Open programs on linux

How To Run Windows Applications On Linux [Beginners Guide]

Last updated September 12, 2019 By Munif Tanjim 42 Comments

As you’re here, I’m going to assume that you’re a Linux user. And every once in a while, you find yourself asking: can I run windows applications on Linux?.

Answer to that question is yes. Yes, you can run Windows applications in Linux. Here are some of the ways for running Windows programs with Linux :

Both of them works just fine. But they are somewhat resource hungry.

If you only need to use a small Windows application, installing Windows on a separate HDD partition or as a Virtual Machine is not efficient. Moreover, Virtual Machine can’t utilize the total power of your machine. So, what is the solution?

No worries, there is another way to use Windows software on Linux. It’s called Wine. If you aren’t yet familiar with it or you are a beginner in the world of Linux, this article is for you.

In this beginner’s guide, I’ll show you what is Wine and how to use it to run Windows software on Linux. I have used Ubuntu here as Ubuntu is one of the best Linux distros for beginners, but any other Linux distribution will have more or less same steps (except for the commands in Arch or Fedora based distros).

Using Wine to run Windows programs in Linux

Wine stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator. And WINE is actually an acronym for that. And as previously stated, it’s not even a virtual machine.

Rather it is a compatibility layer for running Windows applications on UNIX-like or POSIX-compliant operating systems (e.g. Linux, Mac, BSD). While a virtual machine or emulator simulates internal Windows logic, Wine translates those Windows logic to native UNIX/POSIX-complaint logic.

In simple and non-technical words, Wine converts internal Windows commands to commands your Linux system can natively understand.

Installing Wine

There are various ways to install Wine on your system. As this is a beginners’ guide, I’ll describe the most straightforward one here.

Almost all the Linux distros come with Wine in their package repository. Most of the time the latest stable version of Wine is available via package repository. Installing Wine on Ubuntu is as easy as firing up a terminal and running these commands:

However, if you are using an 64bit installation of Ubuntu, you will need to run these additional commands:

This will add 32bit architecture support on your distro which will benefit you in installing specific software. If you don’t know whether you have a 32bit installation or 64bit, check this article: 32bit or 64bit Ubuntu?

What Windows applications are Supported by Wine?

There is a large number of Windows applications that are currently fully supported by Wine. They will run without any hassle.

However, new Windows applications are being developed every day. Many of them wouldn’t function as we want on Wine. But the development pace of Wine is also rapid, support for new applications is being added all the time.

And there is a dedicated database for keeping track of just that.

Wine Application Database has almost 24,000 applications rated with different status depending upon how well that applications run in Wine. If you want to quickly check the rating of the application you want to use in Wine, you can take a look there. Here are the meaning of those ratings:

• Platinum: These applications install and run flawlessly in out-of-the-box Wine.
• Gold: These applications work flawlessly with some special configuration.
• Silver: Applications with minor issues are tagged as Silver.
• Bronze: The Bronze ones have major issues that seriously affect usage.
• Garbage: These simply won’t run on Wine.

Reviews, Installation Procedure, which Wine version it was tested against and various useful data are also available for each application here.

Of course, Wine Application Database is mostly user-generated data, so you are always welcome to try running an application with a different version of Wine and share your result with rest of the community.

Finding an Application in Wine Application Database

Let’s see how we can find an application in Wine Application Database.

Go to Wine Application Database. Click Browse Apps from the left sidebar.

Finding an App in Wine AppDB

Write the name of the application you want to find in the Name field.

Wine AppDB name filter

Click on the link to the application from the search result.

You’ll see a description of the application. There will be a list of various versions with their compatibility rating with a specific Wine version.

Wine AppDB Application page

Let’s click on the latest version link.

This is the main page you need to check. There will be detailed information about that specific version.

Detailed Information about Application

You’ll get an idea of what will work and what will not. Also, the installation procedure will be included here if any additional tasks are needed for installation.

Getting Started with Wine

Before we go on installing and running applications in Wine, we should have clear idea about a few things and about how to configure Wine for usage:

WinePrefix

Windows applications need a C: drive. Wine uses a virtual C: drive for this purpose. The directory of this virtual C: drive is called wineprefix. First of all, we need to create a wineprefix. For doing that, fire up a terminal and enter this command:

This will create a wineprefix and open the configuration window for Wine. You can change the configuration options if you want or let it be as is for time being and close it. Now, you can locate the virtual C: drive at

WinePrefix C: Drive

The general rule is to install each new application into a fresh wineprefix. We can create and maintain multiple wineprefix manually. But that task would seem rather tedious for the beginners. So, we will skip that part for now. But, later I’m going to show the way for doing that part with ease.

