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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Run Windows apps on both OS X & Linux with CrossOver 12.5

Don't want to dual-boot your Mac or Linux PC to run one or two Windows apps? Don't want to install a full virtual operating system for them? CodeWeaver's latest version of CrossOver 12.5 may be just what you want.

Most Mac and Linux users think anything Windows can do their operating systems can do better. Often, they're right, but then there comes that day when they really need to run that one special Windows application and then they're stuck.

Run Windows programs from your Linux desktop or Mac? With CrossOver, it's easy.
There are many ways of handling this. Some people keep old Windows PC around; others dual boot their computers; and quite a few run virtual machines (VM)s of Windows on their Linux PCs and Macs. That's all fine, but it's also a fair amount of trouble.

Then, there's CodeWeaver's approach: Use a program, CrossOver, which enables you to install and run the one or two Windows applications you need on your favorite operating system. CrossOver is based on the open-source project Wine, an implementation of the Windows application programming interface (API) on top of the Unix/Linux operating system family. For each application, CrossOver/Wine creates a small Windows virtual machine just for that program.

You actually don't need CrossOver to run Windows applications on Linux or a Mac. You can do it with Wine alone -- if you know precisely what you're doing. What CrossOver gives you is easy, automated installation of Windows applications, and technical support. And in this latest version, the CrossOver interface has been improved so it's easier than ever to install and manage Windows applications.

The latest version -- CrossOver 12.5, which is based on Wine 1.6 -- supports  thousands of Windows programs. These include: Quicken, Adobe Photoshop, various versions of the Microsoft Office suite; and, of course lots and lots of games. On the fun side of computing, CrossOver supports Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and thousands of others.

Not all programs run equally well. Before you invest in buying CrossOver, which runs $59.95, you'll want to take CodeWeavers up on its offer of a free two-week trial to make sure that your particular must-have program will run right with it.

In particular, this latest version offers better support for Microsoft Outlook, Quicken, Internet Explorer 7, and improved compatibility with the Microsoft Office suite. The company has also fixed several crashes and made numerous usability improvements.

This edition also offers a real improvement in its interoperability with Mac OS X. CrossOver 12.5, which will run with Snow Leopard or later, now has the"Mac Driver" technology enabled by default for all applications. The company claims that this brings improved integration with the OS X desktop environment and improves functions such as drag-and-drop, command-tab switching, Dock and Menu Bar integration, and window transparency. In my limited testing with my Mountain Lion-powered Mac Mini, Mac Driver lived up to these claims.

On Linux, CrossOver boasts a new user interface. This makes it much easier to launch your installed Windows applications. I also found it easier in general to install Windows apps on Linux with CrossOver 12.5. CrossOver isn't perfect. Many Windows applications won't run properly with it. But, many will work with it, and if you only need a couple of Windows apps to make your Linux or Mac computing life complete then CrossOver may well be exactly what you need.

Give it a try and find out for yourself. It won't cost you a thing.

Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off  CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Wine 1.7.5 Released

The Wine development release 1.7.5 is now available.

What's new in this release:
  • Support for registration-free COM using activation contexts.
  • Improved support for simulated bold fonts.
  • Unicode data updated to Unicode 6.3.
  • Better support for typelib registration on 64-bit.
  • Various bug fixes.
The source is available now. Binary packages are in the process of being built, and will appear soon at their respective download locations.

 Bugs fixed in 1.7.5 (total 30):

