Tips for transitioning from Windows to Linux Mint

Published by nibbler on November 3rd 2025.

This is a guide for me that shows you how you can transition your favorite apps, games, and archivism tools to Linux. More will be added as time goes on.

Transfer from Windows to Linux

• Download the Linux Mint ISO from the official website.
• Download and install BalenaEtcher (for modern Windows) or Rufus (for old Windows).
• Burn a USB drive with at least 4GB of storage, with the ISO, on exFAT format. Connect the drive to your desired system.
• Go to your boot device selector in BIOS (for me, I have HP, so press Esc to see the full BIOS menu), and select the USB drive.
• Install Linux Mint via the Disc icon, on your SSD (sda1), and make sure that the bootloader works.
• You can find various tutorials on how to do all of this.

Dependencies

Java

• Commands in Terminal:

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre
y
sudo apt install openjdk-16-jre
y
sudo apt install openjdk-17-jre
y
sudo apt install openjdk-21-jre
y

• If these packages don't show up when using sudo apt search, download them via Prism Launcher's Java management tool.
• These are the recommended versions to pick for general use cases.
• Minecraft uses these versions specifically.

1. Java 8 for anything up to 1.16.x
2. Java 16 for 1.17.x
3. Java 17 for 1.18 to 1.20.4
4. Java 21 for 1.20.5 and onwards

• If you plan on making Minecraft mods (or Java apps), change jre to jdk for the version you need to develop on.

Python3

• Python3 comes prebuilt in with any Linux distro.
• Python refers to Python2, but is outdated, and shouldn't be used in this case.
• To use python tools, use or create a virutual environment, as using them in the system Python may cause unexpected results.
• Commands for ~ in Terminal:

python3 -m venv ./venvpath
source ./path/to/venv/bin/activate
pip install <package-name>
<package> --<command> <argument>

Archivism tools

jDownloader2

• Commands for the Downloads folder in Terminal:

cd ./Downloads
wget https://installer.jdownloader.org/JDownloader.jar
chmod +x ./JDownloader.jar
java -jar JDownloader.jar

• Let the installer install jDownloader.
• Tray icon is not supported
• You can also install it via sudo snap install.

General tools

PowerToys

1. Advanced paste
2. Always on top - built-in to Linux; right-click on the titlebar on any window and enable Always on top.
3. Awake - Generally, Linux won't go to sleep if you have a desktop, it'll stay awake with the screen turned off.
4. Color picker - Open-source options are available, I chose GPick: sudo apt-get install gpick.
5. Command not found - if a package is missing, Terminal will tell you how to install it. Of course, there are some drawbacks; a big one is where a package is obsolete and cannot be installed via apt, as it's referred to by another package; they don't tell you which one, so research into what you need to install.
6. Command palette
7. Crop and lock
8. Environment variables - A neat GUI interface exists for Linux called deemkeen/envtool-gui
9. FancyZones - built-in to Linux.
10. File Explorer add-ons - File Explorer is Windows-exclusive, try Total Commander for Linux.
11. File locksmith - built-in to Linux, use fuser: fuser <folder/file>.
12. Hosts file editor - built-in to Linux, use the Firewall app to configure which addresses are blocked and allowed.
13. Image resizer - ImageMagick is your best friend.
14. Keyboard manager - built-in to Linux, allows you to rebind keys.
15. Light switch
16. Mouse utilities - (a) Find my mouse, although it already existed before PowerToys was created (in main.cpl), you can turn it on in Mouse and Touchpad.
17. Mouse without borders
18. New+
19. Peek - built-in to Linux, press the space bar on any file in your file manager, and it works with pictures, video and text files; also fun fact, it also exists for Directory Opus for Windows.
20. PowerRename - built-in to Linux, just open the default file manager, select multiple files, and press F2; no need for external tools.
21. PowerToys Run - I just use shortcuts.
22. Quick Accent - Gnome-characters works great! I recommend binding a keyboard shortcut to open the emoji panel. Can also be done on Windows without PowerToys by pressing Win+Period.
23. Registry preview - The registry doesn't exist in Linux, all kernal configs are stored in a system directory, and all app configs are in the app's respective directory.
24. Screen ruler - screenruler (in Software Manager) works!
25. Shortcut guide - just shows shortcuts to PowerToys' features
26. Text extractor - I just use Ctrl+Shift+PrintScreen and throw it into Google Lens to get the text.
27. Workspaces - built-in to Linux.
28. ZoomIt - built-in to Linux, just use Desktop Zoom in Accessibility!

Wine

Setup

• First off, don't use any old guides, as they may not reflect on newer versions of Wine and/or your Linux distro and its version.

1. Install the Bottles flatpak, and open it. Allow everything it throws at you.
2. You can create a new "bottle" for your games and another for your productivity apps.
3. Install Flatseal from the software manager as well, and open it.
4. Change permissions for the filesystem according to where your games and software are. For your internal drive, allow all user files. For other drives, also allow /mnt/ (internal) and /media/ (external). (If you don't do this, Bottles will just recreate the executable file and put it in its own container, as Flatpaks don't normally accept files outside of themselves.)
5. Add your games and software to your bottle(s) and enjoy!