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11 Run Windows Apps 100% Seamlessly on Ubuntu!


sep Filed under: Howto, Microsoft
2008 Author: Rami Taibah

I know that most of us Linux user usually cringe whenever we need to *god forbid* use a Microsoft
WIndows machine. So we created applications like Wine in an effort minimize the contact with that
horrid machine. With Wine a big percentage of Windows only apps could run on Linux, which more or
less takes Windows out of the equation and lets us interact directly with our favorite App. Another
solution of course would be installing Windows on a virtual machine.

But running an app on a virtual machine doesn’t eliminate Windows from the equation. Right? So I will
show you now how to run Windows apps 100% seamlessly on Ubuntu. You know something like this:

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Royal HeHe2-ness is a world where free
software is valued, nay sought for!! While
proprietary software is banished, degraded and
ridiculed till the end of times.
Tools
1. Windows installed on Vmware. ( I assume you have one or know how to create one)
2. rdesktop, you can grab that from apt-get or directly download it from their site
3. SeamlessRDP, download it an extract it in your Windows VM in c:/seamless New Content Alert!
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What to do:
In Windows VM

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1. In the Windows VM, get the local IP address of that machine using the Ipconfig command in DOS.
2. Also give that machine a static IP (Not DHCP). This will help you later when invoking the launch
command, you won’t need to change the IP everytime recent articles recent comments
3. Create a new Windows admin user, let’s call it Linux for now (Password:123123)
4. Finally, we want to make Windows launch without a Desktop. So launch your registry editor (regedit Categories
in run) and navigate to: HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> Windows ->
CurrentVersion -> Policies -> Explorer. Once there create a new DWORD entry and call it Advocacy (12)
“NoDesktop” and then change it’s value to 1. Apple (6)
apps (2)
eeepc (5)
On Ubuntu Linux
Firefox (1)
Gadgets (14)
Right click on your desktop and choose “create launcher”. In type, keep it as is (application), for name General (24)
name it whatever you please (I named it Windows-VM), and in command type in “rdesktop -A -s Google (2)
‘c:\seamless\seamlessrdpshell.exe c:\windows\explorer.exe’ 192.168.1.104 -u linux -p 123123?. Of Howto (13)
course you will need to change the IP to your IP and the password (123123) to whatever password you Humor (14)
chose. Thats it! Double click on the launcher and you will shortly get a the Windows taskbar on the Internet (10)
bottom. Of course if you want to totally get rid of MS nuisance, just enable the autohide option Interviews (1)
Microsoft (11)
Misc. (12)
Tags: rdesktop, vmware, Windows, Wine, XP Observations (2)
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20 Responses to “Run Windows Apps 100% Seamlessly on Ubuntu!”
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website design September 2008 (3)
September 11th, 2008 at 3:34 pm August 2008 (7)
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July 2008 (12)
Works a treat, great for testing web applications in all browser/OS combinations… Can run IE in its native
June 2008 (7)
environment with ease.
May 2008 (6)
A +1 for a very helpful and elegant solution! April 2008 (12)
Thanks a bunch… March 2008 (10)
February 2008 (12)
January 2008 (10)
snapper December 2007 (14)
September 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
November 2007 (4)
October 2007 (1)
This is a great hint. I have a Mac with Leopard and rdesktop compiles just fine (with Dev Tools installed from
CD) and I was able to run my windows app on my X11 installation just fine. Took about 3 minutes to do. September 2007 (1)

Antony Jones Blogroll


September 11th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Aaron Seigo
Why wouldn’t you just use virtualbox which has this built in? Android Developers Blog
Ars Technica’s Open Ended
Be The Signal
Noddy Bocott Novell
September 11th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Copyrighteous
Dana Blankenhorn & Paula Rooney @ ZDNet
ummm… virtualbox in seamless mode? much simpler.
Every Flavour Beans
Foogazi
Rami Taibah Fsckin w/ Linux
September 11th, 2008 at 5:31 pm Gizmodo
How To Forge
@snapper thanks, thats good to know
Inspirated
@Antony Jones: I honestly didn’t know that virtualbox had such a feature, reading comments on Digg made Juno Bacon
me realize that. It does sound a much better solution, haven’t tried it yet. Linux Screw
Lockergnome
Mark Shuttleworth
lazybit
Muhammad Saleem
September 11th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Numerodix Blog
@Rambi Polish Linux
it doesnt only seem like it, it works really nice too. Tamar Weinberg
and installing using it is slightly simpler. Tectonic
and the good think is you can grab the virtualbox oss version for doing so, much nicer than vmware.
The Open Road by Matt Asay
The Open Source Advocate
JC Till2Day: Technology Tips and Tricks
September 11th, 2008 at 6:01 pm Tombuntu
Torrentfreak
This does have the advantage that it does not have to be run on a virtual box. I have used this to run apps Ubuntu Geek
from my office computer locally via the VPN, works just as well that way.
Ubuntu Unleashed

shiro
September 11th, 2008 at 6:03 pm

is it good enough to run games at full speed? can i finally dump my windows box

Userdenied
September 11th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

I don’t know much about the VM software being used here. I’ve only used so far in a full windows
environment so I have a few questions.

How heavy is this on resources? I would LOVE to finally get off XP all together, but I still want to be able to
game. I’ve never tried to run anything with heavy graphics in a VM environment. Will it run as fast but just use
more system resources?

none
September 11th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

Horrid machine? Odd. Maybe you’re doing something wrong. Windows is a source of employment and
entertainment for me. I support about 400 PC’s at Honda. Windows allows them to get work done at work and
away from work. I only hear about problems with Windows on the web. Usually, I only have hardware probelms
at Honda.

Rami Taibah
September 11th, 2008 at 6:11 pm

@shiro and Userdenied: Do you have examples of the apps and/or games you wish to run on VM?

Rami Taibah
September 11th, 2008 at 6:13 pm

@lazybit, I will def check it out! It’s Rami not Rambi

@JC: Didn’t quite get you, what do you mean?

korupt9187
September 11th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
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what is the point of having linux if you are just going to run windows apps on it?

Kal
September 11th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

If I understand correctly, you have not really gotten rid of Windows. You have simply dumped it on another
machine, which is extra hardware that costs you more money.

chrisp
September 11th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

Does it work with a cmd window? Last time I looked at this (2 years ago?) it didn’t They never appeared,
something to do with the way windows renders cmd windows differently.. was a real pain

LinuxUser
September 11th, 2008 at 11:32 pm

Keep in mind this does not work on computers that are part of a domain.

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September 11th, 2008 at 11:41 pm

[...] Run Windows Apps 100% Seamlessly on Ubuntu! | Bringing Linux to the Masses (tags: ubuntu Windows
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September 12th, 2008 at 1:10 am

[...] under Windows. So why not eliminate Windows out of the equation and run it seamlessly on Ubuntu? read
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steiv
September 12th, 2008 at 1:57 am

Yeah but you still need to pay for a valid windows license

David Hawkins
September 12th, 2008 at 6:23 am

You still have to have windows, So by seamlessly, you mean not exactly? Nice work.

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