Im looking to switch away from windows but i want a windows 11 vm with gpu passthrough to play some games I cant run on linux (like gta V online or microsoft flight simulator or other anti cheat games). But when I am using my vm i want to still be able to use my host for discord or capturing software. Is there a way to achieve this or what is a good alternative?
I would like to create a virtual windows 11 machine based on my current setup, and then I guess uninstall away everything except this one piece of soon to be legacy software that I do not want to lose.
It will shutdown completely in about 7 months.
I want a virtual machine frozen for 'system date' on each launch...
it would suck if I could not connect to two network printers, but I will sneaker net it if I must.
it would also be nice, but not as hard a requirement, to access it's files on a google drive mounted via g-drive.
it would be a swell bonus if I can copy images from clipboard memory on parent pc to this program on virtual (understanding that formats may evolve beyond this piece of software, but I'm talking mostly win+shift+s screen snips....
I do NOT want it to be able to go to IP's outside the local network and call home.
The software Manufacturer however, iS closely connected to the OS vendor ☺
I can seriously see me wanting to keep this going for decades, I've already been using the program for two decades, and have some 5k files for it currently.
Any suggestions of which is best for my needs? Where to go next?
Recently bought a gaming PC but it came w/ Windows 11, so I'm tryna see if I can either switch to a different OS entirely - most likely gonna go w/ Linux Mint Cinnamon - or just use a VM to run a diff OS. I have basic computer skills and have seen VMs being used before and whatnot, never really had the equipment or time to try anything out on my own, so I'm just tryna get a better understanding of things and see what options are best for me. I mostly use my PC for gaming (think Marvel Rivals, BG3, NieR, etc.) and am trying to get into light coding w/ it too.
Now!! My main question is:
If I were to use a VM to run Linux, but in the background my main OS (Win11) happens to install a real screwy update to itself and breaks somehow, would I still be able to access the VM? I feel like this is maybe a bit of an obvious answer, but I wanted to hear the opinions of people who usually work w/ VMs, so any personal anecdotes would help a lot!
Outside of that, the only other questions I have are about user-friendly VM software recs, if anyone has any?
Thanks a bunch, and I hope my questions aren't too complicated/silly 😄