Setting up a Windows 11 VM on Zorin

[TheJaredWilcurt]

You can install Windows in a Virtual Machine (VM) and have it run at near native speeds. You may need to enable virtualization in your computer's BIOS during bootup first though.

Ideally you use Zorin for everything you can, installing native versions of software, or using Wine, Bottles, and Proton to install Windows programs directly in Zorin. But for some programs, installing them in Windows is the only option. Using a VM gives you that ability for when you need it, and when done, you can shut down the VM and go back to just using Zorin (or just minimize the VM and switch between them whenever you want).

About Kernal-Level-Anti-Cheat (for gamers)

Click to expand

These instructions are for running Windows specific software. They are NOT bypassing Kernal-Level-Anti-Cheat (KLAC) in games. For that, you could try this or this or this, some advice there is to not install Guest Additions, enable Core Isolation in the Windows VM, and avoid VM hardware setups that give away that you are running the OS in a VM. These untrustworthy gaming companies will try to detect if their spyware game is running in a VM, and won't run. But ultimately, GPU passthrough is the hardest part, and likely is just not worth it.

There is absolutely no benefit in using KLAC to prevent cheating, literally no value in that at all. What KLAC does allow these companies to do is see if you pirated the game. Ahhhh, suddenly the usage of this highly invasive and insecure abuse of technology makes a lot more sense. It gives them full access to the entire computer to get any data they want about you. Some of these companies are legally required to send all of this data directly to the Chinese government. All Chinese owned companies are required to do this. Tencent, for example, owns RIOT games which makes Valorant, which uses KLAC.

My recommendation is: There are literally hundreds... of millions... of video games. 99.9999999% of all games... ever made... do not use KLAC (that's the real percent, by the way, it looks fake with that many "9"s, but that's the actual number). Don't play the 338 games that use KLAC. Not only is it a major violation of your privacy, it's also a massive security issue, nothing should have kernal access to your computer, which is why Linux, rightfully, doesn't allow that shit.

"Okay, but I am a horrible gross little goblin that needs my Valorant and don't care that even people like Ludwig make fun of me for playing it."

You're probably better off dualbooting then. Once you've got Windows installed and booted, follow the Windows 11 Unsuckifying Guide, gl gamers (derogatory).

Back to the tutorial.

Setting up a Windows 11 VM on Zorin:

