How To Run Windows Software on Ubuntu with Wine

Linux is a great operating system, but its software catalog can be lacking. If there’s a Windows game or other app you just can’t do without, you can use Wine to run it right on your Ubuntu desktop.
Wine is a work in progress, so it won’t run every application perfectly — in fact, some applications may not run at all — but it’s improving all the time. This beginner’s guide will get you up and running with Wine.

Wine Application Database

The process of finding out whether an application will work with Wine and tweaking it to work can be tedious, so the Wine project hosts an application database known as the Wine AppDB. Search the database for an application to see ratings, comments, tips, guides and tweaks left by other users.



Platinum-rated applications run perfectly, with no tweaks required, while garbage-rated applications don’t run at all.



For many apps, particularly popular ones, you’ll find a full guide to installing your application in Wine, as well as tweaks to fix any annoying issues.

Installing Wine

You’ll find Wine available in the Ubuntu Software Center. Both stable and beta versions are available — here, version 1.2 is stable and version 1.3 is beta. The stable version is more tested — sometimes, a regression in the beta version can cause an application to stop working, but some applications will only work with the newer, beta version. An application’s entry in the Wine application database sometimes contains information about the necessary version of Wine you’ll need.

Running an Application

Once you’ve got Wine installed, you can download an application’s EXE or MSI (Microsoft Installer) file and double-click it — just like you would if you were using Windows — to run it with Wine.



This isn’t always the best way to run an application. If you’re encountering a problem, you can run the application from the terminal to see detailed error messages that can help you troubleshoot the problem. Just use the following command:

wine /path/to/application.exe

If you have an MSI file instead, use the following command to install it:

wine msiexec /i /path/to/installer.msi

Bear in mind that many of the error messages don’t matter. For example, the fixme message here indicates that Wine doesn’t contain support for a specific function yet, but the application runs fine without this function.

If the application requires installation, install it as if you were using Windows.



Once it’s installed, you’ll find its shortcuts in your applications menu, and possibly on your desktop.

Wine’s Utilities

The Wine package comes with a few utilities, which you can access from the applications menu. Just type Wine in the application menu to search for them.



Wine’s configuration dialog contains a variety of options, some of which you may need to get applications working. You can set the Windows version Wine behaves as, or set specific Windows versions for each individual applicaiton. Other options include graphics, audio and theming settings.



The Uninstall Wine Software utility lists your installed software and allows you to remove programs.



The package also includes Winetricks, a helper script that automates some tasks. Winetracks can guide you through installing certain popular applications and games — you won’t find every supported application here, though.

The Registry & File System

Many applications require registry tweaks to work properly. You’ll often find information about which registry entries to modify on the application database. Execute the regedit command from a terminal to access Wine’s registry editor.



Wine uses a virtual Windows file system, which is stored in the hidden .wine folder in your home folder. Use the View -> Show Hidden Files option in the file manager to reveal it. Once you have, you’ll find a folder named drive_c in the .wine folder — this folder contains the contents of Wine’s C: drive.

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Fun, geeky fact: Wine stands for “Wine is not a Windows emulator.” It doesn’t emulate Windows; it’s an implementation of the Windows API for Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and the BSD family of operating systems.

Source  : http://www.howtogeek.com

4+ Ways to Run Windows Software on Linux

Linux has come a long way, but you may still need to run Windows applications occasionally – especially Windows-only PC games. Luckily, there are quite a few ways to run Windows applications on Linux.
Of course, before you try to run an old Windows program, you should look or alternatives that run natively on Linux. You’ll have a better experience if you can find a decent alternative that runs without any fiddling.

Use Wine

Wine is a compatibility layer that allows Windows applications to run on Linux. It’s basically an implementation of the Windows API on Linux. Of course, Microsoft doesn’t publish all the information we need to re-implement the Windows API from scratch, so Wine has to be reverse-engineered. While it works amazingly well given how little Microsoft has given us to worth with, it’s nowhere near perfect.
To run an application in Wine, you can install Wine and use it to launch an installer’s .exe file. Before you do, you should take a look at the Wine Application Database website, which will tell you how well an application runs in Wine. Wine is frequently used for games, as games are the one type of software that can’t run in a virtual machine. While Wine can be used to run desktop applications like Photoshop and Microsoft Word, these will run flawlessly in a virtual machine (see below).



You can also try using an application like PlayOnLinux, which helps automate the process of installing supported games and other software in Wine.



The Netflix Desktop app uses a patched version of Wine to run Netflix on Linux – Silverlight doesn’t work properly with the current version of Wine.

Run Windows in a Virtual Machine

While Wine may have bugs or crashes when installing applications, a virtual machine will be able to run those desktop applications just fine. Install Windows in a virtual machine program like VirtualBox, VMware Player, or KVM and you’ll have Windows running in a window. You can install windows software in the virtual machine and run it on your Linux desktop.

Virtual machines introduce some overhead, but with today’s fast CPUs, running many types of software in a virtual machine shouldn’t be a problem. This is especially true after you’ve tweaked those virtual machines for speed. This doesn’t apply to games – virtual machines don’t have very good 3D graphics support, so all but the oldest games will fail to run.



