Wanting to run all windows applications, games and software on linux

hello, i have never used linux, but i am wanting to but i am wanting to know if its possible to run all windows applications, games and software on linux, and have it run as good as if it was on windows, basically a windows experience but on linux.

Wine, virtual machines, and steam’s new project

so two gpu’s are needed?

this is a question we get a lot, and the short answer is no. No you cannot run ALL those things on Linux. You can run SOME of them, in a variety of different ways, but to claim you can run everything exactly the same is a giant pile of lies. You will have to learn how to use Linux and you will probably find software that does what you want, but sometimes not. Gaming is one area with hard limits on what can and cannot be run, although it’s getting better.

There’s a really good tutorial thread that I can’t find at the moment, so i’ll ask @Eden and maybe @kewldude007 if they can find it for me.

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For the advanced GPU passthrough stuff yes if you don’t have intergrated graphics.

But the steam thing is coming along to just run games on Linux, otherwise you’re better off dual booting just for games

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any particular reason you don’t want to run actual windows?

moved to linux category and helpdesk tag added

this maybe idk

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that’s it, cheers.

because i heard windows 10 forced updates break things, and the privacy leaks

what about a type one hypervisor?

Have you personally experienced this or are you only going off of what you

I will help you as much I can in terms of pointing you towards the right threads but I will pick your thoughts to get a better understanding of what you want that way someone else doesnt have to because I use windows exclusively and cant really help as far as linux advice goes

im going off of what i heard i have not used windows 10 yet, still on windows 8.1 pro, what about running windows 10 within linux? would that allow all windows applications, games and software to run on linux, as good as if it was in windows?

That would be a virtual machine

the short answer is no

I need someone else to make the long answer of "Well, if you do _____, _________, and _________ then _________ and _____will work

well all the telemetry from 10 is on 8.1 so as far as privacy you are not doing yourself any favors, I personally have only had small issues with windows updates like the audio output source changing from speakers to monitor, easy fix. But you will often see here threads of people lamenting how they went into registry or tried to alter W10 in some otherway and changed something and bricked their install.

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A more complete answer would be that lots of Windows applications and software packages have Linux alternatives that work well and provide similar if not the exact same functionality.

I advise people against trying to use Windows software on Linux if they can help it because if you need Windows software, just run Windows.


I run a couple windows boxes and I have very few problems with them since I haven’t intentionally tried to break Windows.

The biggest annoyance for me has been not turning on the computer for a few weeks, deciding to play games with friends on a Friday evening, and getting booted mid-game because Windows wanted to update. Maybe I should have the foresight to update before playing.

Off the topic, the majority of people wanting to switch to Linux are the ones that find Linux as the more comfortable way of using pc, and if there are some kinds of software that needed to be used present the issue, there are alternatives/wine. All in all the main reason I’d say is “choice”, so you can use whatever you want.

It’s directly comparable to the: Speakers or Headphones, use what you like and if your headphones use 6.3mm jack you can get the 6.3mm->3.5mm jack etc (the idea is to listen to sound/s)

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it stink’s(windows 10) memory hog, constant bombardment of advertising, and the menu suck’s
its on the wifes computer (1 year old HP all in one) and i wont use the damn thing.
my old laptop (12 year old toshiba with ubuntu mate runs many times faster.

many of the apps you use in windows have counterparts in linux just named differently (and free of course)
I have some old dos programs i run under linux using dosemu and wine
but many windows programs dont work under emulation due to the fact that they require certain command functions that are not availeable under vm modes
quite often to get those functions in vm mode windows needs to be installed in vm first and that takes up a lot of memory and space.

I think you can tune prefetching in the registry, but I don’t really notice it that much…

Frankly, I think the start menu is pretty good. I mean, yeah, it’s a bit buggy, but it’s been getting better.

@linuxuser the answer is no but if you want to use Linux just put it on a different drive or partition to mess around with.

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Best way to achieve this is to run a Windows 10 virtual machine with QEMU/KVM and passthrough a dedicated GPU to the virtual machine.

This will give you near-native performance.

If you want to get acquainted with Linux, it’s a really fun and worthwhile project. It’s very well documented on the Arch Wiki and there are also some great guides on this forum (with lots of people to help :slight_smile:)

you can download and install robolinux 10.1 its designed to vm windows and the sithware apps. so you can use both easily.
and its a very easy transition for a windows user.