WinAte is a freely distributed project that provides users with a modern solution for transforming their traditional LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) window manager into a veritable and modern Windows 7 or Windows 8 desktop environment.

It is inspired by Win2-7, Imagine 7 and Imagine 8 projects, and comprised of a set of icons, themes and scripts that will easily and quickly transform an LXDE desktop environment into a Windows 7 or 8 look-a-like session. It’s distributed as a single source archive packaged as a zip or tar file.

The main design goal of the WinAte application is to offer a single and easy-to-use program that helps Windows 7 and Windows 8 users to effortlessly migrate to the GNU/Linux operating system.

With WinAte you can now use Linux without having to buy Microsoft’s expensive operating system, and without having to buy a very expensive high-end personal computer (PC). Anyhow, the application only supports Debian 8, Ubuntu and Arch Linux operating systems.

Be aware that WinAte works only with LXSession version 0.4.9 or later and requires the LXPanel LXDE panel, PCManFM file manager, Openbox window manager, SLiM login manager, Compton X11 compositor, and the Murrine and Pixbuf GTK2 engines.

If you use this application on an Ubuntu system, you will have to install the official LXDE package and the Compton compositor from the PPA provided by its developers. Unfortunately, the Lubuntu Linux operating system is now supported at this time.

It is extremely important to mention here that when updating the pack with a new version, you will have to first uninstall the installed version of WinAte.

We believe that the final result will please any Windows user who wants to use Linux through a familiar graphical environment. WinAte is also known as the Windows 7/8 Transformation Pack for LXDE.