Click an app. Word opens. That's it.

Windows apps as native Linux windows — real icons, real WM_CLASS, pin-to-taskbar.
FreeRDP RemoteApp over dockur/windows. No permanent full-screen desktop, no manual setup.

# Install (latest stable release)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kernalix7/winpodx/main/install.sh | bash

# Development branch (may be unstable)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kernalix7/winpodx/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --main

# Uninstall (keeps the Windows VM; add --purge to wipe everything)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kernalix7/winpodx/main/uninstall.sh | bash -s -- --confirm

_{Windows About / Task Manager / PowerShell, each in its own Linux window, next to the WinPodX Dashboard.}

Works on

_{English · 한국어 · Install · Usage · Features · Architecture · Comparison}

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Contents: Requirements · Install · Launch · Desktop app · Key features · Documentation · Testing · Contributing

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Status: Beta

WinPodX is in active development, v0.11.0.

• A Windows 11 Settings-style desktop app: adaptive navigation, custom window chrome, and a theme that follows your desktop's light or dark scheme
• Dashboard for pod state, resource use, running apps, and pinned apps in one view
• dockur HTTP provisioning progress in the CLI and GUI, with a log-based fallback
• winpodx launch as a compact Start-style flyout, plus a refreshed tray launcher
• Python 3.10 is the new minimum

Full detail in the CHANGELOG.

What you get

Each Windows app opens as its own Linux window, keeping its icon, taskbar entry, and file associations. Clipboard, audio, printers, and your home directory are shared both ways. You only see a full Windows desktop when you ask for one with winpodx app run desktop.

WinPodX runs Windows in a container in the background and starts it on demand — the pod pauses when idle and wakes on your next launch.

Requirements

Virtualization must be available before Windows can boot. These three checks catch almost every "installed fine but Windows never started" report:

Requirement	Check	Fix
Intel VT-x or AMD-V enabled	lscpu | grep -i virtualization	Enable Intel Virtualization Technology, SVM Mode, or VT-x in firmware.
KVM module loaded	lsmod | grep kvm	sudo modprobe kvm_intel or sudo modprobe kvm_amd.
Your user can reach KVM	id -nG | tr ' ' '\n' | grep kvm	sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER, then log out and back in.

Hardware: x86_64 or aarch64 with virtualization extensions, 8 GB RAM (12 GB recommended), and room for the 64 GB default Windows disk plus an installer ISO.

Software: FreeRDP 3+ and Podman with a compose provider, or Docker. Rootless Podman also needs /etc/subuid and /etc/subgid entries. Run winpodx setup-host to fix the group and subuid setup in one prompt, and winpodx doctor any time to see what is still missing.

Install

The curl one-liner in the header works on every supported distribution and finishes setup for you. Native packages are also available:

# openSUSE Tumbleweed / Leap / Slowroll
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/Kernalix7/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:Kernalix7.repo
sudo zypper install winpodx

# Fedora 42 / 43 / 44 (dnf5 — Fedora 41+)
sudo dnf config-manager addrepo --from-repofile=https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/Kernalix7/Fedora_43/home:Kernalix7.repo
sudo dnf install winpodx

# Debian / Ubuntu — the matching .deb from the latest release
sudo apt install ./winpodx_<version>_all_debian13.deb

# AlmaLinux / Rocky / RHEL 9 / 10 — the matching .rpm
sudo dnf install ./winpodx-<version>-0.noarch.el10.rpm

# Arch
yay -S winpodx

# Nix
nix run github:kernalix7/winpodx

# AppImage — one file, any x86_64 distro
chmod +x winpodx-x86_64.AppImage
./winpodx-x86_64.AppImage setup

After a package, AppImage, source, or wheel install, run setup once. Package installs deliberately ship the binary only, so apt install never triggers a long Windows download on its own:

winpodx setup              # host-detected defaults, no prompts
winpodx setup --customize  # pick backend, cores, RAM, edition, language, timezone, debloat

Setup writes the configuration, verifies the host, provisions Windows, discovers your apps, and registers desktop entries.

