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Would it be possible to install Windows 7 to a virtual container, chainload, and boot it? This is similar to how WUBI boots Ubuntu inside windows.

It wouldn't be hard to install windows to a partition then use DD to dump it to a file, however booting it would be a problem. Does anyone know of a solution? I would really appreciate it.

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DD if= /dev/sda of=windows.iso | frankenstein – Stephen Martin Jul 19 '11 at 6:38
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hmm, its a little tricky - you can boot windows off a VHD image, but the only thing i'm sure can boot a VHD is the windows 7 bootloader. If you can chainload that off grub, or use that as your bootloader, you should be able to boot windows off a image. The other issue, of course, is that you need to have the drive on a filesystem that BCD can read.

So, its doable, in theory, but in practice, its fairly pointless for your needs, unless you can get grub to load a VHD (or chainload BCD off grub to boot the image). and somehow all this works on a linux bootable filesystem.

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Why don't you use Virtualbox? There is a OSS version for free so you can try.

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I feel this doesn't really answer the question and just provides an alternative that is nowhere near what the question is asking for. – Simon Sheehan Jul 19 '11 at 5:30
I agree with @Simon, it would be better as a comment. – Wuffers Jul 19 '11 at 5:49
I know, however I am afraid, there is no such app. In fact, there are not so many cases where you need this. You can also use dualboot if you need both systems. I think Wubi was made to take linux nearer to the people. I do not think that linux wants to anyhow support Windows. :-P – Juhele Jul 19 '11 at 6:02
VirtualBox is a Virtual Machine. Chainloading a VHD runs it nativly. Thanks to the guy above – Chris Anderson Jul 19 '11 at 16:53
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