To integrate the Windows applications with your desktop, you can use VirtualBox’s seamless mode or VMware’s Unity mode. The applications will still be running in a virtual machine, but their windows will appear seamlessly on your desktop, as if they were running on Linux.

Try CrossOver

If Wine seems like too much of a pain, you may want to try CrossOver Linux. CrossOver is a commercial product so it will cost you money, although CodeWeavers offer a free trial. CrossOver essentially takes the Wine software and packages it so that it’s guaranteed to work properly with popular applications like Photoshop, Office, and even popular games. CodeWeavers provides commercial support for these supported programs, so you have someone to turn to if something breaks.
This option isn’t for everyone – often you can run the same applications by using Wine – but if you’re just interested in running a few popular applications on your Linux desktop and paying someone else to do the tweaking for you, CrossOver may be your ticket. CrossOver also sends their patches back to the Wine project, so the money you pay helps fund open-source Wine development.
As with Wine, CrossOver won’t work perfectly with everything. Like with Wine, CodeWeavers has a compatibility database website.

Use a Remote Desktop

If you have access to a remote Windows system, you may want to try running your applications on the remote Windows system and using remote desktop on your Linux system to access them. The applications will be running remotely on a real Windows system, so they should work properly.
Many Linux desktops include software for accessing remote Windows desktops already. If not, you can install the rdesktop package.

When All Else Fails: Dual Boot

You can’t run every Windows program on Linux – when a big new PC game comes out, it will often be quite some time until it runs properly in Wine. While Steam on Linux and rumored Linux support from Blizzard may change this in the future, games are the one category of app that have the most issues on Linux – although many older games work perfectly.
Instead of giving up on Windows entirely, consider keeping it around in a dual-boot configuration. When you want to play a new game that doesn’t work properly on Linux, restart into your Windows system.



If you’re dual-booting, you can even access your Linux partitions from Windows so you’ll always have access to your files.

Source  :http://www.howtogeek.com

How to Turn Your Ubuntu Laptop into a Wireless Access Point

If you have a single wired Internet connection – say, in a hotel room – you can create an ad-hoc wireless network with Ubuntu and share the Internet connection among multiple devices. Ubuntu includes an easy, graphical setup tool.
Unfortunately, there are some limitations. Some devices may not support ad-hoc wireless networks and Ubuntu can only create wireless hotspots with weak WEP encryption, not strong WPA encryption.

Setup

To get started, click the gear icon on the panel and select System Settings.



Select the Network control panel in Ubuntu’s System Settings window. You can also set up a wireless hotspot by clicking the network menu and selecting Edit Network Connections, but that setup process is more complicated.



If you want to share an Internet connection wirelessly, you’ll have to connect to it with a wired connection. You can’t share a Wi-Fi network – when you create a Wi-Fi hotspot, you’ll be disconnected from your current wireless network.



To create a hotspot, select the Wireless network option and click the Use as Hotspot button at the bottom of the window.



You’ll be disconnected from your existing network. You can disable the hotspot later by clicking the Stop Hotspot button in this window or by selecting another wireless network from the network menu on Ubuntu’s panel.



After you click Create Hotspot, you’ll see an notification pop up that indicates your laptop’s wireless radio is now being used as an ad-hoc access point. You should be able to connect from other devices using the default network name – “ubuntu” – and the security key displayed in the Network window. However, you can also click the Options button to customize your wireless hotspot.



From the wireless tab, you can set a custom name for your wireless network using the SSID field. You can also modify other wireless settings from here. The Connect Automatically check box should allow you to use the hotspot as your default wireless network – when you start your computer, Ubuntu will create the hotspot instead of connecting to an existing wireless network.



From the Wireless Security tab, you can change your security key and method. Unfortunately, WPA encryption does not appear to be an option here, so you’ll have to stick with the weaker WEP encryption.



The “Shared to other computers” option on the IPv4 Settings tab tells Ubuntu to share your Internet connection with other computers connected to the hotspot.



Even if you don’t have a wireless Internet connection available to share, you can network computers together and communicate between them – for example, to share files.


source   : http://www.howtogeek.com

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The Best Free Tools for Creating a Bootable Windows or Linux USB Drive

If you need to install Windows or Linux and you don’t have access to a CD/DVD drive, a bootable USB drive is the solution. You can boot to the USB drive, using it to run the OS setup program, just like a CD or DVD.

We have collected some links to free programs that allow you to easily setup a USB drive to install Windows or Linux on a computer.

NOTE: If you have problems getting the BIOS on your computer to let you boot from a USB drive, see this article about booting from a USB drive even if your BIOS won’t let you.

Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool is an official, freeware tool from Microsoft that allows you to install Windows 7 and Windows 8 without having to first run an existing operating system on your computer. You can change the boot order of the drives in your computer’s BIOS so the Windows 7 installation on your USB drive runs automatically when you turn on your computer. Please see the documentation for your computer for information about how to access BIOS and change the boot order of drives.

