Windows
First make sure you have a legitimate copy of your Windows operating system, otherwise if you are a developer you can try the Windows virtual machines Windows 7 and above offered by Microsoft for developers. Note that these virtual machines have a limited amount of time on their license (90 days) given by Microsoft so eventually they will expire. Also note that running Windows 7 will be very slow to boot and operate in Limbo.
Nevertheless if you want to try them out visit the link below and download the virtual disk images in Oracle VirtualBox and VMWare disk formats which should be compatible with Limbo. If you encounter problems you can convert the disk images to the qcow2 format before running in Limbo, see below for instructions.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms
Nevertheless if you want to try them out visit the link below and download the virtual disk images in Oracle VirtualBox and VMWare disk formats which should be compatible with Limbo. If you encounter problems you can convert the disk images to the qcow2 format before running in Limbo, see below for instructions.
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms
Limbo Configuration
- Version: 6.0.0 (QEMU 5.1.0 only)
- CPU: qemu32
- TSC: enabled
- RAM Memory: 2048 MB (some Android device might not allow this amount of memory for a process!)
- Mouse: usb-tablet
- Graphics: std
- Audio: None
- Network: user
- Network Card: e1000
Windows 7
This guide is for Windows 7 tweaking for working with Limbo. Keep in mind this is extremely slow but you can try it out with your Android Tablet or your Laptop running ChromeOS for x86.
You should visit the above link and download the Windows 7 image for VirtualBox.
You can also try Windows 8 or 10 but they are extremely slow so Windows 7 is recommended.
The downloaded file should be something like: IE8.Win7.VirtualBox.DeveloperLicense.zip
Unzip the above zip file. Now unzip the ova file as well as and extract the vmdk image file inside, it should be named something like:
IE8 - Win7-disk1.vmdk
Now you need to convert the vmdk image to qcow2 using the qemu-img utility:
"c:\Program Files\qemu\qemu-img" convert -p -f vmdk -c -O qcow2 "IE8 - Win7-disk1.vmdk" win7.qcow2
The conversion could take a really long time depending on your desktop machine so be patient.
Once the conversion is done we can boot the virtual machine using the resulting image and finish the driver installation.
Starting the virtual machine using QEMU:
On a Windows Desktop machine:
"c:\Program Files\qemu\qemu-system-x86_64" -M pc -m 1024 -net user -net nic,model=e1000 -hda win7.qcow2 -accel hax
Or on a Linux Desktop machine:
qemu-system-x86_64 -M pc -m 1024 -net user -net nic,model=e1000 -hda win7.qcow2 -accel kvm
Once you have everything set you can transfer the image to your Android device and attach it to a virtual machine in Limbo. Make sure you use the same settings described above.
You should visit the above link and download the Windows 7 image for VirtualBox.
You can also try Windows 8 or 10 but they are extremely slow so Windows 7 is recommended.
The downloaded file should be something like: IE8.Win7.VirtualBox.DeveloperLicense.zip
Unzip the above zip file. Now unzip the ova file as well as and extract the vmdk image file inside, it should be named something like:
IE8 - Win7-disk1.vmdk
Now you need to convert the vmdk image to qcow2 using the qemu-img utility:
"c:\Program Files\qemu\qemu-img" convert -p -f vmdk -c -O qcow2 "IE8 - Win7-disk1.vmdk" win7.qcow2
The conversion could take a really long time depending on your desktop machine so be patient.
Once the conversion is done we can boot the virtual machine using the resulting image and finish the driver installation.
Starting the virtual machine using QEMU:
On a Windows Desktop machine:
"c:\Program Files\qemu\qemu-system-x86_64" -M pc -m 1024 -net user -net nic,model=e1000 -hda win7.qcow2 -accel hax
Or on a Linux Desktop machine:
qemu-system-x86_64 -M pc -m 1024 -net user -net nic,model=e1000 -hda win7.qcow2 -accel kvm
Once you have everything set you can transfer the image to your Android device and attach it to a virtual machine in Limbo. Make sure you use the same settings described above.
Limitations
As we have mentioned before operating systems that consume a lot of power might make heavy use of your cpu and Limbo might be eventually terminated by the Android system. Most modern Android devices have power management features that throttle your CPU and in other cases even terminate any app that overloads the CPU. If you have a modern device like Samsung you can check if it throttle your CPU by placing your finger on the screen if you see that the emulation speed increases then it means that it has advanced power management features that throttle your CPU. There is not much you can do in this case and maybe that it is for the best. You are recommended to use other operating systems that are less likely to make heavy use of the device CPU.
Tweaks
Make sure you disable the Indexing Service. To do that click on Windows Start menu -> Run
Type services.msc
When the list of services shows up double click on Windows Search and stop the service. To prevent it from starting on start up select the option Disabled from the Start Type drop down list.
Type services.msc
When the list of services shows up double click on Windows Search and stop the service. To prevent it from starting on start up select the option Disabled from the Start Type drop down list.
Audio
You can try installing the drivers for the emulated audio card ac97 (Realtek) from the official website and see if it doesn't slow down the virtual machine. Even though audio is supported we recommend not to install any additional drivers to keep the OS under a somewhat acceptable performance.
Programs
Browsers
You can try installing a light web browser like K-Meleon or Midori.
Also don't forget to run the windows updates, Windows 7 should still be receiving security updates and other optional software.
File Sharing:
To access files on your Android device you can try installing the Filezilla FTP client/server. Though if you prefer a faster way to share files from Android to your virtual machine you can try download and install ISOCraft to create ISO images from your files and insert them as a CDROM to the virtual machine.
Classic Shell:
If you want to reduce even further the resources on the system and have an older look and feel you can install Classic Shell from the office website.
Archiver
If the internal unzip utility is too slow you should download and install 7zip which provides a must faster extractor.
You can try installing a light web browser like K-Meleon or Midori.
Also don't forget to run the windows updates, Windows 7 should still be receiving security updates and other optional software.
File Sharing:
To access files on your Android device you can try installing the Filezilla FTP client/server. Though if you prefer a faster way to share files from Android to your virtual machine you can try download and install ISOCraft to create ISO images from your files and insert them as a CDROM to the virtual machine.
Classic Shell:
If you want to reduce even further the resources on the system and have an older look and feel you can install Classic Shell from the office website.
Archiver
If the internal unzip utility is too slow you should download and install 7zip which provides a must faster extractor.