I've been dual booting my laptop with Windows for work and Linux for gaming and my PhD. I often use Adobe apps that are only available on Windows, and it gets annoying to reboot every time I want to access them. Since my Windows is installed on its own partition, I'm wondering if it's possible to run it in a virtual machine instead of booting into it. Can anyone help?
5 Answers
Not exactly an answer to your question, but you might want to consider looking into Wine. It lets you run some Windows applications on Linux. It doesn't support everything, but it could be worth a try for your needs.
Yes, it's totally feasible! If you're using Hyper-V, Windows actually runs quite well in a VM there.
What's Hyper-V exactly?
Sure, you can download a Windows ISO from Microsoft, just make sure it's from a trusted site to avoid any unwanted surprises. Then use VirtualBox or QEMU to set it up.
I already have Windows installed. I want to run that existing installation in a VM.
Yep, running Windows in a virtual machine is definitely possible! Just keep in mind that there might be some performance issues compared to a native install. You'll need to set up a virtual drive and reinstall the applications you need there, though.
But I'm looking to use my existing Windows installation that's already on my SSD.
You can do this, but it's important that your Windows installation isn't on the same physical drive as your Linux. Tools like VirtualBox and KVM can help you with this—definitely check out their manuals for guidance.
Thanks, I'll look into that! Sounds helpful.
I’ve tried Wine, but it doesn’t work for my requirements because I rely a lot on Adobe Creative Cloud, which isn't functional on Linux.