WINE allows you to run Windows application on various Linux & BSD operating systems. Steam uses it to run windows-only games on Linux. It is great, for the most part.
When using it by itself it is a bit of a mix between command line and non-command line. Honestly, if you install WINE, I think that some things should be put in your application launcher (see Basics below).
All that said, it is fairly easy to install and use. You could use your distro's package, but that gets out of date on many distros. Below are some notes I hope folks (including future me) find useful.
Table of Contents
These notes are solely geared towards Kubuntu (version 26.04 as of 8/1/2026). If you know what you are doing, you could adapt them to another distro. Just be cautious.
sudo mkdir -pm755 /etc/apt/keyrings
wget -O - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key -
sudo wget -NP /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/resolute/winehq-resolute.sources
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable
wine --version
(Just a test to see if WINE installed and is on your path)
wine winecfg
(This is a command that starts up the wineserver. Explore, don't change unless you know what you're doing)
wine clock
(This is another test to see that it can run Windows apps, the clock app is built in.)
Optionally install the Gecko engine (HTML):
wine iexplore
(Run and install the Gecko engine if that fits your situation.)
wine64 iexplore
(This should just be a test. The Gecko engine installed above is (usually) the 64 bit addition. FYI, everything is drifting away from 32-bit.)
I think this should be done during the first launch of wine winecfg, just like Mono. But I think that the folks behind WINE don't want it installed if it's not needed. If you don't do it now, hopefully it does get installed when you need it. I've read that that scenario is improving.
There are some basic commands/apps that are run in terminal, but launch GUIs that run in WINE. These are things I feel should in your desktops launcher.
wine winecfg
(Always good to make sure WINE is functioning. You can tweak some of WINE from here, just be careful.)
wine uninstaller
(Launches WINE's "Add/Remove Programs". The easiest way to install apps.)
I guess WINE likes to stay very command-line oriented. It uses "WINEPREFIX" environment variable to have different instances of WINE. There is Bottles, which also wraps all of WINE up in a nice GUI. If you don't like the command line, go for Bottles. I've had issues with it on Kubuntu 26.04, so I don't use it. As of 8/1/2026, they only distribute their software via Flatpak or cpak. 🤐
A quick note about prefixes, controlled by the "WINEPREFIX" environment variable. The short of it is that you can (sorta) have separate instances of WINE running. Please review them before you use them.
Now you should be ready to install Windows apps in WINE. There are different ways to install apps:
wine uninstaller
Launches WINE's "Add/Remove Programs". There should be a button to install. It works for EXE installers. It does not for MSI installers; see below. The open dialog maps "Z:" drive to your home directory.
wine name-of-downloaded-installer.exe
Change the EXE part above to what you downloaded.
msiexec -i name-of-downloaded-installer.msi
Change the MSI part above to what you downloaded. Yes, it is a different program than the usual WINE.