WineHQ

Winecfg

Winecfg is a GUI configuration tool for Wine, designed to make life a little easier than editing the registry.

The goal of this document is to describe features of winecfg which may be less than intuitive. It should be noted that changes to winecfg have been proposed to increase its overall usability (user friendliness). That said, this document may very well be much shorter in the future.

Tip: Although winecfg is a great configuration tool, some more advanced settings can be only be changed by editing the registry (i.e. with the ["regedit"] tool). You can find some useful registry keys here. As always, one should exercise care when editing the registry.

Using winecfg

There are two ways you can use winecfg to change settings. You can change settings for all applications ("Default Settings") or you can change settings for a specific application (which overrides the default settings). When you start winecfg, the Applications tab is shown with "Default Settings" selected. With "Default Settings" selected, changes made affect all applications.

To change settings only for a specific application:

  1. In the Application tab, click the "Add application..." button.
  2. Browse to and highlight the application then click the "Open" button.
  3. With your application's filename still highlighted in the Application tab, changes only (i.e. in other tabs) affect that specific application.

Tip: When editing per application settings, the application name appears in the winecfg title bar.

Windows Version

This setting changes the version reported to applications that ask for it. Generally, this setting does not change Wine's behavior. If an application never asks for this version information, it is likely that changing this setting will have no effect on the application's performance or functioning.

Applications which ask for version information might do so in order to make decisions about which Windows features it should use. For example, if a feature is only available in newer versions of Windows then the application would want to avoid using that feature if running on older Windows versions. (Note: Better designed applications will try to detect the features in question rather than relying on the operating system's version.)

This setting is provided because some applications will refuse to run if the reported version does not meet their stated system requirements. In some cases, changing this setting may also work around bugs in Wine by causing the application to use different feature sets to get its work done. If changing this setting breaks or “fixes” your application, it may be a bug.

Versions of Windows prior to XP are only available for selection in winecfg in 32 bit wineprefixes. This is because those versions of Windows did not exist in 64 bit. If you are on a 64 bit system, you will have to create a 32 bit wineprefix to be able to set Wine to those versions.

Libraries

In this tab you can override the default way Wine loads DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries). Sometimes Wine ships with a DLL, which is not fully implemented or contains bugs which haven't yet been worked out. In some cases you can work around these kinds of problems by using a library provided with an application or copied from a Windows installation.

Builtin means: Provided by Wine.

Native means: Not provided by Wine (eg installed by an application or copied from a Windows installation).

Attention:

  • You only need to provide overrides for libraries provided by Wine.
  • Overridable Libraries provided by Wine should be listed in the drop-down list.
  • Although DLL overrides can sometimes solve problems, they can also potentially cause larger problems which prevent Wine and your applications from working altogether. You should override a DLL only if absolutely necessary.
  • Wine HQ cannot provide support for native DLLs. If you use them, you may be on your own. In particular, if you use an override do not submit a bug report based on that configuration. You could potentially waste developer time, have your bug marked as invalid, and be no closer to solving the problem with an improved Wine.
  • The following libraries should never be overridden (If you try, you'll get a dialog box telling you not to--don't do it!):
 advapi32, capi2032, ddraw, gdi32, glu32, icmp, iphlpapi, kernel32, mswsock, ntdll, opengl32, stdole2.tlb, stdole32.tlb, twain_32, unicows, user32, vdmdbg, w32skrnl, winealsa.drv, wined3d, winejoystick.drv, wineoss.drv, wineps.drv, winex11.drv, winmm, wintab32, wnaspi32, wow32, ws2_32, wsock32 
  • Do not blindly copy files from a Windows installation to a Wine system32 folder and create overrides.

If all of the above didn't scare you off, you can add an override by typing the name of the library or selecting it from the drop down list and then click Add. At this point, the library should now be listed under "Existing Overrides" and highlighted. Click the "Edit" button and select how you would like the override to work.

The following load orders (overrides) are selectable:

  • Builtin (Wine) - Use only the library version provided by Wine (fail if not found).
  • Native (Windows) - Use only the native version of the library (fail if not found).
  • Builtin then Native - Try to load the library provided by Wine first, then try native if that fails. (This is the default behavior)
  • Native then Builtin - Try to load a native version first, then try builtin if that fails. (Probably the one you want if you are going to use an override)
  • Disable - If an application tries to load the library, it will fail.

You can prefix the DLL name with an asterisk (*) when entering it in; in that case the override will apply when it is loaded from any directory (instead of just system32). That way, you can force a builtin DLL to be used even if an application ships its own redistributable.

Graphics

Window Settings

The settings in this section are generally best edited on a per application bases. Changing a setting here may fix one application and break another at the same time.

  • Allow the window manager to decorate the windows. -- This setting has to do with the borders and Title bars of windows created by applications. If this option is enabled your Window manager (eg. KDE) will draw them and your applications will look a little more native to your desktop environment.
  • Allow the window manager to control the windows -- When unchecked windows are disconnected from your window manager. They will not show up in the window list (ie in the alt+tab list or on your task bar) and are not decorated.
  • Emulate a virtual desktop -- With this setting enabled, created windows are confined to a single window (the "virtual" desktop window). You should select a desktop size smaller than what you run X in. Windows within a virtual desktop are not decorated or managed by your window manager.

Screen Resolution (DPI Setting)

It is possible to set this value too high which results in winecfg (amongst other things) being too large to be usable. To edit this value manually create a file named logpixels.reg with the following contents:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current\Software\Fonts]
"LogPixels"=dword:00000060

Next, import it into the registry with:

regedit logpixels.reg


Restart winecfg and note the value is now 96.

Note: if winecfg is not run under a virtual desktop and the windows are controlled by your window manager, you may be able to move the window by pressing alt/meta and dragging the mouse any where in the window to move it (thus granting you access to the DPI slider).

Desktop Integration

In this tab you adjust the appearance of applications (Theming) and change some default shell folders. You can, for example, make your Windows applications look more like your favorite KDE or Gnome desktop theme.

Drives

In this tab you can control how Windows drive letters are mapped to Unix paths. Generally you will not need to change anything here unless directed to do so.

Do not change C: to point to an actual Windows installation. Doing so may render your Windows installation unusable. Wine is not designed to interact with a Windows installation; it is designed to be independent of one.

Audio

In this tab you'll find settings related to the configuration of your Sound system. Although Wine supports multiple sound drivers, you should only use ONE at a time. The supported sound drivers are: PULSEAUDIO, ALSA, and OSS.

About

This tab proudly shows the Wine logo, it's version, a URL to Wine HQ, and a GNU LGPL notice.

It also has a couple of text boxes to allow you to set the Owner and Organization. (This feature was added to Wine 1.1.)

See Also

This page was last edited on 2 January 2019, at 17:31.