WiNToBootic

WiNToBootic is another free tool that allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive for installing Windows 7 or Windows 8. It supports an ISO file, a DVD, or a folder as the boot disk source. It’s a standalone tool that doesn’t require installation and it operates very fast.

Windows Bootable Image (WBI) Creator

WBI Creator is a free program that allows you to create a bootable ISO image from Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 setup files. It’s a portable tool that’s easy to use. Simply tell the tool where the Windows setup files are and select a target folder for the new ISO file that will get created. Then, you can use one of the other tools mentioned in this article to setup a bootable USB flash drive or CD/DVD for use in setting up a Windows system.

WinToFlash

WinToFlash is a free, portable tool that allows you to create a bootable USB flash drive from a Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7,  Server 2003, or Server 2008 installation CD or DVD. It will also transfer a Windows pre-install environments (WinPE), which are handy for troubleshooting and repairs, to a USB flash drive. You can even use WinToFlash to create a MSDOS bootable USB drive.

XBoot

XBoot is a free utility for creating multiboot USB flash drives or ISO image files. This allows you to combine multiple ISO files (Linux, utilities, and antivirus rescue CDs) onto one USB drive or ISO file, allowing you to create a handy utility drive. Simply drag and drop the ISO files onto the XBoot window and click Create ISO or Create USB.
NOTE: XBoot requires .NET Framework 4.0 (Standalone installer or Web installer) to be installed on your system to run.

UNetbootin

UNetbootin is a free program for both Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X that allows you to create bootable Live USB drives for Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux distributions instead of burning a CD. It runs on both Windows and Linux. Either use UNetbootin to download one of the many Linux distributions it supports or provide the location of your own Linux ISO file.

NOTE: The resulting USB drive is only bootable on PCs, not Macs.

Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator

The Ubuntu Startup Disk Creator allows you to convert a USB flash drive or SD card into a drive from which you can run your Ubuntu system. You don’t have to dedicate the whole drive to the Ubuntu system. You can store other files in the remaining space.
The program also allows you to create a drive for Debian, or any other Debian-based OS for which you have a CD or .iso image.

Universal USB Installer

Universal USB Installer is a program that allows you to choose from several Linux distributions to install on a USB flash drive. Select the Linux distribution, provide a location for the appropriate ISO file, select your USB flash drive, and click Create.
NOTE: The USB flash drive must be formatted as a Fat16, Fat32, or NTFS drive.

Rufus

Rufus is a small, portable program that allows you to create bootable USB drives for Windows and Linux. It also allows you to check the USB device for bad blocks, using up to four passes. Rufus runs in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. You can create bootable USB drives for the listed versions of Windows, as well as almost all popular Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, and OpenSUSE.
Rufus is very easy to use and the program looks like the default format window shown in Windows when you format a hard disk partition, USB drive, or other external drive.
In addition to Windows and Linux systems, you can also use Rufus to put utilities on USB drives, such as Parted Magic, Ultimate Boot CD, and BartPE.






If there are any other free tools you’ve found useful for creating bootable USB flash drives, let me know.

source    :    http://www.howtogeek.com/

How to repair Start Up / Boot Loader of Windows7 OS

Having an error like “BOOTMGR is missing”, or you just can’t see anything accept BLACK !!.  Then you probably have a problem with MBR. Repair the MBR (Master Boot Record) to restore the Windows 7 boot loader, it’s simple from the Windows installation disc.

Along with this there is also a troubleshoot for, Replacing the XP Bootloader with Win7. If you’ve managed to install XP on the same PC that you already had Windows 7 on, you’ll noticed that you can’t boot into Windows 7 anymore. (see the end of the post)
Note: If your PC starts booting into Windows but fails, you should probably try using Safe Mode instead.

You can solve this matter by two methods:
A. Using the Automated Startup Repair  (if not solved use method B)
B.  Using Commands through Command Prompt

Now do the following steps to repair your BOOT:

First insert the Win7 OS installation disk in to your PC.
Now boot that disk, and open the “Repair your Computer” option (Which is generally you can see on Left Bottom corner of the screen)



Now select your Windows OS and click the “Next”.



you can see the “System Recovery Options” on screen.

A. Using the Automated Startup Repair

Select the First option “Startup Repair”, and it will automatically fix problem. , and if its not then you probabley need to go with the Command Prompt option.





B.  Using Commands through Command Prompt

Here  you have to select “Command Prompt” option from the “System Recovery Option”.



Now, if you just want to repair MBR (Master Boot Record),
then type this:     bootrec /fixmbr

To write a new boot sector onto the system partition,
then type this:     bootrec /fixboot

NOTE: it is batter to fire both of the commands, because sometimes just repaing the MBR ain’t solve the problem due to the openSUSE or Linux’s grub may changed the physical partation number.
If you just use bootrec /?  you’ll be able to see all the options.



Replacing the Windows XP Bootloader with Windows 7
You can use this command to fix that and restore the Windows 7 bootloader:    bootsect /nt60 all
Depending on the partition that you’ve installed, you might need to substitute the drive letter instead of “all”.



Note: if you want to restore Windows XP back to the menu,
you can open up a command prompt in Windows 7 and run this command:

bcdedit /create {ntldr} -d “Windows XP”

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