WINE WINdows Emulator FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about Wine, a program that allows UNIX
workstation users to run MS Windows binaries. This should be
read by anyone wishing to know more about the ongoing development
of this programming project.
General Information
This is the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for the Wine development
project. It contains both general and technical information about Wine:
project status, what it is and what it does, how to obtain and configure
and run it, and more. Please read this FAQ carefully before you post
questions about Wine to Usenet to see if your question is already answered
here first.
Note that this FAQ will no longer contain any references to the latest
Wine release available at the time of the release of this version of the
Wine FAQ. This is done now because of the longevity of this FAQ, which
confuses some folks when trying to match a version of the FAQ with a
version of the Wine release that they have obtained. You can always easily
find out what the current version of Wine is by checking the ftp sites
mentioned in question 4.1 below.
The Standard Disclaimer: Please note that since Wine is still alpha code,
it may or may not work to varying degrees on your system. Also note that
from release to release, programs may work and then not work, then work
again. Neither the Wine developers nor the Wine FAQ author/maintainer can
be held responsible for any damage that may be caused to your computer
hardware, software or data by your obtaining, installing, configuring,
operating and/or removing Wine. If you use Wine, you use it completely at
your own risk.
The Wine FAQ is posted monthly to these newsgroups:
comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine
comp.os.linux.answers
comp.windows.x.i386unix
comp.answers
news.answers
(The Wine FAQ used to also be posted to:
comp.emulators.announce
comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.announce
comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce
comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.announce
but I as have been unsuccessful in getting current posting approval from
these groups' moderators, the FAQ cannot be posted to these newsgroups at
this time.)
The Wine FAQ is reposted mid-month to:
comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine
The plain text version of the Wine FAQ is available by anonymous ftp from
the following systems:
ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ALPHA/Wine/
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/
comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine/
WINE_(WINdows_Emulator)_Frequently_Asked_Questions
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/ALPHA/wine/Wine.FAQ
and on the World Wide Web at:
http://pw1.netcom/com/~dagar/winefaq.txt
and quite likely most of the other sites around the globe that mirror the
Wine distribution from the its main distribution site:
tsx-11.mit.edu
The Wine FAQ is available on the World Wide Web (WWW), reachable with any
web browser that can understand frames, at:
http://pw1.netcom.com/~dagar/winefaq.html
An unframed version is available at:
http://pw1.netcom.com/~dagar/winecontent.html
If you have any technical questions about Wine, please post these to the
newsgroup:
comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine
If you have any suggestions for corrections, changes, expansion or further
clarification of this FAQ, please send them to the Wine FAQ author and
maintainer listed in question 7.2.
Copyright Notice
The Wine FAQ is Copyright (C) 1995-1998 by P. David Gardner at
dagar@ix.netcom.com and at http://pw1.netcom.com/~dagar/index.html.
Permission is hereby granted to freely link to, copy, archive and
republish this FAQ in its entirety without remuneration to the
author/maintainer, provided that all information contained herein is kept
intact and that no portion is altered in any way without prior written
permission of the author/maintainer. If you have any questions concerning
these permissions, please email or write the FAQ author/maintainer at one
of the addresses contained herein for clarification.
1.1: What is Wine, and what is it supposed to do? - Wine is a program which allows the operation of DOS and MS Windows ...
1.2: What is the current version of Wine? - A new version of Wine is distributed about twice a month. You will be ...
1.3: When will Wine be ready for general release? - Because Wine is being developed by volunteers, it is difficult to ...
2.1: Which MS Windows programs does Wine currently run? - The newsgroup: ...
2.2: Which MS Windows programs do you expect Wine to never be able to run at all, and for what reason(s)? - Back when work on Wine was just getting started, it was said that any ...
2.3: Will MS Windows programs typically run faster or slower under UNIX and Wine than they do under DOS and MS Windows? Will certain kinds of programs run slower or faster? - When work on Wine is completed, programs should typically run at about ...
2.4: Are there any advantages or disadvantages to running MS Windows applications under Wine that I should be aware of? - As with OS/2, you will be running MS Windows programs under a ...
2.5: Will Wine support MS Windows networked applications that use winsock.dll? - Yes, Wine does support such applications, more so the 16-bit than ...
