Setting up a VM for Windows

linux and tech help
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Since moving away from Windows entirely, I have not had any issues finding alternatives in terms of apps, programs, and software.

Problem is, I am getting back into gaming now with the winter months coming in and some games I play either don’t run on Linux at all or have issues. I wanted to set up a stable Windows VM to play my games through but I don’t know the best approach to this. I know it is straight forward and easy but I want to make sure it functions best with gaming in mind.

Any advice would be super helpful. I am looking to get it set up this week since I will have extra time off work for the holiday.

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Docker is an option if you know how to use it.

My preferred choice would be using KVM, so something like Virt-Manager. It’s very easy to set up and will give you the best performance as the emulation is straight from the kernel. I’ve done it myself and have had a great experience. Just be sure your hardware is good enough.

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I had used VirtualBox for quite some time as I was used to it from when I was a Windows user.

Now I’m a happy Virt-Manager user and the performance is way better than VirtualBox. Give it a try, I don’t think there’s any better solution.

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Same for me. I tried another method I came across on YouTube a few years back and it did not work well. My PC was running hot non-stop and it would crash after 5 minutes or so. KVM is one I never had an issue with.

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What games do you intend on playing? Some require a pretty beefy PC to be able to run through a VM which is why I am curious. I have not been able to get games to properly run myself and my computer isn’t weak by any means.

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As of right now, things like Call of Duty, Warframe, Rocket League… Like standard online multiplayer games that are popular at the moment. Some of which I have been able to play on Linux in the past but they no longer support it.

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You see that PC game cravings? It is something that I can relate with. But let me share an approach I use to seamlessly play almost all my major Windows games on Linux using VM.

I use hardware virtualization with KVM/ VFIO to completely dedicate the graphics card to the Windows VM when gaming rather than use a virtual driver. That has helped me to enjoy seamless gaming on Linux almost the Windows way.

It requires that your PC should have support for Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU and a good distro that supports KVM. And also, a VM manager like Cockpit to complete the configuration.

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The problem the majority of games requires device virtualization. What is happening with Linux VMWare or Virtual Box it doesn’t support virtualization inside the machine means it is disabled on the Windows installed. If you try LDPlayer on Windows Virtual Machine to run games on this VM Machine it doesn’t work or Bluestacks or even other games mentionned in the threads.