HARDPASS. Run Windows apps and games on Linux.

Leave Windows. Keep the apps.

Run the Windows apps and devices you rely on, right on your Linux desktop.

Download Free Now

No credit card • No account

Set up in about 10 minutes
Your real gear, plugged straight in
The HardPass launcher. Run a full Windows desktop on your real hardware today, with a seamless per-app mode on the way. Built-in compatibility checker that scans your hardware and detects configuration issues before your first launch. Pick the graphics card your Windows apps get direct access to. Choose exactly which drives and partitions Windows can see and touch. Only give Windows access to the devices you want it to know exist. One-click performance presets tuned to your specific hardware.

Why

Do what Proton and dual boot can't.

Performance

Run Windows drivers and applications with your GPU and CPU. Benchmarks land around 95% of bare metal.

No Reboots

Start Windows from your Linux desktop, do the thing, shut it down. You're right back where you left off.

Isolation

It sees the drives and devices you hand it, and nothing else. Your Linux partitions and data won't be lost by a Windows update.

Real Workflows

15 alpha testers and counting, 70+ people on our Discord. Here's what they're running.

Tablets & Interfaces

Creative Pros

The full Adobe suite, plus the peripherals that rarely survive the move off Windows. Tablets keep pressure and tilt. Audio interfaces keep their own drivers, which is the difference between latency you can work with and latency you can't.

Cinema4D running on a HardPass VM

Windows-Only Instruments

Lab and Bench

The bench instrument whose driver only ever came as a Windows executable connects like it always has. The vendor software sees the instrument and nothing else.

Revit running on a HardPass VM

Local Toolchains

Developers

Visual Studio, .NET and the Android toolchain on one side, your Linux shell on the other, both on the same machine and both offline.

WinForms development on a HardPass VM

Wheels & VR

Gamers

Wheels, pedals, flight sticks, VR headsets. All of it connects to Windows the way it would on a dedicated rig, and your Steam and Epic libraries run at whatever frame rate the card can manage. Test anti-cheat titles with the free version first.

Helldivers2 running on a HardPass VM

Hardware Support

It is real Windows, so it behaves like it.

Hotplug That Works

Plug something in mid-session and Windows chimes and mounts it.

Audio You Can Track To

Your audio interface uses the native Windows drivers. Monitoring in Ableton or FL Studio stays tight.

The Instrument With One Driver

Safely run your lab whose driver last updated during the Obama administration that will never see a Linux port.

The Whole GPU, Not a Slice

CUDA jobs, renders and training runs see the full card and all of its VRAM.

Wheels, Sticks and Headsets

Force feedback, VR headsets, and flight-sticks work with native windows drivers.

Snapshot Before You Break It

Take a snapshot before a driver update, or before installing something you found on a forum at 2am.

Native Packages

Built and tested on Debian Testing first, with native packages for the major distros.

Debian Family

Debian Testing, Ubuntu LTS (26.04+)

Native .deb packages

Fedora Family

Fedora Latest Supported

Native .rpm packages

Arch Family

Arch, CachyOS

Native .pkg packages

Get Started

Install the Package

Grab the .deb, .rpm or .pkg for your distro. The installer handles IOMMU groups, kernel parameters and driver binding, so you don't have to work through six wiki pages to get there.

Hand Over the Hardware

Tick the GPU, the drives and the devices Windows is allowed to touch. Anything you don't tick stays invisible.

Hit Launch

Windows boots on your real GPU in about the time a laptop takes to wake up. Shut it down and the card comes back to Linux.

Coming Soon

Applications Launcher + AMD GPU support

Start Free, Upgrade When Ready

The free version is yours to keep, no credit card and no trial clock. Upgrade only when you want native Windows performance (Desktop) or you need to run Windows and Linux apps together (Seamless).

Personal is for private, non-commercial use. If you use HardPass for commercial purposes or to facilitate financial gain, you need a Commercial license. See our EULA for the full terms.

Free

Perfect for getting started

Alpha Out Now
  • Personal Use Only
  • Automated Driver Provisioning
  • Basic VM Builder
  • Native Drive Access
  • USB Peripheral Access
  • Virtual Machine Launcher (NVIDIA GPU)
  • Hardware Compatibility Tester
  • No Lock-in (LibvirtXML VM)
  • Community Support
Download Free Now

No credit card • No account

Desktop

Coming SoonComing Soon

One-time payment

Pricing announced at launch

Everything in Free +

  • Advanced VM Builder
  • Machine-Aware Performance Presets
  • USB Hotplugging
  • Non-USB Peripheral Access
  • Low-Latency Audio
  • Performance Controls
  • Hardware Fidelity Settings
  • GPU State Manager
  • Email Support

Seamless

Coming SoonComing Soon

One-time payment

Pricing announced at launch

Everything in Desktop +

  • Applications Launcher
  • Snapshots and Rollback
  • Experimental Features
  • Priority Email Support

Frequently Asked Questions

For most workflows, yes. Creative work, office apps, development tools and gaming all run at native performance, so you can keep Linux as your daily driver and only use HardPass for the apps that need it.

If it runs on a real Windows PC, it will usually run in a HardPass VM. Some anti-cheat systems and low-level drivers can be picky, so use our free version to test your specific apps before switching fully.

Yes. The full Adobe suite installs and runs the way it does on any Windows machine. Your drawing tablet keeps pressure and tilt because it connects with its real Windows driver, and audio interfaces keep theirs, so monitoring stays tight enough to track with.

That case is one of the main reasons HardPass exists. If the driver installs on a real Windows machine it installs here, because this is real Windows talking to your real hardware. The instrument connects directly, and the software that drives it sees only what you hand it.

Wine and Proton translate Windows calls into Linux ones on the fly, which works until an app depends on something the translation misses. HardPass runs actual Windows with direct access to your hardware, so compatibility is whatever Windows supports including drivers, so your drawing tablets, audio gear, Windows-only instruments and controllers connect as real hardware. Keep Proton for the games it handles well and use HardPass for everything it can’t.

A computer from 2016 or newer with a dedicated desktop GPU, not an integrated or laptop GPU. Run the built-in compatibility check and HardPass will tell you if it’s supported. For the technical folk: only a single GPU is needed on the system (Nvidia 10-series or newer, or AMD 5000-series or newer) and an AMD or Intel CPU with virtualization and IOMMU enabled in firmware, systemd and QEMU 9.2+.

We develop and test on Debian Testing, so that is the best supported. We also build native packages for Ubuntu LTS (26.04+), Fedora (latest supported), Arch and CachyOS. Linux Mint and Pop!_OS are coming once Mint 23 and the 26.04 base ship. Fair warning: rolling distros like Arch and CachyOS occasionally break things upstream before we can catch up.

Yes. HardPass provides the virtualization platform. You are responsible for providing your own operating system installation media and valid licenses for Windows or any other proprietary software you choose to run.

Yes. Your GPU, monitors, drawing tablet, audio interface, flight sticks, and other peripherals work as if they were plugged straight into a Windows machine.

Ready to Switch to Linux?

Switch without leaving anything behind.

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