Basically the title. I want to install windows on my pc without dual booting, and I also wanna try other distros and play around with them. Tho zorin is still my main distro. Can a pc with i5 gen2 cpu, 8gb ddr3 ram, 1gb vram run games on a vm smoothly? How do I make it so that when I insert a flash drive on my pc it would only be read on the vm?
One option is to install VirtualBox, which also works on Windows (in case you need to create virtual machines from another Windows computer, you'll be familiar with the interface). However there's also KVM which is a Linux-native solution for creating virtual machines and runs much smoother.
It's hard to say whether or not games will run "smoothly". It depends on the game, and how much power from the host machine you decide to allocate to the guests. In addition, passing through graphical cards can be tricky and I have no experience with it.
For VirtualBox, you'll need something called Guest Additions to allow the guests to detect the USBs.
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Thanks for the info! I'll check it out and get back here later
Also, don't overlook installing Steam, and running games via Proton. It's quite surprising how many will run without problems, and with a little TLC you can install other game stores via Proton; I run the GOG Galaxy, EPIC and Ubisoft stores this way, which is very handy with all the free titles from the Epic Games Store Fridays.
If you want to run more vintage games, DosBox runs fine in Linux in general.
Now, the reason I gave the above, is it is what moved me away from my Windows installation as a daily driver. It's only booted for specific VR helmet titles [rarely] and some specialist tax-based systems [approximately a week a year], but I plan to move those to a VM later.
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