Run window program 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 Run Windows Apps On Linux With Wine

May 24, 2017
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These days, many people are switching to Linux. When switching to this new platform, users often need to find alternatives for popular Windows programs that they previously used. When it comes to replacement programs the Linux platform has this covered for the most part. Certain programs can be replaced; Photoshop can be replaced with Gimp, and Microsoft Office with Libre Office. A lot of mainstream Windows programs have open-source alternatives. However, there isn’t an alternative for every single program. There are some apps that those coming from Windows will need, and no alternatives exist. Luckily, there is a software project out there that lets you run Windows apps on Linux. The software is called Wine. It creates a compatibility layer for Windows programs to interact with the Linux operating system.

SPOILER ALERT: Scroll down and watch the video tutorial at the end of this article.

Install Wine

All Major Linux distributions carry Wine in one way or another, though under a different name. Open up a terminal window and use the following command to install it on your operating system. Alternatively, open Gnome Software (or however else you normally install software on your Linux PC), search for Wine, and click the install button to proceed.

Ubuntu

Debian

Fedora

Arch Linux

OpenSUSE

Other

Running Windows Apps

Wine can be used in two ways. Users can either launch a Windows program via the terminal, or with the file manager on the system.

Via Terminal

For those who prefer to use the terminal, here’s how to run a Windows app. First, go to the folder where the program is on your PC using the CD command.

Note: if your EXE isn’t in the Downloads folder and is instead somewhere else, change the command to suit your own needs.

Then, use the Wine command to start the program.

Via The File Manager

Windows apps can be launched (and installed) directly from the file manager. To accomplish this, open the file management tool that comes with your Linux operating system. Please keep in mind that every desktop environment is a little different. Settings and options will be different, depending on which one you’re running. Regardless of this though, the core idea remains pretty similar.

Even though the wine software is installed, it doesn’t mean it’ll launch an EXE right away. Instead, you’ll need to set wine as the default program for “exe” files.

To launch an app, find the folder that it’s in, and right click it. to reveal the context menu. Select “properties” from the context menu, and look for “open with”, “filetype options”, or something similar. In this section, browse for wine. Can’t find wine in the program list? Look for an option to write a command instead, and write: wine.

Go back to the file manager and double-click on the exe. Wine will open the Windows app and run it.

Wine Helpers

On it’s own Wine is perfectly fine, and most users don’t have any trouble using it to run Windows app on Linux. However, some people find the way Wine works to be complex, and need a little help. That’s why in this article, we’re going to briefly cover some good “wine helpers”. These are resources people can use to make their Wine experience a little better.

PlayOnLinux

For those looking to use Wine to install Windows games, PlayOnLinux is the obvious choice. It comes with a collection of helpers that make installing many different Windows games incredibly easy. Just use the search bar, find a game you like and click the install button. PlayOnLinux installs everything the game needs to run (even things like Windows runtimes that are required by the game). PlayOnLinux is on most mainstream Linux distributions. To install it, open a terminal and enter the following command. Alternatively, open the software tool that comes with your Linux distribution and search for “PlayOnLinux”.

Ubuntu

Debian

Fedora

Arch Linux

OpenSUSE

CrossOver

Crossover, much like PlayOnLinux is software designed around the framework that is wine. Unlike PlayOnLinux, however, this software is paid software. It allows users to make “Wine bottles”. Wine bottles let windows software run independent of the rest of the system. Meaning, if a user has a program that requires Windows 2000, but another that requires Windows 10 or 8, they get their own bottles.

Additionally, Crossover has a massive list of “helper scripts”. All the user needs to do is search for a popular windows program, click the install button and the software will install it for you. For this reason, if you’re a new Linux user and need help installing Windows programs, this software is your best bet. Purchase it for Linux here.

Conclusion

With the help of Wine, installing Windows software on Linux becomes a possibility. It isn’t perfect but having the ability to run programs developed for a different operating system really increases the other operating system’s usability. Those that are on Linux but need access to certain Windows programs can breathe a sigh of relief.

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