FreeRDP support for using Windows windows directly on macOS

[giovariot]

I recently came across this very interesting Linux app to run windows windows on linux, called win boat https://github.com/TibixDev/winboat).
I'm not sure whether it would be possible from an UTM Virtual machine to open freerdp and using Microsoft remote app protocol in order to acccess the apps but it definitely seems possible as it is basically done through freerdp on linux.

This would put utm on par or better than Parallels and would maybe also enable direct USB passthrough, currently missing from UTM. Another option would be to use the official Microsoft Windows app to achieve the same result.
Is any of these options feasible? Does anyone have any suggestions in setting that up?

[conath]

This peaked my interest, so I researched for a bit and got something working with my Windows 11 23H2 VM, based on some info from the Cassowary project which was linked from Winboat.

Here is how to set this up, assuming you have a Windows 11 VM:

1. Start the VM and Enable Remote Desktop inside Settings -> System
2. Change registry to enable any RemoteApp (see StackOverflow or use the setup.reg file from Cassowary release zip)
3. If Microsoft Account is used in the VM, turn off "only windows Hello" for sign in (see StackExchange)
4. Shut down the VM, make sure its network mode is "Shared" (or "Bridged" if you need that)
5. 5. Start the VM, log in with your password (not Windows Hello PIN) (this is necessary once after changing the setting)
6. In the VM, create a RDP file

Start -> search Remote Desktop Connection, enter the IP of your VM (e.g. 192.168.64.20) and the username (email incase of MS Account), click Save As... (example: win11utm.rdp). Transfer the file to the host Mac.

7. Edit the RDP file to add these lines (in this example, I tested cmd.exe, you can run anything from there including exporer.exe):

the line remoteapplicationmode:i:0 might exist, if so replace with this block

remoteapplicationmode:i:1
remoteapplicationname:s:CMD
remoteapplicationprogram:s:C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe
remoteapplicationcmdline:s:

8. Transfer the RDP file to the host Mac.On the Mac, use the RDP file with your client of choice (e.g. Windows App from Mac App Store).

If prompted for Organization, in my case it's MicrosoftAccount. When prompted for the password, enter MS Account password (not Hello PIN). If a certificate warning appears, it's ok to ignore/accept it.

`freerdp` client info

Instead of Windows App as RDP client, you could alternatively use [freerdp](https://github.com/FreeRDP/FreeRDP/wiki/Prebuilds#mac) and its dependency `xquartz` – need sudo to install and log out and log back in to work) freerdp win11utm.rdp /cert:ignore

[conath]

Wow, the modified rdp file with the remoteapplicationmode works great with the Windows App! No need to install freerdp.

[giovariot]

Does anyone know whether it would be possible to exploit the official Windows App directly from UTM? I think of a sort of "coherence mode button" a là Parallels using an official tool.

Does anyone know if Windows App has any better usb passthrough than libusb?