It’s been a year from this statement (August 23, 2023).
After his Google account has been hacked causing cross-account damages, I have a user who’d be finally willing to transition his small business (up to 10 people) to Qubes, but now with 4.2 he wouldn’t be able to use Win S-HVM’s. He finally clearly understood Qubes benefits and agreed, but he can’t run his business without Win qube(s), simply because he has to run business software that is developed only for Windows.
I am genuinely baffled beyond imaginable to comprehend why devs in at least a decade and a half, aren’t interested in Windows users to transition to Qubes, although there is a clear demand for it. Not to mention recent CrowdStrike “incidents” and possible incentives behind them as a chance to promote Qubes among Windows users.
Well … from a more strict security perspective windows is a risk per se no matter what the support status by qwt devs is. Besides, I couldn‘t find any statement that it‘s no longer supported. AFAIU it‘s just not included/installed by default.
Note: Due to the security problems described in QSB-091, installation of Qubes Windows Tools is currently blocked. Instead, a text file containing a warning is displayed. Currently, it is difficult to estimate the severity of the risks posed by the sources of the Xen drivers used in QWT possibly being compromised, so it was decided not to offer direct QWT installation until this problem could be treated properly. While Windows qubes are, in Qubes, generally not regarded as being very trustworthy, a possible compromise of the Xen drivers used in Qubes Windows Tools might create a risk for Xen or dom0 and thus be dangerous for Qubes itself. This risk may be small or even non-existent, as stated in QSB-091. If you understandthis risk and are willing to take it, you can still install the previous versions of Qubes Windows Tools, using the command
sudo qubes-dom0-update qubes-windows-tools-4.1.68
for Qubes R4.1.2, or
sudo qubes-dom0-update qubes-windows-tools-4.1.69
for Qubes R4.2.0, respectively, instead of the command listed in step 1 of the installation described below. This will provide the .iso file to be presented as an installation drive to the Windows qube in step 3 of the QWT installation.
That means, nothing has (essentially) changed. Just a note concerning the potential risks has been added and the default installation has been „reduced“.
Unlike 4.1, under 4.2 I have not been able to attach external devices (storage or not). Have you? If you haven’t (tried), than I’d like to hear from someone who actually fully deploys Win qube under 4.2.
because this (essentially) changes literally everything for Windows users.
Moderation note: please keep the conversation civil. Not all answers to a given question on a public forum will be of everyone’s liking, but entitled behaviour is detrimental to the entire forum. Please keep that in mind.
Vanilla Qubes is IMO still not for average users: it still is complex and has a very steep learning curve. Conceptually, it’s pretty simple from a user standpoint, but users still have to be computer competent and a vast majority simply aren’t.
So while Windows support is certainly an issue—and an important one—maybe the Qubes Team is working on what they can at the moment. I really don’t know why this isn’t getting done, but the team has worked hard over the years and, to me at least, earned the benefit of the doubt.
I apologize that you don’t have the Windows support you need, but if it’s really important, I would encourage a donation earmarked for Windows support to incentivize work on it. EDIT: My apologies, but this is not the case. Because resources are limited, the Qubes Team does not work on specific projects for donors.
I think many different Qubes OS users need a more or less integrated / secure MS Windows integration. In my case, I need MS Office and some Windows-only applications.
But, using a VM with plain MS Windows in it near a supported environment at work. The integration of Windows 7 in Qubes OS was really perfectly. It would be great to come back to these days to use the power of a VM driven environment using the best tools for communicating, development, research and exotic apps.
Let’s break sys-audio, and hire some outside developer to fix it, me who “complains” on it, to pay for it!
What do you think: how many people will recognize that we (I) don’t talk about new feature request, but to fix the one that worked and once attracted a lot of users to Qubes?
“It’s not all about cash. There’s something in checks.”
I can appreciate this…I still haven’t found anything nearly as good as Solidworks (computer aided design) that is linux compatible. Will likely hold off on updating to Qubes 4.2 until there is proper windows support