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. By default, first boot adds the apps your Windows Start Menu shows — mirrored into matching folder sub-groups — each with its real icon. Turn on desktop.full_app_scan to also discover apps from the registry App Paths, all UWP/MSIX, Chocolatey and Scoop. 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. It can even open files on the Windows disk itself — the guest C: is shared over SMB and mounted with kio-fuse (KDE), so edits save straight back.

What about clipboard, sound, printers, and USB?

Clipboard (text + images), sound, printers, and your home directory (\\tsclient\home) are shared by default. USB drives are shared in-session at \\tsclient\media (with a desktop shortcut inside Windows), 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 also works), 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, and an opt-in idle auto-stop can fully stop the VM to free its RAM. 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 (v0.9.0) — usable day-to-day, with ongoing polish. Bug reports and PRs are welcome on GitHub.