Installing an Application with Wine

Installing a supported application in Wine is generally as easy as double-clicking on the installation file. However, we are now going to see a step-by-step guide for installing 7-zip on Wine.

First of all, check for 7-zip rating on Wine Application Database. It has Platinum rating, so we are good to go. Open Wine configuration ( winecfg ) and set the Windows Version to Windows 7.

Right-click on the 7-zip installation file and select Open With Wine Windows Program Loader.

7-zip Installation File

See that destination folder path? 7-zip installation has recognized the virtual C: drive from wineprefix.

7zip Setup Directory on Wine

Finish the installation and go to the installation directory [ $HOME/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/7-zip/ ] from the file browser.

Right-click on 7zFM.exe and go to Properties > Open With.

Set Default .exe Loader

Select Wine Windows Program Loader and close the window. Double-click on 7zFM.exe.

And there you go! For creating a shortcut on your desktop, right click on the file.

Creating 7-zip shortcut

Now move the Link to Desktop.

Move shortcut to Desktop

Now, you can run 7-zip just from your desktop. All you have to do is double-click on the icon.

Run 7zip from desktop

If you want to access your files on Linux, they are generally located in Z: Drive.

Linux directory in Z: drive

You can use the 7-zip just as you would use it on Windows – for extracting and creating archives and such.

Let’s make things (a lot) Easier

You might have noticed that, at Wine Application Database, with every version of application review a specific Wine version is mentioned.

It is because of the rapid development rate of Wine. Though an application runs with the current version of Wine, it might not run with a future version, because of the changes made.

Also, I’ve mentioned about installing each application in its own fresh wineprefix. So that, an application has no chance of interfering with another. And doing all these manually, usually from the terminal, is time-consuming, tiresome and at times, confusing.

PlayOnLinux is here to rescue. It provides a nice interface for doing all these things easily. For installing PlayOnLinux on Ubuntu, simply run this command:

You can easily perform every task related to Wine with PlayOnLinux from a beautiful and intuitive graphical interface:

• Installing & Uninstalling applications.
• Creating, Updating & Removing wineprefixes.
• Maintain Wine of different architecture and versions.
• Run & Create shortcut for installed applications.
• And so on…

But still, you will need to check Wine Application Database for reviews, installation procedures and such.

Advantages of using Wine

When it comes to running Windows applications on Linux system, Wine provides many advantages over using emulators or virtual machines.

• Performance: Wine is immune to the performance loss that otherwise occurs while emulating.
• Native Experience: There is no need to open Wine before running a Windows application. Exactly how Wine works will be more clear from this quote from official site,

Wine can be thought of as a Windows emulator in much the same way that Windows Vista can be thought of as a Windows XP emulator: both allow you to run the same applications by translating system calls in much the same way. Setting Wine to mimic Windows XP is not much different from setting Vista to launch an application in XP compatibility mode.

Wine Derivatives

There are quite a number of projects for running Windows applications on other platforms, based on Wine:

• CrossOver: CrossOver is a developed by the company named CodeWeavers. It is directly based on Wine with a few tweaks and proprietary add-ons. In fact, CodeWeavers employs a large portion of Wine developers. Unlike the rapid releases of Wine, CrossOver releases are more stable. The one and major downside is that Crossover is not free.
• PlayOnLinux: PlayOnLinux is completely based on Wine. And provides easier route for installing and managing application with Wine. PlayOnLinux is free.
  It is also available for Mac as PlayOnMac.
• ReactOS: ReactOS is an entirely different open-source operating system for running Windows applications. It reuses a considerable amount of codes from Wine. However, this is a project under development for more than a decade and I won’t recommend it.

Additional Tips on using Wine

Winetricks

This is another important part of using Wine. Winetricks is a helper script to download and install various redistributable runtime libraries needed to run some applications in Wine. These may include replacements for components of Wine using closed source libraries. Winetricks comes with Wine installation on Ubuntu.

For starting winetricks, run this command:

There are many options for helping you with various tasks.

