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Awesome Windows on Linux (Only funny)

Awesome Windows on Linux Logo

A collection of projects that bring the Windows experience to Linux — from hardcore reverse engineering to hilarious pranks.

en-US | zh-CN

Awesome License: MIT

This list collects open-source projects that replicate, simulate, or parody the Windows ecosystem on Linux. Projects are grouped by form (CLI tools, GUI apps, system interaction, low-level/reverse engineering), and each carries an intent tag — [Practical] for things you can actually use, [Prank] for things you should not run on a production machine.

Contents

Info

I don't know what to put here either, haha.

Awesome Windows on Linux

Intro: A curated collection of open-source projects that replicate, simulate, or parody the Windows ecosystem on Linux.

Restores: Curating and organizing projects that recreate Windows.

CLI Tools

Command-line tools that restore Windows terminal commands on Unix.

Linux-Autoplay [Prank]

Intro: A USB drive notification fix experience for Linux users

Restores: AutoPlay (USB notification repair)

PowerShell-For-Linux [Practical]

Intro: A PowerShell-style shell interpreter for Linux, implemented in pure Go with zero third-party dependencies, supporting both the 5.X and 7.X command sets with a Chinese/English UI.

Restores: The Windows PowerShell command-line experience: an object pipeline, 128 built-in cmdlets with 77 aliases, and .ps1 scripting, letting you drive Linux with PowerShell-style commands.

WSL-for-Linux [Prank]

Intro: A WSL-like experience for Linux users

Restores: Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Winget-for-Linux [Prank]

Intro: A shell script wrapper that brings the Winget CLI experience to Linux.

Restores: Winget from App Installer (https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nblggh4nns1)

aptx

Intro: An enhanced apt wrapper that recommends similar software after installing/removing packages.

Restores: The 'bundleware recommendations' nuisance experience when installing software.

cmd [Practical]

Intro: A faithful reimplementation of Windows cmd.exe written from scratch in pure C89, with zero POSIX dependencies, running on any Unix.

Restores: The Windows cmd.exe command interpreter (batch scripting, pipes/redirection, 40+ built-in commands).

Windowshit [Practical]

Intro: A collection of Windows command-line tools rewritten in Rust, running cross-platform.

Restores: 24 Windows command-line tools (ipconfig / ping / robocopy / systeminfo...).

GUI Applications

Graphical apps that recreate Windows desktop interfaces.

Devices Manager for Linux [Prank]

Intro: A device manager for Linux

Restores: Device Manager

Lindows Troubleshooting [Prank]

Intro: I fixed the bug that prevented using Troubleshooting on Linux and wasted time. Please be cautious when opening this program, as it will waste one precious minute of your life.

Restores: Troubleshooting

  • License: MIT
  • Authors: BobbyChengCN0518
  • Primary language: zh-CN
  • Supported languages: zh-CN / en-US
  • Intro video: (pending)

Lindows_Control [Prank]

Intro: I fixed the bug where the control panel couldn't be used on Linux. The language can be configured via a JSON file, with zh and en being the default supported languages

Restores: Control

  • License: MIT
  • Authors: BobbyChengCN0518
  • Primary language: zh-CN
  • Supported languages: zh-CN / en-US
  • Intro video: (pending)

Linux-Auto-Fix [Prank]

Intro: A handy auto-repair tool for Linux users

Restores: Startup Repair

Linux-Sticky-key [Prank]

Intro: A sticky key experience for Linux users

Restores: Windows Sticky Keys

Linux-Store [Prank]

Intro: A Microsoft Store experience for Linux users

Restores: Windows Store

LinuxDefender [Prank]

Intro: A non-functional antivirus software for Linux

Restores: Windows Defender

Ribbon-File-Manager

Intro: use GTK to replicate the Ribbon File Manager from Windows 8 to Windows 10 on Linux

Restores: Windows8.x/10 Ribbon File Manager

UMessageBox [Practical]

Intro: I fixed the bug where UWP pop-ups didn't show up on Linux

Restores: UWP pop-up on Windows 10

WinSAT for *nix

Intro: A standalone software designed to provide a Windows-style system performance assessment and experience index.