2.6: I'm a software developer who wants to use UNIX to develop programs rather than DOS, but I need to write DOS and MS Windows programs as well. Will I be able to run my favorite DOS and/or MS Windows compilers under Wine? - Wine now supports DOS applications natively, which means that you can ...
3.1: Under what hardware platform(s) and operating system(s) will Wine run? - Wine is being developed specifically to run on the Intel x86 class of ...
3.2: What minimum CPU must I have in my computer to be able to run Wine and MS Windows applications smoothly? - Wine won't run on any x86 CPU less than an 80386. It is known to also ...
3.3: How much disk space will the Wine source code and binaries take on my hard drive? What other software do I need to have installed to compile and run Wine? - You need approximately 125 megabytes of free hard drive space to store ...
3.4: How much RAM do I need to have on my UNIX system to be able to run Wine and MS Windows applications smoothly? - If you can run X smoothly on your UNIX system now, you should be able ...
3.5: I have a Drivespaced, Doublespaced or Stackered DOS partition. Can Wine run MS Windows binaries located in such a partition? - Yes, but only if the operating system supports mounting those types ...
3.6: Do I need to have a DOS partition on my system to use Wine? Does MS Windows need to be loaded into that partition in order to run MS Windows programs under Wine? - Unlike WABI, you do not need a licensed and installed copy of DOS or ...
3.7: If Wine completely replaces MS Windows, will it duplicate all of the functions of MS Windows? - Most of them, yes. However, some applications and applets that come ...
3.8: Will I be able to install MS Windows applications in any flavor of a UNIX filesystem? - Wine is written to be filesystem independent, so MS Windows ...
3.9: Will Wine run only under X, or can it run in character mode? - Being a GUI (graphical user interface), MS Windows does not have ...
3.10: Will Wine run under any X window manager? - Wine is window manager independent, so the X window manager you choose ...
3.11: Will 32-bit Windows 95 or Win NT applications run under Wine? - Wine developers have already incorporated some Win32 code into Wine, ...
4.1: Where can I get Wine? - Because of lags created by using mirror, word of this newest release ...
4.2: If I do not have an Internet account, how can I get Wine? - Some CD-ROM archives of Internet sites, notably those from Walnut ...
4.3: How do I install Wine on my hard drive? - Just un-gzip and un-tar the file, and follow the instructions contained ...
4.5: How do I configure Wine to run on my system? - To compile Wine, you must have one of:...
4.6: How do I run an MS Windows program under Wine? - When invoking Wine, you must specify the entire path to the executable,...
4.7: I have installed and configured Wine, but Wine cannot find MS Windows on my drive. Where did I go wrong? - If you have a DOS partition, first make sure that you have mounted it,...
4.8: I think I've found a bug. How do I report this bug to the Wine programming team? - Bug reports should be posted to the newsgroup: ...
4.9: I was able to get various MS Windows programs to run, but parts of them do not work. What is wrong? - Wine is not complete at this time, so some of each programs' features ...
4.10: I have run various MS Windows programs, but since the program menus do not work, how can I exit these programs? - Kill the xterm shell window that you called up to run your MS ...
4.11: How do I remove Wine from my computer? - All you have to do is to type: ...
5.1: Is there a Usenet newsgroup for Wine? - Yes, and it's called: ...
5.2: Is there a World Wide Web site for Wine? - Here are a few sites: ...
6.1: How can I help contribute to the Wine project, and in what way(s)? - You can contribute programming skills, or monetary or equipment donations,...
6.2: I want to help beta test Wine. How can I do this? - Beta testers are currently not needed, as Wine is still Alpha code at ...
6.3: I have written some code that I would like to submit to the Wine project. How do I go about doing this? - Send your weekly code contributions to Alexandre Julliard ...
7.1: Who is responsible for writing and maintaining the Wine source code? - Wine is available thanks to the work of many people. Please see the ...
7.2: Who is responsible for writing and maintaining the Wine FAQ? - This FAQ was written and is being maintained by Dave Gardner ...
7.3: Who are the folks and organizations who have contributed money or equipment to the Wine project? - People and organizations who have given generous contributions of ...