Installing an Application with Winetricks

If you Install an app from winetricks, it will be installed in a separate wineprefix. Let’s install VLC:

Winetricks – Install an app

Winetricks – Install VLC

It will then begin to download the VLC installation files. And then guide you through the rest of the process. It’s pretty simple.

Install Windows DLL or components and others

You can select a wineprefix from winetricks and install various libraries and components required by the application you want to run and also perform other operations.

Winetricks Libraries & Components

N.B.: If using winetricks seems complicated to you, it’s perfectly okay. I feel the same way too. I always use PlayOnLinux for this reason. PlayOnLinux can do everything you might need to do from winetricks.

For more information you can check Wine FAQ and Documentation.

I hope you find this complete beginner’s guide to using Wine in Linux helpful. Now you can run Windows programs in Linux without installing a virtual machine or dual booting.

Let us know if you have any questions or opinion in the comment section below.

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How to Install and Run EXE Files in Linux Environment

Install and run EXE files in Linux environment is very much necessary sometimes. There are few much-needed Windows applications, which require to be installed in Linux and run the exe file on Linux or Ubuntu OS. I am a Ubuntu user, the OS runs in Linux kernel and I am curious to know: “can Linux run exe?”. I need some Windows software occasionally to run in my PC. It is not always possible to shift the OS for running a specific Windows software. Either, you need to boot Windows from a dual booting computer, otherwise you want a separate PC (that has a Windows OS). The best thing is if you, anyhow, manage to install the Windows software or exe files and run it inside Linux or Ubuntu OS.

If you are new at Linux OS and don’t know much about it, then let me define Linux OS at first.

The Linux OS is open source, free distributed and cross-platform operating system which runs on Unix base. Linux can be installed easily on a PC, laptop, mobile, tablet, sever, super computer, video game console (supports low end to high end configuration) etc. Moreover, the operating system is much more secure and light-weight than any other popular OS like Windows, Mac and so on.

Linux mainly uses the ext4 file system; the file format is completely different than the executable file system i.e. .exe file. EXE files are used in Windows OS. So, basically it is hard to use an exe file in Linux architecture. But, using different software like WineHQ, PlayOnLinux, etc. in your Linux operating system, one can easily install and run different favorite Windows software on Linux OS.

How to Open, Run or Install Exe Files on Linux Ubuntu Using ‘Wine’

Do you know the answer of the question: “Can Linux run exe?”. To run exe files on Linux you need to install ‘Wine’ on Linux or on Ubuntu. ‘Wine’ is an open source Linux based free program that allows any Linux version (Ubuntu, Linux Mint) users to install and run Windows applications. Wine is very much useful for programmers and developers (with a software library WineLib) to compile, modify any Windows application in Unix environment.

Download and Install Wine:

You need to download the specific version of Wine from the official website WineHQ (https://www.winehq.org/). In the download page, you will get all the major wine versions of Linux. Select the Linux version (among all the versions of Linux like Ubuntu, Red Hat, etc.) you are using and download the Wine program. If you are unable to find the exact version of the OS, then try to find the related version from the list that is the base version (for example, Debian is the base version of Linux Mint). Related version of Wine should work on your Linux PC. Click on the preferred link and click on on-screen installation instruction. After you download the Wine software from the link, right click on the icon of the program, select install option and follow the steps. After successful installation of Wine apps, it will create a new folder (.wine) at the home/user-name (user name must be the user name given by you at the time of user profile creation) directory.
Initially, .wine folder will be invisible to you unless you press the Ctrl+H together to show hidden files. Then open .wine folder and navigate to the path ../.wine/drive_C/Program Files . The full path will be:

This is your program files folder where you can put Windows apps and install it to Linux. In the next step, you have to download .exe file and move the file to program files folder. Then right-click on that file and select open with option. Choose Wine windows program loader to install and run the Windows application in Linux.

Linux Ubuntu 10.04 and later version users can install Wine on their Linux system direct from the ‘Ubuntu Software Center’. Method is as follows:

• Open Applications and navigate to Software Center.
• In the search bar, enter ‘Wine’ and press Enter to search for that.
• Click on Install button of Wine that you get from the search list.
• It will create a virtual C:\ drive on your Ubuntu automatically.
• Now you can open .exe files and install them in virtual c:\ drive of your Linux system.

