The day it becomes just about Windows and android only, I will leave it for good. But we are going off-topic here. I am not saying that Windows should not be supported but resources should be targeting future.
Windows 11 only requires 12 GB of space, Windows 7 only needs 8 GB.
Why are your requiring so much space?
[ADDN]
I should mention, Iâm talking the minimum requirements for the installation size of the system if you use the MS versions with all the bloatware like Internet Explorer, Edge, Windows Media Player, Windows Photos, etcâŚ
You REQUIRE a USB Qube to be able to do anything these days.
Or else have a separate PCIE-USB card.
Well, to address that too: if something is off-topic, you started it. So either tell us, because you avoided to answer, what the Qubes OS is about then, or edit your post that caused âoff-topicnessâ:
If Iâm asked itâs well on-topic! Because it seems that many are not aware what about Qubes OS is and we have to raise awareness!
I am talking about he official requirements, including necessary tools (compiler, utilities, space for update, âŚ) to be meaningful for use and development.
I am afraid that if such a future is not to be one of a niche system, the problems with Windows support will have to be solved. Letâs face it, whether we like it or not: Linux at the desktop is, compared with Windows, such a niche system. So, if Qubes intends to get a broader user base, it has to address the needs of Windows users, who are most in need of getting a secure environment due to the lousy security of Windows.
An additional benefit is that Qubes can be used as a very efficient tool to migrate, step by step, out of the vendor lock-in caused by the Windows software environment, which may pose a risk for the independence of its users. Setting up Qubes as such a migration tool, however, will require decent support for the Windows environment that should be abandoned.
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Ahh, makes sense. I just have the system in 12 GB with VSCode, Delphi, Bluefish, and a few other tools for coding in multiple different coding languages.
Data storage is a separate thing all together for me. I just move the project that I want to work on to the guest at the time. Sometimes I just leave things there, but I find 12 GB enough myself.
Nothing with developing images and graphics and all, as that would consume resources.
I also have the web browser, that alone is 800 MBâŚ
Some more results on testing the new alpha version of QWT with Windows 11 24H2 in Qubes R4.2.4:
- After installation, the VM behaved similarly to Windows 10. It started with a full screen (1920 x 1200), but without a taskbar. Reducing the screen size to something like 1280 x 1024 restored the taskbar, and the system could be used normally.
- Changing the screen resolution to some intermediate value could result in flickering for several minutes.
- Performance was not good, but it was somewhat better than with 23H2. Increasing the memory from 6 to 12 GiB made no noticeable difference, so the performance problems donât come from lack of memory.
- Going to seamless mode worked. Going back crashed to Qube Manager, but it worked, too.
- Now, a few days later, seamless mode has changed: Going to seamless mode just removes the Windows task bar but lets the VM stay in non-seamless mode. Going back to non-seamless mode restores the task bar again, and this time, the Qube Manager does not crash. (Is it a new version? The version displayed is 4.2.9-1.fc37.)
- If the Qubes graphics driver is uninstalled, trying to switch to or from seamless mode crashes the Qubes Manager again.
Some more observations on the installation:
- Contrary to QWR 4.1.69-1, I do not see any Qubes graphics driver in Windows. Neither the device manager nor the services or the driver directories under
C:\Windows\system32\show anything looking like such a driver. Where does it hide? - The Windows installation had the user directories in
D:\. Trying to have them moved toQ:\during the QWT installation left them there, although a short script was briefly shown during the QWT installation - too fast to read it.
@marmarek One final idea regarding QWT under Windows 7: Apart from seamless mode, QWT version 4.1.69-1 does now work under Qubes R4.2.4, so I could close the previously open issue #8328. This opens a new possibility to get a fully functional QWT for W7 - even if the new version with Xen drivers version 9.1.0.0 cannot be made compatible with W7 - if just the new Qubes graphics driver could be installed in W7, together with the old QWT. Regarding the current security concerns of the old QWT, such a hybrid version would not be ideal but still better than having nothing at all, and, anyhow, W7 should be best run without internet access, and then the risk might be bearable.
The âvideo driverâ from new QWT cannot work on W7, for similar reasons why the driver from W7 in old QWT didnât work in W10. Windows completely changed graphics driver interface between those versions (XPDM vs WDDM). And in fact the new gui-agent-windows doesnât use custom video driver at all, it uses native APIs present in W10 that arenât available in W7.
If a community developer wants to spend time and salvage the previous XPDM driver, then make it compatible with the current iteration of QWT internals, would the Qubes OS project accept it as gui-agent-windows-7, review it and sign it (once and if the Windows driver signing facility is available).
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Iâm not excluding a possibility for publishing community W7 QWT build. But unlikely to be signed with official cert (when that will happen), as that will implicitly take responsibility for this build - not part of community-supported packages. Shouldnât be worse than the previous QWT for W7 though.
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Thatâs unfortunate, but such things are to be expected from Microsoft. But perhaps there is a possibility to go the way @alimirjamali described. I hope so very much. Anyhow, thanks a lot!
A kind reminder that the way MS Office manages its windows makes its seamless mode unusable in Qubes unless someone invents a dirty hack to merge borders.
With the current implementation of the alpha version of QWT, seamless mode works somewhat randomly.
- Now I checked Windows 10 again, and at first seamless mode worked.
- Then, after changing the screen resolution in non-seamless mode, the VM became unresponsive and had to be killed.
- After the next boot of the VM, seamless mode could no longer be activated, but trying to switch it on or off killed the Qube Manager.
- Booting once again the VM made it compatible with Windows 11: Now, switching seamless mode on just removes the Windows task bar, stays in non-seamless mode, and switching seamless mode off restores the tsk bar again. The Qube Manager does not crash anymore on these operations.
I wonder what comes next. Fortunately, I donât need Windows 10 or 11 for productive work! 
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It has been my experience that seamless mode often results in transparent windows (i.e., a window whose contents donât render, and I can see âthroughâ it to my KDE desktop or other windows).
(Windows 7 on a qube I simply ported from 4.1 to 4.2, but I had this issue on 4.1 as well).
If you want to see real uglyness try to run MS Office :))
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Thatâs one of the main reasons why I have given up M$. 
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Can I understand the reasons why people canât run Windows as HVM for time being?
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In Qubes R4.1 and R4.2, thereâs no problem running Windows HVMs; I do it every day. R4.3 still is something different: Starting the HVM just shows an unresponsive, partially white window, and the HVM has to be killed.
I am not sure if you are aware of Elliot Killickâs qvm-create-windows-qube utility. This utility is used for the current automated tests and checks of QWT development. There are some automated tests are being currently performed on Qubes OSâs automated openQA testing platform for Microsoft Windows. Here is a the last video output of it from 3 hours ago (direct link if browser does not support playback):
p.s. There are two tests (and two installations). One for seamless mode and one for ordinary. They have different videos.
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