Windows 11 machines

A Windows 11 machine is a current PC: UEFI firmware with Secure Boot, a TPM 2.0, and your computer’s own hypervisor. Microsoft’s own ISO installs with no tricks to get past its requirements.

Which Windows 11

macOS

Windows 11 on Arm, from Microsoft’s Windows 11 ISO for Arm64. It runs on the Mac’s hypervisor. Most x64 programs run in it too, through Windows’ own emulation, but drivers must be built for Arm64.

Windows 11 for x64 doesn’t run on a Mac.

Windows

Windows 11 for x64, from Microsoft’s Windows 11 ISO. It needs the Windows Hypervisor Platform: turn it on under Turn Windows features on or off and restart.

Linux

Windows 11 for x64, from Microsoft’s Windows 11 ISO. It needs KVM. Without hardware virtualization the machine is too slow to use.

Install it

1. Click New Machine and pick Windows 11 as the Family.
2. On the Storage page, set CD in drive to the Windows 11 ISO. The machine starts with 4 GB of memory, up to 4 processors and a 64 GB disk. Give it more memory or processors on the System page if you can spare them.
3. Click Create, then Start.
4. The machine boots from the ISO by itself. You don’t need to press a key for “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD”.
5. Go through Windows setup as usual. Setup asks for a local account, not a Microsoft account.

Every Windows 11 machine has a second CD drive with the 2ksbox drivers disc. Windows setup finds its drivers there by itself, including the network card on Arm.

The clipboard and a shared folder

The first time you sign in, Windows installs the 2ksbox agent from the drivers disc by itself. The agent shares the clipboard and the folder, and installs the display driver. On a Windows that was installed without the drivers disc, open the disc in File Explorer and run 2ksbox\install.cmd once instead. It asks for administrator rights.

• Clipboard, on the Input page, is on for a new Windows 11 machine. Text you copy on either side can be pasted on the other.
• Shared folder, on the Network page, gives Windows one folder of your computer’s to read and write, on a Mac or a Linux computer. Windows needs Networking turned on to reach it. The agent puts it on a drive letter, counting down from Z:. Windows also sees it as \\10.0.2.4\host, with user 2ksbox and password 2ksbox.

2ksbox never sends what you copy, or the folder’s files, over the internet.

The screen

Windows 11 has one screen. Setup and the first start show it at a fixed size. When you first sign in, the agent installs the display driver from the drivers disc, and from then on the screen follows the window’s size. Make the window bigger and the desktop grows.

An experimental, smoother display driver

The drivers disc also carries 2ksbox’s own build of the display driver, in 2ksbox\experimental-display. It gives Windows a vertical blank in step with your screen, so the desktop scrolls and animates more smoothly. Nothing installs it. Microsoft hasn’t signed it, so it only loads with Windows in test mode:

Caution

• A Test Mode watermark stays on the desktop, and Windows then loads any test-signed driver, not only this one. That makes Windows less secure.
• If Smart App Control is on, you must turn it off, and Windows can’t turn it back on without being reinstalled.
• It’s experimental. The screen can stay black. Take a snapshot first.

To install it, read the folder’s README.txt, then run its install.cmd. It warns you twice before it changes anything. The first run only turns test mode on. Restart Windows, run it again, and restart again. The README also says how to undo it.

The experimental 2ksbox display adapter

Display adapter on the Display page can also be 2ksbox adapter (experimental): 2ksbox’s own display card, whose driver gives Windows Direct3D 9, 10 and 11 on your computer’s graphics card, and screen sizes up to 3840x2160. 2ksbox asks before it takes it. It’s an early build, for x64 Windows 11 and for Windows 11 on Arm.

Like the smoother display driver, Microsoft hasn’t signed it, so it only loads with Windows in test mode, with the same costs:

Caution

• A Test Mode watermark stays on the desktop, and Windows then loads any test-signed driver. Some games’ anti-cheat won’t start.
• Test mode needs Secure Boot off, which it is on a machine 2ksbox made.
• It’s experimental. Parts of the screen can draw wrong, and the driver can stop and restart. Take a snapshot first.

To install it, open the guest tools disc in File Explorer: the WDDM64 folder on x64 Windows, WDDMARM on Windows on Arm. Run wddm-install.ps1 in it from an administrator PowerShell (powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File wddm-install.ps1), then restart Windows. Until the driver is in, Windows draws on the basic screen. To go back, pick the standard adapter again.

Note

A Windows 11 machine has no shader by default, no floppy, no Voodoo 2 and no MIDI port. It’s for modern Windows. Old games belong on a Windows 98 or XP machine.

The TPM and cloning

Each machine has its own TPM, saved with the machine. When you clone a Windows 11 machine, the copy keeps the same TPM unless you tick Give the copy a new TPM. If Windows uses BitLocker, a copy with a new TPM asks for the recovery key.