Using virtio-win drivers with Win7 SP1 x64

Solution 1:

There are signed and unsigned drivers available on fedorapeople.org. It is possible to install signed drivers only. However, there is a small issue. Several root certificates, included in Windows installer expired recently. Because of this Windows 7 installer is not able to verify latest releases of drivers, since corresponding root certificate is only available after update.

This way the easiest solution is to install a copy of Windows 7 SP1 using virtualized SATA HDD and later change it to virtio after series of necessary updates.

Solution 2:

You need to use a different version of virtio drivers, for example, 173-9 (https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/virtio-win-0.1.173-9/virtio-win-0.1.173.iso).

At this moment, the latest version of virtio drivers (204-1) isn't recognized by Windows 7 as signed during installation, and therefore can't be used. (The answer by Paul Vetrov has an explanation for it, although I'm not qualified to say if it's correct.) However, earlier versions are recognized and do work! For example, I was able to use versions 160-1 and 173-9. Version 185-1 (the next one after 173-9) didn't work, and I assume that all versions between 185-1 and 204-1 don't work, too.