Hiya, I'll be glad to show you how I run Qemu under Windows. I warn you that Window-Eyes will be of no help whatsoever in reading the Qemu console window. In fact, I suggest either creating a custom set file for it and using the Hotkeys option in the general menu to turn them off, or just unloading WE entirely. That, of course, isn't very convenient. If you turn off hotkeys in qemu alone you'll get response when alt+tab is pressed to get you out of that window. Anyway, here's what I do: To start with, I haven't installed Qemu into c:\program files. I just did C:\qemu,, with the bios in the same place. So to get that option I do -L ., which like under Unix stands for current directory. A sample command line is: qemu -serial com3 -boot d -net tap,ifname="tap" -net nic,model=rtl8139 -soundhw ens1370 -hda debian.img -cdrom debian.iso -L . This is what I used to get Debian installed, with the Dectalk express connected to a USB-to-serial converter which acted as COM3 under Windows. It will work as ttyS0 under Linux, of course. The boot d option is just to specify booting from the ISO image. I personally haven't done much with floppy images or actual drives. Once Qemu runs, you'll possibly get a Windows properties dialogue asking about whichever COM port you used. Just hit enter to close it and you'll be in a Qemu console window. Type the command to get speakup up and running, in the case of a Debian install it would be: speakup speakup_synth=dectlk speakup_ser=0 >From that point, assuming you unloaded WE or created a set file properly, things will just run as normal. You can alt+tab out of the Qemu window at any time. Hope this helps some. Thanks, Zack. PS: If not, please feel free to ask me anything you'd like.