Step by step: real Windows apps on the AgentBox, with WinBoat

Some programs need real Windows, not a compatibility layer: Microsoft 365, accounting programs with their own database server, ERPs. The Windows apps tile on an AgentBox runs a full Windows in a virtual machine on your box, and its programs appear as normal windows on the cloud desktop, mixed in with everything else.

Step 1: check the box

Windows in a virtual machine takes resources: the Windows apps tile in the console states the exact minimum of processors, memory and disk, and warns you if your plan is below it. If so, resize the box from the console in a few minutes and come back. One honest detail: you bring the Windows licence, and the tile asks you to confirm that before the install.

Step 2: install and be patient

After you click Install, the first start takes 20 to 40 minutes: the box downloads and configures Windows in the background. It is the perfect moment to hand the agent something else; the install does not block it at all.

Step 3: programs as normal windows

This is the difference from classic remote Windows: you do not get a Windows desktop inside a rectangle, you get each of its programs as a separate window on the AgentBox desktop. Excel next to the agent's terminal, the accounting program next to the Linux browser. You install Windows programs normally, from their own installers, in the WinBoat window.

Step 4: the agent and Windows

To the agent, Windows windows are desktop windows like any other: it sees them, clicks, types. You can ask it to key the invoices from the PDF folder into the accounting program or export the weekly report from the ERP. At password or decision steps, it hands control to your phone, as usual.

Step 5: pick the right tool

Windows apps costs resources, so use it only where needed. The healthy order: ordinary programs run natively on Linux; many Windows programs run under Wine, free and with no virtual machine; and Windows apps remains for the rest, the programs that truly demand Windows. All three can live on the same box.

What you end up with

• Real Windows on your box, its programs as normal windows.
• Microsoft 365, accounting and ERPs, operable by the agent too.
• One cloud desktop for everything: Linux, Wine and Windows.