Gaming is a more popular hobby than ever, and while there are hundreds of games coming out every year, there are thousands more from past years in history that can only be experienced easily these days through emulation. Emulators are about as prominent as water these days — they're basically everywhere — but if you ask me, Windows is still the best platform to run your retro game emulators.

Windows is arguably the most popular and versatile operating system for most people, and even if you're setting up a PC to mostly be a gaming machine, I'd say Windows is still the way to go. Here are a few reasons why.

5 It's easier to set up

Installing Linux is always a hassle

Right off the bat, it's worth mentioning that Windows is probably the easier operating system to use for most people. Chances are your PC already comes with Windows preinstalled, so it's obviously easier to stick with it rather than install a whole new operating system. Look, we're very fond of installing different operating systems at XDA, and many of our readers are the same, but creating bootable drives and going through the whole setup process, plus finding the right drivers for your device is always going to be a bit of a hassle on Linux. Not everyone wants to go through that, and that's okay.

Even if you do a clean install of Windows beforehand, that's still a more familiar process than installing an OS you may not know anything about. And it's not like you'd be getting huge benefits from making that transition anyway. If you're worried about potential interruptions or unnecessary resource hogs, you can always use programs to remove unnecessary junk from Windows before setting everything up.

4 Security

Windows is well-equipped

It's common to complain about many of the things Microsoft includes in Windows 11 that might not be necessary, but one thing that Windows is fairly good at is security. Microsoft Defender offers pretty great protection across the board, with a firewall, antivirus, system integrity protection, and all kinds of tools to ensure your PC doesn't fall victim to malware. Linux has the benefit of not being targeted as often for malware, but that doesn't mean you're immune, and you may not have all the protections you need in place.

This is important because resources for downloading ROMs are often shady (after all, piracy is not exactly encouraged), and the likelihood of getting potentially malicious files on your PC is higher than normal when looking for games to download. A well-versed user may know better than to go on certain websites, but for most people, it's best to play it safe.

3 Integer scaling can be a problem on Linux

It's getting there, though

Another important point when it comes to emulating retro systems is how the games look. The resolution of today's screens are far higher than what retro games were designed for, and that means emulators need to upscale that original game to a higher resolution. There are multiple scaling options for this, but Linux has historically had some problems with integer scaling, which is the most faithful scaling method.

Integer scaling makes it so that images are only upscaled by integer factors, whether 2x, 3x, or and so on, and this is because this allows the image to be perfectly reproduced by just multiplying the existing pixels to occupy a larger area. This makes games look more pixelated, but they look exactly how they were designed to look, while other scaling models can lead to blurry edges and other visual artifacts.

For many years, Linux didn't support integer scaling, and while that has been addressed in more recent years, it's still a bit hit or miss depending on the emulators you're using. Integer scaling may not be available as an option, which means your retro games may end up looking worse.

2 Compatibility

Windows is still more widely supported

This point will get brought up no matter the topic, but there's a good reason for it. Being the most popular platform means Windows gets the most attention when it comes to compatibility with accessories and software. So the Windows advantages here are two-fold. For one thing, more emulators are likely to be compatible with Windows, whether that's as a standalone program or as RetroArch cores, though the latter has greatly helped bring emulation to all kinds of devices.

Then there's the hardware. While controllers will generally work with Windows or Linux alike, some features may be harder to get working properly if you have fancy controllers. For example, a program like BetterJoy, which lets you use a pair of Nintendo Switch Jow-Con controllers as a single unit, is only available for Windows. Similarly, modern controllers that have customization apps may also only work to their fullest extent on Windows.

1 Emulation Station is fantastic anyway

The perfect UI for retro gaming

Finally, it's important to note that Windows can provide a terrific retro gaming experience anyway thanks to Emulation Station Desktop Edition (or ES-DE, for short). This is an app that provides a super seamless and smooth way to browse your library of games across different platforms, and it looks and feels fantastic to use.

I spent some time with ES-DE a few months ago when I wrote about turning a Windows PC into a retro gaming machine, and I loved using it. I was surprised by how intuitively the interface was designed for a controller, so it truly works like a console and while it can take some time to set up, it feels perfect. ES-DE is on other platforms as well, but as we already mentioned, using Windows means you don't have to install a whole new operating system, so you'll be up and running faster.

Don't make things harder than they need to be

Whatever the conversation is, you'll have someone telling you Linux is the way to go for one reason or another. But for most people, Windows remains the easiest option to use, and that definitely holds true with retro gaming, While it is possible to have a good experience on different platforms, Windows is simply the easiest to use while staying secure and having wide compatibility with both emulators and controllers.

I highly recommend setting up Emulation Station on a Windows PC if you want to take retro gaming seriously. It has some things you may need to figure out, but it works nearly perfectly, and it's relatively easy to get up and running.