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How to Mount a Vultr File System Volume on Windows

Updated on 11 September, 2025

A family of Microsoft operating systems that provides a graphical user interface for managing applications, files, and system resources on Vultr instances.

Mounting a Vultr File System volume on a Windows instance requires multiple third-party software installations and is dependent on the software working well together to create a dedicated virtiofs service to manage VFS volumes. As a result, Vultr can only offer best-effort support for the use of VFS on Windows. The virtiofs protocol is not natively supported on Windows, and installing the virtio-win driver and the Windows File System Proxy (WinFsp) application creates a virtiofs service that manages the Vultr File System volumes attached to your Windows instance.

Follow this guide to mount a Vultr File System volume on a Windows instance.

Install virtio-win

  1. Visit the Fedora virtio-win releases page, open the latest virtio-win archive and download the virtio-win-guest-tools.exe file.

    Download the virtio-win guest tools installer

  2. Open the downloaded virtio-win-guest-tools.exe file to launch the installation wizard.

  3. Agree to the virtio-win license terms and click Install.

  4. Click Next and accept the end-user license agreement.

  5. Click Next and keep the default virtio-win features.

  6. Click Install to start the installation.

  7. Click Finish to complete the installation.

  8. Close the virtio-win installation wizard.

    Close the virtio-win installation wizard

Install WinFsp

  1. Visit the WinFsp releases page and download the latest WinFsp Installer to your server.

    Download the WinFsp Installer for Windows

  2. Open the downloaded winfsp-<version>.msi package to launch the WinFsp installation wizard.

  3. Click Next to start the installation wizard.

  4. Keep the default WinFsp features and click Next to continue.

  5. Click Install to start the WinFsp installation process.

  6. Click Finish to close the WinFsp installation wizard.

    Finish WinFsp installation wizard

Enable the VirtIO-FS Windows Service

  1. Press Win+R to open the Windows run dialog.

  2. Enter services.msc in the input field and press Enter to open the Services window.

    Open the Windows services menu using the run dialog

  3. Find and right-click VirtIO-FS Service from the list of services.

  4. Select Properties from the list of options.

    Open the VirtIO-FS Service Properties

  5. Click the Startup type drop-down and select Automatic to enable the VirtIO-FS Service to start automatically at boot.

    Set the VirtIO-service type

  6. Click Start to run the VirtIO-FS Service.

  7. Verify that the service status changes to Running and click Apply to save the changes.

  8. Click OK to close the VirtIO-FS Service properties window.

Access a Mounted Vultr File System Volume

The virtio-fs service automatically mounts all Vultr File System volumes attached to your Windows instance when it starts. Follow the steps below to access a mounted VFS volume if the virtio-fs service is running correctly on your Windows instance.

  1. Open the Windows File Explorer.

  2. Click This PC and verify that the Vultr File System volume is mounted as a new disk drive.

    Open the mounted VFS volume

  3. Double-click to open the Vultr File System volume.

  4. Create a new greetingsfromvultr.txt file to test the write permissions on your VFS volume.

    Add a new text file to a VFS volume

Note
Reboot your Windows instance if the virtiofs service is not available immediately after installation, does not run correctly or the Vultr File System volume is not detected. Verify that the VFS volume is attached to your Windows instance and start the virtiofs service to access the volume using the Windows File Explorer.

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