Updating: re-run the curl installer to upgrade a curl install in place, keeping your config and VM (this works on Bazzite and other rpm-ostree hosts too). Package and AppImage installs update through whatever you installed them with.

On RHEL 9, AlmaLinux 9, and Rocky Linux 9 the default python3 is older than WinPodX supports; the el9 package pulls in the Python 3.11 stack from AppStream automatically.

Offline and air-gapped installs, building from source, Nix, and full uninstall are covered in INSTALL.md.

Launch

winpodx app run word              # Launch Word
winpodx app run word ~/doc.docx   # Open a file with it
winpodx app run desktop           # Full Windows desktop
winpodx launch                    # Searchable Start-style app picker
winpodx gui                       # Desktop app

Or just click a Windows app in your application menu — WinPodX installs real desktop entries for everything it discovers. Bind winpodx launch to a custom shortcut (KDE: System Settings → Shortcuts; GNOME: Settings → Keyboard) for a system-wide hotkey.

Desktop app

winpodx gui opens a Windows 11 Settings-style shell with eight pages:

Page	What it holds
Dashboard	Pod state with Start/Stop, RAM / CPU / disk rings, quick actions, running sessions, pinned apps
Applications	Start Menu tiles with search, category counts, grid or list view, and per-app actions
Settings	Connection, hardware, Windows Update, integration, and language, grouped by intent, with a marker until you save
Tools	Pod and guest operations — suspend, resume, grow disk, debloat, apply fixes
Terminal	Pod and app logs with a filtered command bar
Info	Version, health checks, and one-click copyable diagnostics
Devices	USB and PCI passthrough, grouped by bus, with risky assignments flagged
License	License text and third-party acknowledgements

The navigation pane is 320 px wide normally and collapses to a 48 px icon rail below 1100 px, where the hamburger button overlays it on top of the content. The theme follows your desktop's light or dark preference; set WINPODX_COLOR_SCHEME=light|dark to override it, or WINPODX_NATIVE_TITLEBAR=1 to use your window manager's decorations instead of the built-in title bar. See the GUI tour for the rest.

Key features

Area	What it does
Seamless apps	RemoteApp opens each app as a native window with real icons, WM_CLASS, taskbar integration, file associations, multi-monitor support, and up to 50 concurrent RDP sessions.
App discovery	Imports Start Menu-visible Win32 and UWP apps with their icons. Rescan with winpodx app refresh or from Applications.
Sharing	Two-way clipboard, audio, printers, \\tsclient\home, removable media, and USB or PCI passthrough.
Reverse-open	Linux apps appear in the Windows Open with menu and receive files back on the host through a controlled listener.
Pod operation	Podman by default, with Docker and manual RDP supported. Auto-pauses when idle, recovers a stalled guest, rotates passwords, and grows the Windows disk.
Privacy and tuning	Optional Windows debloat, host-adaptive KVM tuning, DPI detection, an allowlist for FreeRDP flags, time sync, and optional bare-metal disguise.
Languages	CLI, tray, and desktop app in English, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, and Italian.

Documentation

Document	Contents
INSTALL.md	Every install path, updating, offline, source, Nix, uninstall
USAGE.md	CLI reference, GUI tour, health checks, configuration
FEATURES.md	RemoteApp, reverse-open, peripherals, discovery, passthrough
ARCHITECTURE.md	System diagram, source tree, data flows
COMPARISON.md	WinPodX vs winapps, LinOffice, winboat, and Wine
CHANGELOG.md	Version history
CONTRIBUTING.md	Development setup and workflow
SECURITY.md	Security reporting process

Testing

export PYTHONPATH="$PWD/src"
python3 -m pytest tests/ -n auto     # 4000+ tests, seconds in parallel
ruff check src/ tests/
ruff format --check src/ tests/

Contributing and license

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before sending a change; security reports follow SECURITY.md. WinPodX is MIT licensed, Kim DaeHyun.

Star History

Support

If WinPodX makes your Linux desktop a little nicer:

GitHub Sponsors handles recurring or one-time sponsorship, Ko-fi covers international cards and PayPal, and fairy.hada.io is a Korean tipping platform. Bug reports, PRs, and stars are just as welcome — and free.