1. You'll need a copy of Windows 11 to install, you'll want the Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC version. It's the official version used for virtual machines. It is debloated, and won't install updates or require restarts. You can look for an ISO file on MassGrave, such as en-us_windows_11_iot_enterprise_ltsc_2024_x64_dvd_f6b14814.iso, though there may be newer versions available, or you may want one in a language other than English.
2. You'll need a program to create and run your virtual machine.
   • For VirtualBox DO NOT install the version from the Software app, it's outdated and doesn't work. You'll want to go to the actual website, and download the equivalent Ubuntu version. Zorin 17 uses the Ubuntu 22 (Jammy) version. Zorin 18 uses Ubuntu 24 (Noble). After downloading, double click the .deb file to have it install in the Software app.
   • For VMWare, their site is horrendous, someone on Reddit said this is their Linux download, you may be able to find a newer link on Reddit, or jump through the hoops on their terrible site. After downloading, run these commands to install:
     • chmod a+x VMware-Workstation-Full-17.5.0-22583795.x86_64.bundle
     • sudo ./VMware-Workstation-Full-17.5.0-22583795.x86_64.bundle
   • You can also try Virtual Machine Manager - This one has more advanced hypervisor options and is much more complex. Consult this existing tutorial. This was much harder to get working, but I was able to in the end. VirtualBox is just so much easier to work with. One benefit though is I was able to change the Video setting for the VM from the default (QXL) to VirtIO, which stopped Photoshop from complaining about the GPU on startup. Which isn't something I can do on VirtualBox. So for GPU related tasks, Virtual Machine Manager may be worth the extra effort. Though DaVinci Resolve still says "GPU Initialization Failed. Could not initialize OpenGL." and then closes. Getting it to work probably isn't worth the effort without just dual-booting, which personally I'm not going to do.
   • And lastly WinBoat, which at time of writing is still in Beta. But even so, it worked pretty well, but definitely the worst out of all of these. It does require jumping through a lot more hoops to set up Docker first before it would run, and even more hoops to uninstall it. I feel like they could completely automate the install/uninstall process though, and maybe they will after it comes out of beta. The biggest issue with this is that interacting with the VM happens in a browser tab, rather than a dedicated client. This means the common keyboard shortcuts like Alt+Tab, Ctrl+Tab, Alt+F4, etc, all go to your browser or host OS (Zorin), not Windows or the programs running in Windows. Everything was able to install like normal though. The fun part about WinBoat is that you don't have to run the entire OS in a Window/tab, instead you can launch any of the installed programs as their own windows. Dragging them around and resizing them is very smooth, but ultimately, loading up Photoshop, either windowed, or in a full desktop, still had the GPU warning. And worse, when windowed, no click events would be registered in Photoshop. WinBoat is a lot of extra work for a worse outcome than just using VirtualBox, for a gimmick that just doesn't work that well. Would be cool if it did, and they are still working on it, so maybe one day. You can try it out, but honestly, you'll either have stuff that is simple enough that WINE would handle it, or complex enough that it just won't run in WinBoat and you'd either need dualbooting or just a more stable VM like VirtualBox.
3. I'm assuming you are using VirtualBox, but the setup is pretty similar for alternatives.
   • Open the program, go to Machines > New
   • Select the ISO image you downloaded for Windows
   • Give the VM a name, like Win11
   • Check the box for Unattended installation, give it a username, like admin, and a password like password, and a host name like win11, and a domain name like myguest.virtualbox.org.
     • NOTE: If your VM Tool doesn't have an "unattended installation" option, then when you get to the Windows Install steps, pick Win 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC to install, it will reboot and ask for your location/language/keyboard settings. Skip that, press SHIFT+F10 to open command prompt and run start ms-cxh:localonly to create a local account without the Microsoft account nonsense.
   • Check the box for Install Guest Additions
   • You'll want at least 4096 MB of RAM for Windows, though 8192 MB is better if you have 16+GB of RAM. You can change this later after the VM is created too. Just shut it down and edit the VM properties.
   • Number of CPUS should be 2-4, but no more than 50% of the total CPU's you have.
   • Check Use EFI
   • Set the virtual hard drive size to at least 80GB, more if you think it will need it (80GB which is fine for Linux VMs, I tend to use 120GB as the max size for my Windows VMs). This is harder to change later. Fortunately, as long as you don't "pre-allocate" the space, it won't actually take up that much space immediately, it will just slowly take up more space as needed while using the VM, though it may not give the space back. So if you download a big file inside the VM and then delete it, the virtual disk size will go up but may not go back down. Pick either VDI or VMDK (if you prefer the virtual drive to be in smaller, more portable 2GB chunks).
   • Finish, this should launch the VM with the Windows installer running automatically.
4. Once Windows is booted up in the VM, go through the steps in the Windows 11 Unsuckifying Guide.
5. Some settings, like Dark mode, require OS activation, there are many sites that provide legitimate keys for free, or you can download this repo and do the manual steps. This may require disabling Windows defender and real time monitoring, etc. After running, reboot.
6. You may need to setup USB passthrough for the VM if it isn't enabled by default, this lets the VM have direct access to things plugged into the computer, like video game controllers, webcams, drawing tablets, etc.
7. And finally, unless you want to have to change your password constantly for no reason:
   • Start > run > type compmgmt.msc and hit enter
   • Local Users and Groups > users > right-click on your user > properties
   • Check the option for the password to never expire

And that's it.