refers to a pre-installed, lightweight virtual disk image of Windows 10, modified to remove bloatware, reduce background processes, and minimize hardware resource consumption. The .qcow2 format is native to QEMU (used on Proxmox, Virt-Manager, and CLI QEMU). These images are popular for running Windows on low-spec Linux hosts, legacy hardware, or containerized/cloud VMs.
On a Linux host or Proxmox environment, use the command line to generate a blank QCOW2 disk and install your custom ISO onto it: Windows 10 Lite Qcow2