Restores: Windows System Assessment Toolkit

Windows Search [Prank]

Intro: A standalone app that brings the poor search experience from Windows to the *nix world

Restores: Windows Taskbar Search and Indexing Features

WindowsWidget-for-Linux

Intro: A Linux desktop widget panel modeled after the Windows 11 Widgets board; it slides in from the right edge of the screen and integrates news, weather forecasts, and a date/clock display, while offering a graphical settings interface.

Restores: Windows Widget

  • License: MIT License
  • Authors: phillin-liu
  • Primary language: zh-CN
  • Supported languages: zh-CN
  • Intro video: (pending)

Animated-plasma-task [Practical]

Intro: Adds Windows-style animations and decorations to the Linux (KDE) taskbar.

Restores: The Windows taskbar animation experience (icon press scale, minimize bounce, window entry/exit animations, hover highlight and indicator bar).

  • License: GPL-2.0
  • Authors: SkyShadowHero
  • Primary language: zh-CN
  • Supported languages: en-US / zh-CN
  • Intro video: (pending)

Explorer-for-Linux [Prank]

Intro: A desktop program that deeply replicates the Win11 file-management experience on Linux.

Restores: The Win11 File Explorer interface (including the classic 'Not Responding' experience).

Explorer-for-Linux (xbodwf) [Practical]

Intro: A Windows 11 style file manager for Linux, built with Electron + Vue and WinUI-style web components.

Restores: The Win11 File Explorer experience (Fluent/WinUI look and feel).

  • License: GPL-3.0
  • Authors: xbodwf
  • Primary language: zh-CN
  • Supported languages: zh-CN
  • Intro video: (pending)

linux-winver [Prank]

Intro: I fixed the bug where Linux non-KDE desktop environments don't have winver.

Restores: winver

mmclinux [Practical]

Intro: A cross-platform tool mimicking the Windows Management Console, built with tkinter.

Restores: The MMC console (MDI child windows, snap-ins, window embedding).

NotepadOnLinux [Practical]

Intro: A standalone program that recreates Windows Notepad on Linux.

Restores: The Windows Notepad interface.

openconsole_linux [Practical]

Intro: A Linux port of Microsoft's Windows Terminal / OpenConsole terminal engine (~95% upstream code), hiding Windows API dependencies behind a lightweight compatibility layer, with a Qt6 terminal-grid frontend.

Restores: Restores conhost.

regedit [Practical]

Intro: A system configuration file browser that maps /etc, ~/.config, and /boot to a registry tree and auto-detects multiple config formats.

Restores: The registry editor interface (left tree + right key/value list).

runbox [Practical]

Intro: A run dialog on Linux that pops up with Super+R, with an Adwaita look following the system theme.

Restores: The Win+R 'Run' dialog.

SAS-for-Linux

Intro: A Windows 11-style Ctrl+Alt+Delete secure attention screen implemented in C++/Qt 6, supporting X11 and Wayland (GNOME/KDE/Sway/Hyprland/Niri).

Restores: The Windows 11 secure attention screen (lock / switch user / log out / change password / task manager + network / accessibility / power).

taskschd4Linux [Practical]

Intro: A Windows Task Scheduler implemented in Python, featuring an MMC-style interface layout and supporting cron and systemd timers.

Restores: Windows Task Scheduler, Most of the UI and behavior

System Interaction

Projects that hook into system services: PAM modules, popups, global hotkeys.

Linux-Activator

Intro: Restored the 'Activate Windows' window (without watermark; installing activate-linux is recommended), and opened up the configuration file and interface to add more restrictions to 'unactivated Linux'.

Restores: Restores the 'Activate Windows' window (without watermark)

adpop [Prank]

Intro: A general-purpose ad-popup service rendered fully from scratch, callable by other software.

