Linux is free, powerful, efficient, lightweight, and open-source distribution and popular among Windows and Mac OS. But most of the users didn’t know much about Linux because it is free and they are more familiar with Windows and almost all users did not adopt Linux because they couldn’t run their favorite Windows programs on Linux. If you are a Linux user and you may face the situation when you need to run a Windows program on Linux OS. So here in this article, we are going to introduce some useful Softwares which helps you to run your favorite Windows program on Linux OS.
- Also read: – Things You Should Consider Before Switching to Linux
4 Tools to Run Windows Programs On Linux
#1 Wine
Wine is an open-source compatibility layer that aims to allow computer programs which include computer applications and games to run on the UNIX-like operating system. It is Free Software developed by Microsoft Windows. It also provides a software library called Winelib, against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like systems.
Wine stands for Wine Is Not an Emulator which doesn’t emulate the Windows environment, but it duplicates the functions of Windows by DLLs that the Windows program uses. Wine is pre-installed in most of the major Linux distributions. But if it is not installed on your computer then you can install it from Winehq.org. You can find the download option on the website so that you will be able to download and install it easily. After installing the Wine, you can open any .Exe extension files which are Windows executable files by the option of Open With – Wine program loader by right-clicking on the file.
Download it from here – Winehq.org
#2 Winetricks
Basically, it is a helper script to download and install various redistributable runtime libraries and tweak settings needed to run some programs in Wine. These may include replacements for components of Wine using closed source libraries.
Download it from here and install it on your computer. Now open it and you can find various options like install an app, install a game, etc. If you want to install an app Click on the “Install an app” option and select the app that you want then click OK to install it.
#3 PlayOnLinux
This is one of the popular software which also uses Wine. It provides a point-and-click interface to automatically install a tweak Windows software on Linux OS. It has the database of scripts required for different applications that need special configurations. Using these software programs can be installed using different versions and configurations of Wine so you do not need to install a different version of Wine every time you install Windows software. Open Playonlinux.com and Download it then install also in the site you can find supported software. It also gives regular patches to the software to ensure the program run without any issues.
Download it from here – playonlinux.com
#4 Crossover
This software is from CodeWeavers. But this software is paid which costs $15.95 but you can get a trial version for 14 days from the site. This software enables you to run Windows software on your Linux without buying a license, without rebooting or using a virtual machine. It can open Windows productivity software, utility programs, and games natively. This is a very useful software for low powered systems.
Download it from here – Crossover.com
I hope this Softwares will help you to run your Windows programs on Linux. Do share this post with your friends.
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