version format note

The Windows installer reports the core version (e.g. 0.1.285) while the manifest entries include the package release suffix as published upstream (e.g. 0.1.285-1). Both are the same release; the -N suffix is just a build counter. When you pin, use the manifest form, which is what manifest.json actually contains. The up-to-date check ignores the suffix, so an installed 0.1.285 is correctly recognised as equal to a manifest 0.1.285-1 and the script will skip instead of asking to install it.

How it works

This script does not scrape fedorapeople.org at runtime, like it originally once did. That site is now protected by Anubis (a bot challenge), and direct archive-index requests from Windows PowerShell get blocked. Instead, the update flow is split between CI and the script:

1. A scheduled GitHub Action (.github/workflows/mirror-virtio.yml, runs weekly on Sunday at 03:00 UTC) launches a headless Playwright/Chromium browser, navigates the Fedora People Archive index pages, and discovers the available VirtIO and QEMU Guest Agent MSI files and their direct-download URLs.
2. The Action merges the result into the manifest.json.
3. When Update-VirtIO-QemuGA.ps1 runs, it fetches manifest.json, picks the latest entry (or the version pinned via -VirtIOVersion / -QemuGAVersion), and downloads the MSI from the URL stored in the manifest.
4. Because the URLs in the manifest point straight at the MSI file, the download works reliably from a plain PowerShell Invoke-WebRequest.

This means the script is only as fresh as the most recent manifest. If a new upstream release is out, wait for (or trigger) the weekly Action run, then re-run the script. If you pin a version that isn't in the manifest yet, the script aborts with a non-zero exit code and a list of available versions, so an automated runner doesn't accidentally install something else.

Logs

Each run writes a log file to:

%TEMP%\Qemu-VirtIO-Update-Temp\log_yyyy-MM-dd_HH-mm-ss.log

Contributing

If you would like to contribute, have spotted an error or have any other feedback, please open a PR or issue.

Use of AI

I generally see no issue in using AI for building stuff. I vibed some stuff too. I see this as a "more mission critical" tool so if you use AI to generate, Follow this rules:

• Review, stuff you don't fully understand should be looked up and understood.
• Check for "efficiency", AI sometimes overdoes a bit.

License

MIT

Credits

The vioscsi dummy device installer invoked by this script is provided by croit: croit/load-virtio-scsi-on-boot — all credit for that component goes to them.