TibixDev
[Feature] Applications that need Windows settings like correct time zones or to open other applications like browsers do not work
Feature Description
Distro: Linux Mint 22.2
Issue: I tried using apps that needed to open a browser to log in and noticed that they can't open up the browser unless I run it on Windows Desktop where everything is within the virtual space. Same for other settings where an app refused to run because it needed the correct time zone of where I lived and it would not allow me to change it.
All of this can be fixed in Windows Desktop, but those settings do not apply to just running software from the Apps tab in Winboat. This means that there are tons of incompatible software unless you actually run Windows Desktop.
My suggestion is to make Winboat assume that the settings that each software runs is in the Windows Desktop virtual space. That way software knows how to actually open the browser to do certain steps and you can edit the behaviour so it feels more seamless on Linux when you just launch the software and not the entire virtual space.
Use-Case
As I mentioned before, apps outside of the Windows Desktop environment can't interact with each other and are not using the Windows settings from WD which they need to function correctly. The installed Winboat software should be able to interact with each other and not be isolated islands.
Proposed Implementation
No response
Notice
- [x] I have checked the issue tracker and verified that this Feature Request has not been proposed before.
- [ ] I would like to help out implementing this feature
This issue is with FreeRDP in the way it operates. FreeRDP only knows about the app you opened and nothing else. If that app opens a web browser for example that is considered a separate application which FreeRDP knows nothing about. To fix this issue will be difficult. I suspect in the future Winboat will need to move away from using FreeRDP and implement their own custom solution.
The timezone and time issue can be fixed however by modifications to dockur and the windows container it creates.
Hello, have you tried setting the default browser either manually or resetting to Windows defaults?
Hello, have you tried setting the default browser either manually or resetting to Windows defaults?
I set it to Brave in my previous tests and synced the clock. Also, I do not know what changed, but I just tried going into Windows Desktop and fixed the syncing issues, then closed it down and opened a software that needed a browser to launch. Now of some reason Brave was able to open up and confirm the login properly.
So perhaps it is working after all? :D
The primary issues I have left with Winboat are:
- Windows clock needing to be synced manually inside Windows Desktop every time I open Winboat (using Win11 VM).
- My Wacom Cintiq 16 2025 tablet not being able to work with pen pressure through USB Passthrough (experimental feature, so understandable).
- Windows Desktop forces itself to be the exact screen size like my normal desktop with no option to resize, which can be problematic on ultra-widescreens where I only want to work on one half of it.
- Opening software outside of Windows Desktop environment like it is a normal Linux software is a bit bit buggy and unresponsive at times.
- Can't resize with the YAML the actual size of the VM, so I have to re-install to adjust the amount of space I can use to install software.
- GPU acceleration missing.
- Installing on OpenMandriva is a bit of an issue right now, but works on other distros like Linux Mint.
Beyond the scope of this thread I made, but yeah.
Just wanted to add, great work on this project so far! Very impressed by what it can achieve despite some of its limitations. 👍
Hello, I have submitted a PR that should solve the issue with clock syncing https://github.com/TibixDev/winboat/pull/339.
Regarding the changing of disk size, you should stop the docker container first, then edit the compose file by following the guide on this link https://github.com/dockur/windows?tab=readme-ov-file#how-do-i-change-the-size-of-the-disk.
After doing the changes, you should start the container with this command in order to apply the changes
docker compose up -d
Also WinBoat has added support for adding custom FreeRDP arguments (this will be in a new release), so you can just enable advanced settings and add the "/dynamic-resolution" flag in order to resize the Windows Desktop to your liking.
Hello, I have submitted a PR that should solve the issue with clock syncing #339.
Regarding the changing of disk size, you should stop the docker container first, then edit the compose file by following the guide on this link https://github.com/dockur/windows?tab=readme-ov-file#how-do-i-change-the-size-of-the-disk.
After doing the changes, you should start the container with this command in order to apply the changes
docker compose up -d Also WinBoat has added support for adding custom FreeRDP arguments (this will be in a new release), so you can just enable advanced settings and add the "/dynamic-resolution" flag in order to resize the Windows Desktop to your liking.
Nice, thanks! How do I patch my install with your patch btw? :D
Hello, so first you will have to create the time-sync.bat file in the C:\Program Files\WinBoat\scripts directory, with the following content:
@echo off
net stop w32time
net start w32time
w32tm /resync
Then you will have to create a task that runs the script at startup as the SYSTEM user, with this command:
schtasks /create /tn "TimeSyncTask" /sc ONSTART /RL HIGHEST /tr "\"C:\Program Files\WinBoat\scripts\time-sync.bat\"" /RU SYSTEM
Hello, so first you will have to create the
time-sync.batfile in theC:\Program Files\WinBoat\scriptsdirectory, with the following content:@echo off net stop w32time net start w32time w32tm /resync Then you will have to create a task that runs the script at startup as the SYSTEM user, with this command:
schtasks /create /tn "TimeSyncTask" /sc ONSTART /RL HIGHEST /tr ""C:\Program Files\WinBoat\scripts\time-sync.bat"" /RU SYSTEM
Thanks a bunch! I managed to get it to work by using the built in Task Scheduler and directly referencing the file from there. The command did not work for me, but since there is a dedicated GUI for it it was pretty easy to set up after I made that file.
Again, great work on fixing this issue! Glad it was pretty straight forward to patch, since I can imagine a lot of users getting similar issues. :)
Same here, using the task scheduler solved the point Thanks @AdianKozlica
Hello, so first you will have to create the
time-sync.batfile in theC:\Program Files\WinBoat\scriptsdirectory, with the following content:@echo off net stop w32time net start w32time w32tm /resync Then you will have to create a task that runs the script at startup as the SYSTEM user, with this command:
schtasks /create /tn "TimeSyncTask" /sc ONSTART /RL HIGHEST /tr ""C:\Program Files\WinBoat\scripts\time-sync.bat"" /RU SYSTEM
I installed Affinity Studio on Pop!_OS 22.04 and it was working flawlessly for a few days. I was quite pleased with how zippy it was but the failure for Windows time & date to sync was incredibly frustrating to have to manually fix every time I opened up Affinity.
These instructions solved my problem with Windows time & date not syncing unless I manually went into my web browser and used novnc to do so in the Windows OS.
Problem solved...! Until I rebooted my system upon which opening up Affinity Studio now results in the app immediately freezing and staying frozen.
The only thing I did this past few days, besides updating & upgrading my desktop (which is based off of Ubuntu 22.04) is to create the .bat file to automate the the time & date sync on startup.
Is it possible I did something wrong when I created the task? I DID have problems trying to share clipboard across NoVNC and my host OS and ended up having to manually input the task generation command. Besides deleting the .bat file and the task I created for the Windows Task Scheduler is there anything else I need to do to rollback the task I created to automate the time & date sync?
