[Feature] Bridge Networking + Add WinApps to ~/.local/share/applications/*.desktop

[wxqwinner]

Feature Description

1. Bridge Networking Support

Please add an option to run WinBoat in bridge mode, so the Windows instance can join the same LAN as the host.

Desired features:

Selectable network mode: nat / bridge

Ability to specify a host bridge interface (e.g., br0)

DHCP support for auto-assigned IP

Optional static IP configuration

2. Add Windows Apps to Linux Desktop (.desktop entries)

Add a simple way to register Windows applications into Linux menus via .desktop files.

Desired features:

CLI command or UI action to create a .desktop entry for a Windows app

Automatic icon extraction (convert ICO → PNG)

.desktop file stored in ~/.local/share/applications/

Exec runs the app through WinBoat

Use-Case

Allows Windows to act as a LAN device

Useful for testing servers, network tools, file sharing, discovery protocols, etc.

NAT is insufficient for some broadcast or port-visibility scenarios

Makes Windows apps feel like native Linux apps

Improves daily usability (Hyprland)

Proposed Implementation

Example config:

network: mode: bridge interface: br0 ip: dhcp

Example .desktop:

[Desktop Entry] Name=Notepad++ Exec=winboat run "C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe" Type=Application Icon=~/.local/share/icons/notepadpp.png Categories=Utility;

Notice

• [x] I have checked the issue tracker and verified that this Feature Request has not been proposed before.
• [ ] I would like to help out implementing this feature

[wxqwinner]

By modifying docker-compose.yaml according to this URL(https://blog.oddbit.com/post/2018-03-12-using-docker-macvlan-networks/#host-access), the network can be bridged, but the WinBoat Guest API is offline

[lxmint]

I need the requested features as well because I have a windows application which can connect only to devices in the same network as the host. Since the container is in a separate network 172.30.0.0/24 the application cannot reach any devices in my home network. I was trying to modify docker-compose.yml with some additional networking like vlan or bridge but it didn't work.

Using the hints at https://github.com/dockur/windows#how-do-i-assign-an-individual-ip-address-to-the-container or https://blog.oddbit.com/post/2018-03-12-using-docker-macvlan-networks/ didn't work either.