It sounds like you might be running into a display or rendering issue while trying to use a virtual machine with a QCOW2 disk image.
From VMware/VirtualBox:
Modern Linux supports nocow on the host folder, but for Qcow2, disable CoW on the host file to prevent double-copying (Qcow2 handles its own CoW). i--- Windows Xp Qcow2
: For better performance, consider installing VirtIO drivers in your Windows XP VM. These drivers improve disk and network I/O. Windows XP It sounds like you might be