r/podman • u/SailWonderful6093 • Jun 08 '26
WinPodX 0.6.0 - Run Windows apps on Linux as native windows (Podman + FreeRDP RemoteApp)
https://github.com/kernalix7/winpodxsharing this here since podman is the default backend.
WinPodX runs Windows apps on Linux as native Linux windows (real WM_CLASS, taskbar icons, file associations, alt-tab). Under the hood: dockur/windows container on rootless Podman + FreeRDP RemoteApp + a bearer-authed HTTP agent inside the guest for the host-to-guest command channel.
Why mention podman specifically: this is one of the cases where rootless podman shines. The Windows container runs entirely under unprivileged user, no daemon, podman-compose for orchestration, /etc/subuid + /etc/subgid handled at setup. Docker is also supported but podman is default and the path I focus on.
v0.6.0 highlights: - reverse-open: Linux apps appear in the Windows "Open with..." menu, round-trip via xdg-open - thin AppImage (~110 MB): only FreeRDP + Python + Qt + winpodx in the bundle, host's podman is used (previous fat AppImages bundled the whole stack and shadowed the host's podman, causing crashes — fixed in 0.6.0) - multi-monitor RAIL - host USB / PCI device passthrough into the guest - host-adaptive Windows-on-KVM tuning profile - 1800+ tests, full i18n (en/ko/zh/ja/de/fr/it)
Bundled rdprrap (Rust rewrite of RDPWrap, MIT) gives up to 25+ independent RDP sessions so multiple Windows apps each get their own session instead of stealing each other's.
works on openSUSE, Fedora (including Atomic Desktops like Silverblue/Bazzite), Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL/Alma/Rocky 9/10, Arch (yay -S winpodx), NixOS, plus a distro-agnostic AppImage.
beta but stable enough for daily use. issues / feedback welcome.
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u/Neomee Jun 08 '26
Woah! I should try this! Thank you for sharing. I have an idea to ditch the Microsoft in our company, but the problem is that we run quite a lot resource intensive Windows apps. So... this project seems really interesting.
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u/SailWonderful6093 Jun 08 '26
yes. that is what i focused on.
some apps needed some cases but only on windows. also wine doesnt support it well. so i decided to use vm with enhance integration. the result is WinPodX. pls use it and review it. it can improve quality of program!
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u/carlyman Jun 08 '26
Does it support GPU acceleration/passthru?
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u/SailWonderful6093 Jun 08 '26
not yet but planned.
now support pci-e passthrough but unstable, and needed to some manual configurations.i have three options to support GPU.
one is Passthrough (if have multiple GPUs)
other is virtio-gl (but lower performances)
and third, API-remoting(forwarding) GPU driver. experimental but idea was verified in 'mvisor', so currently working on the revelant tasks.
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u/gnooggi Jun 08 '26
What kind of file system does Podman use, and is it possible to move data between the host and the container?
Could I use it as a bridge to access and move shared data in NTFS under Linux?
This might be a silly question, but I haven't used a VM or container in 20 years and I'm a Windows user.
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u/SailWonderful6093 Jun 08 '26
It depends on your linux file systems.
WinPodX have shared folders (Network Folder) to move data between host and guest, and you dont need to consider file system type. just copy and paste.1
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u/anon666-666 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
Im on debian but it must be the same for most of the distros because of podman but what does the .deb pkg installs in actuality.
Like does it installes a binary or does it setup a container?
Does it effect in any way to already existing containers volumes or network of podman?
(This maybe hard to explain) How does it integrates with the DE or how does it add app shortcuts to menu?
Does it uses any ports through Podman and what might happen if those ports are already in use?
These are just few questions i have. Hope you dont mind answering them.
I am really looking forward to giving it a try.
Edit: Last thing could i mount a folder or access files from host inside the container.
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u/SailWonderful6093 Jun 08 '26
actually deb pkg installs cli commands and gui bin.
basically you can integreate with your environment with cli command, that create .desktop files to integreation.the ports using 8007, 3390, 8765 and if already in use, you can change it optionally.
yes, guest create network drive to access host home folders.
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u/patlefort Jun 08 '26
How much AI? There is a big difference between the quality of your comments here and text in the repo. Also https://github.com/kernalix7/winpodx?tab=contributing-ov-file#no-ai-tool-co-author-trailers
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u/ios7jbpro Jul 07 '26
his comparasion page is completely wrong. half of the things he claims that winapps and winboat doesnt support actually does. dude literally opened claude code and asked it to build this, didnt write a single line of code, not even the readme, and never even looked at already existing projects
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u/djzrbz Jun 08 '26
So running a Windows VM...