Restores: Windows-style malicious ad popups (animated images / video / audio / popup spam / non-closable).

libobscure [Prank]

Intro: Replace the error messages with Windows-style error codes.

Restores: Windows-style error codes.

libschrodinger

Intro: Pops up an "application error" dialog when a program encounters a fatal error.

Restores: The "application error" dialog.

Linux_uac [Prank]

Intro: Recreates Windows UAC (User Account Control) on Linux via a custom PAM module: the screen dims and freezes, then a password prompt appears when you run sudo.

Restores: The Windows UAC dialog (dim & freeze + password check + Yes/No + chime).

Low-level / Reverse Engineering

Binary-format and kernel-adjacent projects: DRM rendering, PE/ELF, system internals.

bsod [Prank]

Intro: A blue-screen demo tool that renders directly on the Linux physical display, grabbing DRM Master, with multi-language and log monitoring.

Restores: The Win10 Blue Screen of Death interface (with QR code).

LinuxForWindows

Intro: A binary conversion tool that offline-converts Windows PE executables into Linux ELF at the file-format level.

Restores: PE / ELF file format structures (header, section table, program headers, dynamic segment).

LSW [Practical]

Intro: A production-grade Linux Subsystem for Windows written in pure Rust, providing 100% architectural and operational parity with Microsoft WSL. Official website & playground: https://lsw.int0.cc

Restores: WSL1/WSL2/WSLg ecosystem on Linux (kernel-level PE execution, lswpath path translation, LSWENV cross-environment pipeline, ConPTY bridge, Smart Dual-Engine Auto-Routing).

  • License: MIT
  • Authors: LING71671
  • Primary language: zh-CN
  • Supported languages: zh-CN / en-US
  • Intro video: (pending)

windows_update_in_linux [Prank]

Intro: A prank program showing a fake Windows update screen: 50% chance of a real update+reboot, 50% chance of a blue screen.

Restores: The Windows update screen (success progress / failure blue screen).

Contribute

Welcome to submit PRs to add more "Windows on Linux" projects. Each entry should include: project link, license, authors, primary/supported languages, a one-line intro, and what Windows part it restores.

Create your own project entry

Run python main.py new, pick a group, and enter a project name when prompted. The script creates the project directory (it prints the generated path) with one JSON file per language.

Generated directory structure:

my-awesome-tool/
├── zh-CN.json
└── en-US.json

Open the project JSON and fill in the fields:

{
  "name": "my-awesome-tool",
  "intro": "",
  "restores": "",
  "license": "",
  "url": "",
  "authors": [],
  "lang_primary": "zh-CN",
  "lang_supported": ["zh-CN"],
  "intent": "practical"
}
Field Required Description
name yes Project display name
url yes Repository URL
intro yes One-line intro
restores yes Which Windows part it restores
license yes Open-source license
authors yes List of authors, each with name and url
lang_primary yes Primary language
lang_supported yes Array of supported languages
video no Intro video link
intent yes Intent tag: practical / prank / mixed

intent is orthogonal to the form-based group: practical = usable/safe, prank = parody/not for production, mixed = both.

After editing, regenerate and validate:

python main.py generate
python main.py lint

Then commit and open a Pull Request:

git add .
git commit -m "feat: add my-awesome-tool"
git push

Create the Pull Request; it merges once all Actions pass.

Troubleshooting

  • lint fails: run python main.py check and python main.py cl to locate the issue.
  • Language asymmetry: each project must have a JSON file for every language present in project-meta/.
  • Removing an entry: delete the project directory, then re-run generate.

License

MIT © 2026 windowix

Generated at: 2026-10-12 03:15 UTC

About

Awesome Windows on Linux Projects

Topics

awesomeawesome-listawesome-listslinuxlistwindows

Resources

Readme
MIT license

Code of conduct

Code of conduct
Activity
Custom properties

Stars

83 stars

Watchers

0 watching

Forks

17 forks
Report repository

Contributors

Languages