Files
omarchycn/manual/28-windows-vm.md
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David Heinemeier HanssonandClaude Fable 5 e7ea031f98 Host the manual's images in the repo under manual/images (#6861)
* Host the manual's images in the repo under manual/images

Replaces all learn.omacom.io/manual.omakub.org hotlinks with local webp
files capped at 1600px wide (~20MB total), so the manual is fully
self-contained. Theme and unlock previews are converted from the
canonical themes/*/preview.png files. A handful of illustration shots
are interim conversions of the current images, pending retakes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Retake the illustration screenshots fresh at 3x scaling

Navigation, clipboard history, notices, tmux layouts, prompt, and About
reshot on a clean workspace at 3.13x (1920x1080 logical on 6K) across
ten themes: Tokyo Night, Catppuccin, Gruvbox, Kanagawa, Everforest,
Nord, Osaka Jade, Rose Pine, Matte Black, and Ristretto.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Drop the extra themes chapter from the manual

The community theme gallery will live elsewhere. Removes the chapter
and its 114 gallery images, renumbers the following chapters, and
repoints the two references (theme installs still work via
Install > Style > Theme in the menu).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* Reference the shipped theme previews instead of copying them

The themes chapter now points straight at themes/*/preview.png and
preview-unlock.png, so previews can never drift from the source and
manual/images drops from 6.3MB to 3.5MB.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-14 12:47:38 +02:00

2.8 KiB

Windows VM

Omarchy offers an easy way to run Windows through a Docker VM. You can install it using Install > Windows from the Omarchy menu (Super + Space).

Your machine needs KVM virtualization for this, which most do — but it's sometimes switched off in the BIOS, and the installer will tell you if that's the case. You'll also want the disk space: whatever you give Windows, plus about 10GB for the image itself.

The installer asks how much RAM, how many CPU cores, and how much disk to hand over (64GB or more is the sensible floor), then for a Windows username and password. Leave those blank and you get docker / admin. The download takes a while — 10-15 minutes is normal — and you can follow the progress in the browser at http://127.0.0.1:8006.

windows-vm

Using it

Once it's installed, launch Windows from the app launcher. That starts the VM if it isn't already running and connects you over RDP, full screen. Give it 15-30 seconds on a cold start.

The RDP session carries sound, your microphone, and a shared clipboard, so copying text between Linux and Windows just works. The resolution follows your window, and Omarchy passes your display scaling through, so it's not a blurry mess on a HiDPI screen.

When you close the RDP window, the VM shuts down automatically. If you'd rather leave it running — say you've got something working away in there — launch it with omarchy windows vm launch --keep-alive instead.

The rest of the controls are on the same command:

omarchy windows vm status    # is it running?
omarchy windows vm stop      # shut it down
omarchy windows vm launch    # start and connect

Sharing files

The directory ~/Windows in your home directory is automatically shared with the VM. Put files there if you want them accessible to Windows. The VM has no access to any other part of your file system, so you're safe from anything nasty on the Windows side. Its own virtual disk lives in ~/.windows.

The VM's ports are bound to localhost only, so nothing on your network can reach the Windows machine.

Limits and licensing

There's no GPU passthrough with this setup, so it's not suitable for gaming or video editing. It's a great way to run Microsoft Office or whatever else you absolutely must have.

The version installed is Windows 11 Pro, unactivated. You'll need your own license key to use the gated features.

You can change the resource allocation later by editing ~/.config/windows/docker-compose.yml, which is also where you'd mount a USB device. See all the options on the Dockur Windows project.

To get rid of the whole thing, use Remove > Windows from the Omarchy menu. That deletes the VM's disk and all its data, so make sure anything you care about is out of ~/Windows first.