FAQ

Common questions

Still stuck? Open an issue on GitHub.

Is this a VM, Wine, or something else?

It's a real Windows VM presented as native windows. WinPodX runs Windows in a KVM-backed container (via dockur/windows) and surfaces each app as its own Linux window over FreeRDP RemoteApp (RAIL). So you get full Windows compatibility — unlike Wine — without staring at a full-screen Windows desktop.

Do I need a Windows license?

Same as any Windows VM: you need a valid Windows license to activate it for normal use. WinPodX automates the install but doesn't provide Windows or a license — those come from Microsoft.

How fast is it? Is it just remote desktop?

It's local RDP to a VM on your own machine over loopback — not a network connection to a remote server — so latency is minimal. Windows runs natively on KVM, and a host-adaptive tuning profile (+invtsc, platform_tick, etc.) is applied based on your CPU. The first launch takes ~5–10 min (Windows ISO download + Sysprep); subsequent launches are near-instant.

Does it phone home or collect telemetry?

No. WinPodX has no telemetry of any kind — no analytics, no usage tracking, no phone-home. It even disables Windows' own telemetry/ads/Cortana by default (debloat). It's MIT-licensed and the source is fully public.

Which apps work?

Anything that runs on Windows — Office, Adobe, niche enterprise tools, games' launchers, etc. First boot auto-discovers installed apps from Registry App Paths, the Start Menu, UWP/MSIX, Chocolatey, and Scoop, then registers each with its real icon. You can add custom app profiles in the GUI or with winpodx app.

Can Linux apps open from inside Windows too?

Yes — that's "reverse-open". Your Linux apps appear in the Windows guest's "Open with…" menu with their real icons; picking one round-trips the file open back to the host's xdg-open. It's on by default.

What about clipboard, sound, printers, and USB?

Clipboard (text + images), sound, printers, and your home directory (\\tsclient\home) are shared by default. USB drives auto-map to drive letters, and there's live USB device passthrough (a host ↔ guest switcher) for things like security dongles.

What are the requirements?

A CPU with virtualization extensions + /dev/kvm, 8 GB+ RAM (12 GB+ recommended), ~30 GB free disk, a container runtime (podman ≥ 4 recommended; docker / libvirt also work), and FreeRDP 3+. See Get started for the full list and per-distro install.

Which Linux distros are supported?

openSUSE, Fedora (incl. Atomic/Silverblue/Kinoite), Debian, Ubuntu, RHEL / AlmaLinux / Rocky, Arch, and NixOS — plus a distro-agnostic AppImage. Install is one line on all of them.

Does the container keep running and eating resources?

No — it auto-suspends when idle and resumes on the next launch. You can also enable pod auto-start on login, or stop it entirely. A stalled RDP guest is detected and self-healed without a manual restart.

How do I uninstall? Will it wipe my Windows data?

One line: curl -fsSL …/uninstall.sh | bash -s -- --confirm. It keeps the Windows VM data by default; pass --purge to wipe everything.

Is it stable? What's the project status?

It's in active beta (v0.6.0) — usable day-to-day, with ongoing polish. Bug reports and PRs are welcome on GitHub.