Older versions and other versions users should follow these steps to add Wine to Linux:

• Navigate to System >> Administration >> Software Sources.
• Select the other software section and select Add button.
• Then to install the Wine program in Linux, add the following line in the terminal box: ppa:ubuntu-wine/ppa
• Alternatively, you can use the command from the terminal to install add Wine:

Every Linux version follows separate installation procedure. But there is a common method to install Wine program to any Linux OS. You need to run a command at the Linux terminal to install Wine.

You must have an active internet connection and super user permission (root access) to add Wine to Linux. A Ubuntu user can use Alt+F2 shortcut to open run box, type “gnome-terminal” and press Enter to open the terminal. Type su to change your access to root access. You will be asked for Administrative or root password and then run the commands.

Steps to Install Wine on Linux Ubuntu:

Ubuntu is the most popular version of Linux environment. Here I mention the steps to install Wine in Ubuntu 19.10. For different version of the Ubuntu, the mentioned command needs some modifications which I also mention in the detail below.

1. Press and hold Ctrl+Alt+T together to open up the Terminal window in Ubuntu.
2. Enter the following terminal command to enable 32-bit support. Account password is mandatory in this step.
3. To add and install Wine repository key, enter the following command to add support:
4. Now, execute the mentioned command to add the Wine repository only in Ubuntu 19.10:
5. Use the modified command to add the Wine repository for Ubuntu 18.04 and Linux Mint 19.x:
6. Use the command to add the Wine repository in Ubuntu 16.04 and Linux Mint 18.x:
7. libfaudio0 is very much required to use WineHQ and use the following command to add it.
8. That’s all. Now, your Ubuntu OS is ready to run Windows files/.exe files.

How to Run and Install Exe File on Linux or Ubuntu:

Method#1: In the above section, I have already mentioned the process of installing a Windows program on a Linux OS. However, if the method does not work, you can use the command method to open and run exe file. The command should be something like this:

A Linux Mint user can use the command for the same purpose:

Note: Replace the ‘app-setup-file-name’ with actual the setup file name.
Before doing that change the directory location to that folder, exactly where the setup file is located. For example, if you keep the exe set-up file to desktop, then before run the above command, you need to run another command i.e.

Otherwise, by navigating Applications >> Wine >> Programs and from the program’s list, you can run the exe program in your Linux PC.

Method #2 (Alternative method):

• After performing the above mentioned steps to install WineHQ on your Linux PC, you need to restart the computer and make sure that the WineHQ is installed correctly to your PC.
• Now, download the Windows executable file i.e. .exe file on your Linux computer.
• Right click on the file and select Wine Windows Program Loader option from the right-click context menu. If the option is not available in the right-click context menu, try the Other option and find the Wine Windows Program Loader option there.
• Wine might prompt for the installation of Wine Gecko and Wine Mono installers. Install them accordingly.
• Now, you are ready to go through the Windows software installation wizard.
• Finish the Windows .exe file/software installation process and run it on your Linux OS.

Note: Wine creates an environment to install and run windows applications in Linux. But, sometime Wine fails to run some applications. In that case, you can give a try with PlayOnLinux to run those programs.

Install Windows Apps on Linux Ubuntu Using ‘PlayOnLinux’

Like ‘Wine’, PlayOnLinux provides a compatibility layer which allows Linux users to install Windows-based software and exe files. A Linux novice user gets in trouble while installing Wine. However, PlayOnLinux is very easy to install. It has the identical functionality just like Wine. Apart from it, the software supports a wide variety of applications. You may call it the graphical front end tool of Wine which provides a very simple solution for installing Windows OS.

PlayOnLinux supports popular Windows applications like Adobe Photoshop, Safari Browser, MS Office etc. The company fixes all the bugs and gives uses a smooth experience with Windows software, applications and .exe files installation. It also supports modern games and patches as well.

You can download the PlayOnLinux from the following link:

To install the software use the following commands step wise:

A game-maniac can take help of Lutris to play some simple and strategic game on a Linux PC. Use the following command to install Lutris:

In this tutorial, I have described how to install and run exe files (Windows executable files) on a Linux computer (Ubuntu or Linux Mint PC). So far, Wine is the only program which allows Windows program to be installed on Linux. However, PlayOnLinux is the modern alternative that helps you installing .exe to Linux so that you can run your favorite Windows applications on your Linux OS.

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