A post-publication update to João Carrasqueira’s October 31, 2026, XDA Developers review reports that LSW 0.2.1 added .deb and .rpm packages, along with access from Windows to storage on the Linux host. LSW runs Windows 11 in a virtual machine on Linux and presents individual Windows apps as windows on the Linux desktop. That means the setup depends on both your system’s virtualization requirements and the app you want to run.
What LSW runs on Linux
A virtual machine (VM) runs one operating system inside another. LSW runs Windows 11 as the guest system on a Linux host, then displays its apps in individual desktop windows. The project describes GPU acceleration and this app-window approach in its README.
LSW differs from Wine, which translates Windows application calls into Linux equivalents instead of running a Windows guest. LSW uses GPU paravirtualization: the Windows guest sends graphics work through a virtualized interface to the host’s graphics card. That is different from GPU passthrough, which assigns a graphics card to the Windows VM.
Carrasqueira’s review compared LSW with Wine and GPU passthrough. The practical differences he described are:
| Approach | How Windows apps run | Practical trade-off described in the review |
| LSW | Windows 11 runs in a VM; individual apps appear in Linux desktop windows. | The VM uses RAM assigned to it, and application results vary. |
| Wine | A compatibility layer translates Windows application calls for Linux. | In the review’s context, Photoshop and Microsoft Office did not run through Wine. |
| GPU passthrough with Looking Glass | A GPU is assigned to a Windows VM, whose output appears on the host desktop. | The assigned GPU is unavailable to the host while assigned; setup takes work, and some laptops cannot pass through a discrete GPU. |
The project’s current README lists several graphics paths: Direct3D 12 through vkd3d-proton, Direct3D 11 up to feature level 12_1, Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL up to 4.6, OpenCL 3.0, and a native Direct3D 9 driver. Those API capabilities describe the graphics support the project lists; they do not guarantee that every app using those APIs will work reliably.
Requirements that can rule out a setup
The project’s current README lists an x86-64 Linux host, access to KVM through /dev/kvm, a Wayland desktop, and a Vulkan-capable GPU driver. It names AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA GPUs as tested vendors. The Windows guest requirement is Windows 11 24H2, build 26100, or newer.
There is also a boot requirement: the project says its test-signed Windows guest driver needs UEFI without Secure Boot keys enrolled. Check that condition along with the Linux, KVM, Wayland, and Vulkan requirements before planning a setup.
RAM matters while the VM is running, too. Memory assigned to the Windows guest is unavailable to the Linux host during that time.
What apps did the reported test run?
In a hands-on review published by XDA Developers, João Carrasqueira reported using LSW for two weeks, mainly with Affinity. He said Affinity, Photoshop, and Lightroom ran, though performance varied and the creative apps felt slower on his test hardware. Microsoft 365 ran without major issues.
DaVinci Resolve installed and launched, but continuous flickering made video playback unusable in Carrasqueira’s test. Autodesk Fusion was substantially slower in a VM on a laptop with a 13th-generation Intel Core processor. The VM had about 12 GB of RAM allocated, while native Windows had 32 GB available, so the memory allocations differed.
The two Steam games Carrasqueira tried did not work in his test. XDA’s review points to Proton as the better route for gaming. These results describe the specific apps and setup he tried, not a general compatibility guarantee for LSW.
What the reported 0.2.1 update adds
The post-publication update reports that LSW 0.2.1 added .deb and .rpm packages and enabled Windows to access storage on the Linux host. The project’s current README describes host folders appearing as drive letters in Windows.
LSW and Windows activation are separate
XDA lists LSW itself as free for individual use, while the project’s setup asks users to accept the Windows license. The free listing is for LSW software. Microsoft says Windows activation requires a digital license or product key in its activation guidance. Its Windows 11 virtualization licensing guidance describes VM rights according to license type and deployment; the terms for a particular Windows license determine whether it covers a VM.
