I recently I watched a vid from Jeff Geerling on using a Win11 virtual machine on a Raspberry Pi5.
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/windows-11-arm-vms-on-raspberry-pi-bvm
It seemed to work well, so I thought I’d try it with Lightburn, and it really does work well.
On my Pi5 (std RaspPi OS, 8GB, 128GB SSD) I installed KVM outlined here:
https://pidora.ca/kvm-on-raspberry-pi-run-multiple-virtual-machines-like-a-pro/
Then downloaded and ran Botspot’s BVM app using Pi-Apps. This is an amazing project that simplifies the whole process so even I could do it.
Here’s the BVM link:
https://github.com/Botspot/bvm
In my case the installation failed because MS didn’t like my IP for some reason, so I had to download the Win11 Arm64 ISO from Archive.org:
https://archive.org/details/windows-11-24h2-arm64-iso
Once I renamed it and put it in the /win11/ folder as BVM instructs, the installation proceeded fine. Early on you may have to hit a key so windows loads from the ISO instead of searching PCI, etc.
After that, installation of Lightburn within the Win11 vm goes as normal, but you will have to request LB allows you to use your license within a vm, which they did very promptly. Thanks!
The Pi is my main desktop PC and I intend to use this copy of Lightburn for just prepping my CNC design files for burning, so it won’t often be attached to the CNC. But just to test, I brought it out to the cnc, used the BVM usb passthrough button to select the CNC port device. In my case the Openbuilds Lead 1010 uses an FTDI serial chip. Within Win11 I installed the FTDI drivers and LB recognised the COM port without trouble. It then ran a design for me for about 45 minutes as normal.
I display Pi temperature and CPU usage in my taskbar and both showed very minimul values throughout. Don’t know how that’s possible, but there it is. I didn’t push it by doing anything on the Linux side while the CNC is running, but it may still run OK. And maybe best to disconnect from the internet while running so a random windows update doesn’t cause grief.
So here’s an option for other Pi users and even intel Linux users once Lightburn switches fully to Windows-only.
At the moment I only have 3’s