Is it possible to transfer a customized Windows with a bunch of programs to a virtual machine and use it fully under Linux?

Question

linux

Guys, a Windows user, over the years a bunch of convenient programs have accumulated, only a few dozen hang in one tray.
Linux I use raids.
There is a desire to completely move to Linux.
Is it possible to transfer the configured Windows to a virtual machine? How convenient and will everything work? Will it work on a different computer with different hardware?

Answer 1

my advice to you, you can't move to linux while keeping your old software baggage.
First of all, you need to move to linux. software is the biggest problem, how do you get used to it, you won't need windows.
Yes, you can’t do without photoshop, and unfortunately partially abandon the office, both work on 95% of the portabilly version in wine (it’s easier than putting all the libraries with you on mana)
But for you to work, utility programs and so on in the tray Not needed.
Just switch to Linux, especially for coding everything is there.
I don’t know what language, but if php, then all my progers are on Linux, I transplanted them with one strong-willed decision, no one rocked at all, and no one came back.
One car with a donkey.
phpstorm - yes
sublime - there is an
Ftp client - not needed at all, just mount and work as with a local system
ssh client - gygy
GIT is

Answer 2

1 - yes you can (but not always easy) .. by the way .. the license is even preserved .. usually .. but not always (behind the back to the stupidity of moving ;)))))))))))
2 - it is convenient only in one case - when you have everything precious under Windows .. have regular snapshots ... and more frequent backups of user files .. and yes! what the doctor ordered
3 - damn it's not convenient :
- Windows always has fresher and better firewood for hardware (well, or in 99%)
- for any hypervisor (native hyper-v, vmware, virtualbox ... God forbid mentioning something else ..) - Windows in the guest?!!!==nightmare (in the sense of Windows as a guest only "flies" under Windows (in hyper-v))
... put Windows in your head, and Lunux in Wirth... legally and free of charge, as well as awesomely convenient == virtualbox (if you want a hackintosh, it's already vmvar...
but nothing else. it's an experience.. 5?... or more years, home evening entertainment))... you can double-check everything yourself. this is also a good way, good luck))
ps I will explain - "firewood for graphics" / "requirements for graphics" - Windows has leadership in the first, and oh%:;e ambitions in the second .. everything .. kirdyk .. this is a bottleneck you will enjoy the disk performance.... and cry from the responsiveness of the virtual windows interface.. .. well.. I warned you ))
upd

spoiler

если что - сам пользуюсь акронисом. бутовские образы на PE, с линуксовыми у меня почему то всегда мышка неадекватит. если нет раздела достаточного обеъма для снятия образа системы, лучше внешний диск или второй комп (по сети). если все сложно - можно поджать (Disk Director) существующий системный раздел, что бы создать/увеличить раздел данных, но в этом случае обязательно делать бекап всего самого важного на внешний носитель (хоть в облака, но пароли тогда под рукой должны сохраниться) ибо ДД очень редко, но тоже может глюкануть, а тогда ни какая р-студия уже ошметков не соберет ;))

Answer 3

Recently transferred using Disk2vhd under KVM
with the qemu-img utility, converted the vhd image (s) to qcow2, the
virtual machine "curled" on the IDE (virt.controller), deleted (recreated) the swap file in shit windows and
then installed (replaced) the virtio device

Answer 4

backup Windows through Veeam Agent (free software) at the volume level (drive C is required, the rest is optional), create a virtual machine, deploy the resulting backup in it. It is likely that everything will take off, you may just need to install drivers for VIRTIO virtual machine devices. And yes, the video card is rather poorly forwarded to the virtual machine.

Answer 5

Can.
Will work without problems.
But only light software - with software such as Photoshop, for example, it will no longer be possible to fully work.
Everything that concerns graphics - you can’t work with this anymore.

Answer 6

There is a universal, but time-consuming way using GRUB4DOS and the Firadisk driver. First you need to repartition the disk a little so that there is a virgin NTFS partition, no smaller than your system C:\. You create a vhd image on it, and check that the image file is not fragmented. Install GRUB4DOS, configure the boot of the current Windows. Then you write the mount parameters in the registry for Firadisk, check. Then deploy the system to the image with an acronis, register booting from the image in GRUB4DOS, check the paths in the registry, edit those that point to the old system partition.
After that, the image can be transferred anywhere, only in a virtual machine on a virtual disk it should also be in the form of an image, you do not need to mount it directly into a virtual machine. GRUB4DOS in the virtual machine must be configured in the same way.

Answer 7

Can.
But why? If the work is not related to linux, this will only lead to the appearance of an extra layer between the equipment and Windows. And, as a result, the ability to work with graphics will completely disappear - Windows will see not an iron card, but something emulated for it by the virtualization environment. If this is a desktop, it will most likely be KVM. So the spice used for the output is so special that no games can stand on it at all. Neither new, nor middle-aged, nor vintage, from 2000-2001.
Office, visio, admin tools - no problem. Photoshop, inventory, 3dmax - definitely not.
There is a success story on forwarding the entire video card to Windows. Everything is verydepends on the equipment - and it happens that the shabby "asrak" mother allows you to do what the heaped-up MSI cannot do.
But imho this situation is only when you work with Windows and Linux at the same time and you really need to have them at the same time. When you work purely in Windows - well, you can do it (provided that the restrictions are acceptable), but nothing will change - Windows still must be licensed, programs (if any) - too.