• vort3@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    Now I wonder if I dual boot linux / windows, why is there no software that can basically use my existing windows installation from another partition to run windows software (like, maybe load it into VM or something)?

    • Coriza@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      You can. You can boot a windows partition in a VM. IIRC it is not really advisable but you can do it.

      • addie@feddit.uk
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        3 days ago

        I actually find that starting a ‘raw disk partition’ virtual machine for Windows is one of the best ways to run it. Stops it from fucking up your BIOS and EFI when it does an update. You can restart into it when you want the ‘native GPU’ for games.

        Of course, the even better way to stop Windows from fucking up your hardware is to not allow it anywhere near your hardware in the first place…

    • lime!@feddit.nu
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      3 days ago

      you can run windows software on a windows partition using wine, but it is extremely brittle, since you’re going from a case-insensitive windows file system as well.

      • bless@lemmy.ml
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        3 days ago

        Another problem would be the dependencies and initial configuration would not be present unless the software was built with portability in mind

        • lime!@feddit.nu
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          3 days ago

          i was thinking maybe a hypothetical “global wine” could use the windows drive itself as its drive_c, which would bypass that issue.

    • Fuckwit McBumCrumble@midwest.social
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      3 days ago

      Parallels on Mac OS lets you do that with the Windows partition. I know VMware and other virtualization tools let you mount a physical disk into a VM so it should be possible. It’s just kinda janky, and Windows doesn’t always like it when you switch from physical to virtual.