> Is there a way to fool Windows into thinking it's a normal SATA hard-drive attached to the motherboard and not a USB one? After the first part of the install

> Is there a way to fool Windows into thinking it's a normal SATA hard-drive attached to the motherboard and not a USB one? After the first part of the installation is done (the copying files from the ISO image/DVD/USB stick part), Windows 10 won't run a check that prevents C:\ being a USB drive. So I don't think there's any reason to fool it after that point. And before that point of the installation the virtual machine is there to fool it. When the drive is attached to the VM as per the linked instructions (in my comment above) Windows will see it as an internal drive. --- I have also tried Windows 11 using these same steps, but got a message saying that my (virtual) hardware didn't meet the requirements. I suspect it was the TPM module that was incorrect in the VM. Probably as more people try to run Windows 11, virt manager's support will improve (including the downstream distributions' copies).