How to Use Wine on Linux

This wikiHow teaches you how to install and launch Wine on a Linux computer. The Wine program allows users to run Windows operating systems on computers using other operating systems.

Table of Contents

Install Wine

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Open Terminal. Select the Terminal application from your computer’s menu or Applications list.

On most versions of Linux, you can also open Terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T .
Some versions of Linux also have a command line text box at the top of the screen.
Some Linux installations will go straight to the command line. In that case, skip this step.

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Enable 32 bit mode. If your computer uses a 64-bit processor, you need to enable 32-bit mode by:

Type sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 into Terminal and press ↵ Enter .
Enter the super password (root) when prompted and press ↵ Enter .

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Direct your computer’s download program to the Wine website. Thus, the computer will find the file to download. Here’s how to do it:

Type wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/Release.key and press ↵ Enter .
Type sudo apt-key add Release.key and press ↵ Enter .
Enter the root password if asked.

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Add the repository of the Wine program to the library. Depending on your Linux version, you might enter one of the following lines:

Ubuntu – sudo apt-add-repository https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/
Mint – sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ xenial main'

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Update the downloaded package. Type the command sudo apt-get update and press ↵ Enter .

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Select the file to download. As of March 2018, the stable release for Wine can be downloaded by typing sudo apt-get install --install-recommends wine-stable and pressing ↵ Enter . ^{[1] X Research Source}

Maybe in the future Wine versions will support more stable downloads.

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Confirm the download. Type y and press ↵ Enter , then re-enter the root password when prompted. Wine will start downloading and installing on your computer.

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Wait for the download to complete. The download and installation will take about 10 minutes. Once done, you can continue.

Setting up Wine

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Create a Windows home directory. Type winecfg and press ↵ Enter , a message saying “created the configuration directory ‘home/name/.wine'” will appear.

If prompted to install additional missing packages, click Install in the pop-up window and wait for the process to complete.

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Select Windows version. Click the “Windows Version” drop-down box at the bottom of the “Wine configuration” window, and then click the version you want to use (for example, Windows 7 ).

If you don’t see this option, first click the Applications tab at the top of the window.

Install programs with Wine

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Open the Downloads folder. This folder is located in the Home folder, you can also open the Downloads folder from within the Applications menu.

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Find the downloaded EXE file. Scroll in the Downloads folder until you find the EXE file of the program you want to install.

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Right-click the file to open a drop-down menu.

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Click Open With Wine Windows Program Loader . This option is at the top of the drop-down menu. The installation window will appear.

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Click Install at the bottom of the installation window. The program will begin to install on the computer.

Some programs may require additional input before starting the installation.
You can also change the location where the program is installed by clicking the ⋯ icon on the right side of the window and choosing a different folder on your computer.

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Click Close when prompted. This option will be available after the program has finished installing.

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Launch the program. You can launch the newly installed program from within Applications (usually located in the main menu).

Advice

You can install a Wine user interface called PlayOnLinux, which allows you to install, remove, and access Wine programs. To proceed, simply open Terminal after installing Wine, type sudo apt install playonlinux , enter your password, and confirm the download by typing y .
Don’t forget to check the Wine website for regular program updates.

Warning

Although it is a highly compatible software, sometimes Wine still has difficulty running high profile PC programs and games at normal frame rates.

Steps

Install Wine

Setting up Wine

Install programs with Wine

Advice

Warning

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