My old PC can’t run Windows 11, so I’m using it for this instead

Whether you have an old PC sitting in a closet collecting dust or your old Windows 10 PC has recently become a relic thanks to Windows 11 hardware requirements, one of the best ways to get it running is a Home Assistant server.

What does Home Assistant do?

Usually, when you buy a smart device, you need to download the corresponding app from the manufacturer. Your Govee floor lamp needs the Govee app; These Phillips smart bulbs need the Hue app.

There have been some attempts to ensure smart devices are interoperable and “just work” with standards like Matter, but Home Assistant has them soundly beaten.

Home Assistant is essentially a one-stop shop for all things smart home. Do you have a Philips Hue lamp? Get the right integration for Home Assistant and you can control it. Do you have a smart lock? No problem: Home Assistant supports most major manufacturers.

With Home Assistant, you can automate the behavior of your smart devices, manage them individually, create a convenient dashboard to monitor their behavior and even make them interact. Best of all, everything is local: no cloud access or subscription required. This ensures that the whole thing will continue to work in the event of an internet outage and that you won’t have to worry as much about the privacy implications of a smart home setup.

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with DIY occupancy sensors that will automatically turn lights on and off at night, so I don’t find myself fumbling around in the dark. However, you’re really only limited by the devices you own or are willing to build: Home Assistant is extremely flexible.

Home Assistant isn’t just an app, it’s an entire operating system called Home Assistant OS, often simply written HAOS.

When you convert your old Windows 10 PC into a Home Assistant hub, you have two choices. You can install HAOS “bare metal”, that is, you install it directly on the PC as only operating system.

Alternatively, you can install a hypervisor, like Proxmox, on the PC and then run Home Assistant on a virtual machine.

Between the two options, running HAOS on Proxmox is definitely the better choice. Proxmox is a fantastic way to ensure that your PC can be used for a number of other projects. I’m running a dozen other things on my Proxmox server that I wouldn’t want to give up, so I just set up HAOS as another virtual machine.

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Configuring Home Assistant on Proxmox

Unfortunately, Proxmox doesn’t offer a nice one-click option to get Home Assistant working, but it’s still pretty simple.

First, open your Proxmox Shell and enter the following command to download the Home Assistant OS image:

wget https://github.com/home-assistant/operating-system/releases/download/16.3/haos_ova-16.3.qcow2.xz

Next, we need to unpack the operating system image. It’s a bit like unzipping a ZIP file. Run the following command, modifying it as needed if you are using a newer version of Home Assistant. You can always check the file name by typing ls to list the files in your current directory.

unxz haos_ova-16.3.qcow2.xz

Now, click on “Create VM” at the top corner. This virtual machine is going to be configured so that we can simply attach the Home Assistant image later. You need to change a few important settings while you click through the wizard.

First, make sure to select “Do not use media” in the Operating System tab. On the System tab, make sure Machine is set to q35, BIOS is set to OVMF, EFI Storage is set to local-lvm, and Pre-registration keys are unchecked.

Make sure to delete all disks in the Disks tab. Otherwise, you can use the VM’s default settings. However, I would recommend giving your VM at least 2 cores and 4 GB of RAM, and more would probably be better if you can spare it.

Once the VM is created, return to your Proxmox shell.

The command you will use looks like this:

qm importdisk (number) (path/to/file) local-lvm.

There are two things that can change here:

• (Number) will be the number that appears next to your Home Assistant virtual machine. In my case it’s 100.

• (Path/to/file) This tells the command where to look for the Home Assistant image. In my case it was located in the root folder. You can always run pwd to find out where your file is stored.

So I executed the command:

qm importdisk 100 /root/haos_ova-16.3.qcow2 local-lvm

Now head to the Hardware tab of your VM and double-click on the unused disk at the bottom. In the window that appears, check the box next to Delete, then click “Add.”

Head to the Options tab, then double-click Boot Order. Uncheck all the boxes next to scsi0, then click OK.

Once done, all you have to do is click on the Start button. Your Home Assistant virtual machine will start, configure itself, and then tell you how to connect to it.

Once Home Assistant is running, there are no limits. You can connect an extraordinary number of different devices and sensors to it, and you can even create your own if you’re feeling ambitious.