Can Linux run Windows EXE files and How

Linux has come a long way now, it has a variety of apps and software to support various use cases. But still, you might sometimes need to run Windows applications. As not every Windows apps or its alternative is available for Linux.

Programs for Windows are released with EXE file extension. Originally EXE files were meant to run only on Windows operating systems. But as a Linux user, one might still need to use Windows apps for using certain apps. That’s why Wine is there, it is a program that you can use to run EXE files on Linux.

Use Wine

Wine is not a emulator, but instead its a combability layer. This layers allows users to use application and games developed for Windows to run on Linux and Unix like systems.

Instead of simulating internal Windows logic as a virtual machine or an emulator does, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly. This offers better performance as compared to emulating. With recent updates performance is also becoming somewhat similar to using the app in the Windows operating system.

Wine now comes preinstalled with some Linux distros. If you don’t have it already preinstalled you can install it with the command below.

For installing Wine on Ubuntu and its derivatives enter the command below.

sudo apt-get install wine

Now after installation of Wine just double click on the Windows application(.exe) file. This should start the installation of application like it would do in Windows.

But if this doesn’t happen then navigate to the directory and open a terminal there. Or open a terminal and change the directory to the directory where the EXE application is present. Then execute the command below.

wine name_of_application.exe

This should start the installation of Windows application. Enjoy using your favorite applications on Linux.

By this method, you can run Windows Exe files on Linux. If you want you can also play Windows games on Linux using wine. Although if you are serious about Gaming on Linux then you need to look at Proton as it supports more then 6500 Windows games on Linux.