You can now drop files on your new app and open them in the Windows app. If you want to give your app access to specific folders on your Mac, go to the Tools tab, click Config Utility, and specify drive letters that your Windows app will use when accessing your folders. You can make dozens of minor adjustments from the Advanced dialog if necessary, and you can choose whether to run your app full-screen or in an OS X window. Click on the Test Run button and make sure that everything is working. If Wineskin prompts you to "choose executable," that means it can't figure out what the main program file is in your app select it from the dropdown list, then select Advanced from Wineskin's menu. The installer will act as if it were being installed on drive C: of a Windows computer. Your installer will offer to set up your Windows app in a folder in Drive C:, which is actually a folder deep inside your Wineskin wrapper. (If you don't have an installer, choose the option to copy a folder into your Wineskin.) Let the installer run-which it will do as if it were running in Windows. Click Install Software, then Choose Setup Executable, and navigate to the installer for your Windows app. Instead, Ctrl-click on it and choose Open. Don't double-click on your newly created wrapper. Your new wrapper will appear in a Finder window.Īdvanced Configuration Now things get slightly tricky. Click View Wrapper in Finder, and quit the Wineskin Winery. Click Cancel on the prompts that offer to download Mono or Gecko (if your Windows app needs these libraries for displaying HTML data, it will prompt you when you run it). Click the Create New Blank Wrapper button, and give the new wrapper a useful name I chose UltraEdit. Next, download Wineskin Winery from and run it. If you can't get the installer, copy the whole folder that contains the program in your Program Files folder in Windows. Start by downloading or copying your Windows app's installer to your Mac. I still use an older version of UltraEdit, but the same basic steps apply to any Windows app that runs in a Wineskin. Wrap an App I'll walk you through the process of wrapping a Windows app in Wineskin, using the example of UltraEdit from IDM Software, which is by far my favorite Windows text editor. Note that you don't need Wineskin Winery to use Wine under OS X, but Wineskin Winery lets you avoid all the expert-level configuration that you would need with Wine alone. If you're on a budget, you might also try Oracle's Free VM VirtualBox, or the security-minded and reasonably inexpensive Veertu, but the latter two options will require more work and run more slowly than the former two. Wine and Wineskin Winery are both brilliantly written apps, but they can't run large-scale Windows apps such as Microsoft Office-you'll need Parallels or Fusion for that-and you'll have to be prepared to put in some effort to get your apps working. Fortunately, Wineskin Winery makes the process relatively painless. The only guaranteed way to find out if your app will run under Wine is to try it out. It's still a work in progress, and it has the fewest problems with apps that run under older Windows versions like Windows XP. I've also used it to wrap a Windows-based card-playing app for use on the Mac, so that a friend could continue to play her favorite game after switching platforms.Īt the heart of Wineskin is Wine, a long-term, actively developed open-source project that creates non-Microsoft software for running Windows applications on Linux or the Mac. For example, I use Wineskin to run my ancient Instant Recall contacts app. Judging from the posts in the Wineskin support forum, most users use the software for playing Windows-only video games, but it's equally useful if you have old Windows apps that you want to keep using even on a Mac. Just wrap it up in Wineskin Winery and launch it in the same way you would launch any other app on your Mac. If the Windows app that you want to use in OS X is simple and straightforward-for example, a text editor, small-scale database, or other special-purpose app-you may not need to spend money and time setting up a full-scale virtualization app like Parallels Desktop 11 or VMware Fusion 8 $79.99 at VMware Australia. Based on the free Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator) software, Wineskin Winery automates the process of wrapping up a Windows app so that it runs more or less like an OS X app. Wineskin Winery is a free, open-source tool for running uncomplicated Windows apps in a window under OS X.
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