  13699  Wine doesnt show embedded web browser interface on Clarion applications
  17929  Crash when creating a DC
  18465  url.dll FileProtocolHandler does not open URLs in browser.
  22926  Main Steam window disappears when entering Exposé
  24770  Bioshock not work
  25327  Risen - No space between words in Risen
  26900  GetTabbedTextExtent() returns non-zero value when nCount == 0
  27168  chromium-based apps can't load https sites
  27694  wine iexplore can't load hotmail.com (gives a blank page)
  28946  Steam freezes
  29365  Internet Explorer 8 fails to submit a URL to VirusTotal for analysis
  29784  Spotify crashes on startup
  30745  GOG.com version of Soulbringer crashes on startup (GetModuleHandleExW needs to support GET_MODULE_HANDLE_EX_FLAG_PIN)
  32280  32-bit Visual C++ 2010 Express full installer complains "Unknown Error" with Mono (mscoree CLR v4 shim needs CreateInterface)
  33384  Basic WPF applications using .NET 3.5 WPF fails to handle images (windowscodecs {7543696a-bc8d-46b0-5f81-8d95728972be} = IMILBitmapSource unsupported)
  33799  Wargame: Airland Battle needs msvcr110.dll._libm_sse2_atan_precise
  34432  installer of iTudou needs atl90
  34472  window titlebar names
  34475  Fullscreen Window scaling issue (MacDriver)
  34502  __unDName doesn't use flags UNDNAME_NO_LEADING_UNDERSCORES and UNDNAME_NO_MS_KEYWORDS for "__ptr64"
  34503  __unDName doesn't support flag UNDNAME_NO_THISTYPE
  34648  J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 10 installer 'patchjre' tool crashes due to unbuffered io on redirected stdout pipe
  34677  e-carte bleue la banque postale doesn't work at all
  34707  Miranda crashes on start up
  34719  cabinet_open{,_stream} returns 0 on failure but doesn't compliant to _open interface
  34735  Photoscape: crashes selecting some filters
  34738  PageFault when generating a MD5 Hash
  34757  Tray icons don't attach to the native notification area
  34776  explorer.exe does not start
  34778  IE7 can't install

Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off  CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Wine 1.7.4 Released

The Wine development release 1.7.4 is now available.

What's new in this release:
  • Support for Cocoa-style full-screen mode in the Mac driver.
  • More preparation work for the Direct3D command stream.
  • A number of Winsock improvements.
  • Various bug fixes.
The source is available now. Binary packages are in the process of being built, and will appear soon at their respective download locations.

Bugs fixed in 1.7.4 (total 32):

   2195  WSALookupServiceBegin and WSALookupServiceNext Unimplemented
  16935  BCG Slider thumb doesnt display correctly
  19200  Neverwinter Nights 2 crashes
  21808  URU Complete Chronicles: Black Screen Freeze upon UruExplorer.exe launch
  22865  Split Second foggy, doesn't show most of scene
  23566  Arcanum crash after start.
  23839  Neverwinter Nights 2 can't detect video adapter properly, claiming: "Your video card has less than 128 MB of video memory"
  25037  Microsoft Tinker Doesn't Render, Gameplay not possible
  25779  world of tanks updater: never shows a gui without winetricks ie7
  26384  BabasChess crashed after examining a game for a while
  26683  pixmap error ascTimeTables 2010 version
  26710  Minitroid tech demo does not start
  26761  SIV fails to report the workgroup name
  27358  The Witcher fails to run
  27796  JDK 6 installer fails with error "File name is too long"
  31140  BCG Gantt Demo crashes when large date ranged enter.
  31557  Guild Wars 2 screenshots look bad
  32375  Submit form by code fails
  32984  Java SE Development Kit 7u13 post-install cleanup tool 'remove.exe' crashes
  33232  Amazon MP3 Downloader crashes during download of mp3 files (ntdll/server fd cache doesn't take FILE_APPEND_DATA flag implicit write access into account)
  33495  Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Beta launcher does not register form submissions
  33957  GOG.com installers break citing XML read issue
  34005  WS2_32.dll.WSASendMsg is unimplemented
  34066  Wine looping endlessly on first run, and when installing Steam
  34209  fullscreen apps won't switch back to resolution after command-tabbing on OS X
  34270  PhotoImpact X3 needs msvcp60.dll.??0ios_base@std@@IAE@XZ
  34421  Unity3D: 3D view fails after hitting play
  34501  __unDName doesn't support thunks with vtordispex
  34506  __unDName doesn't support thunks with vcall
  34593  MS .Net 2.0 x64 installer fails under XP mode (works under win2k3)
  34623  NCsoft's Aion (MMORPG) crashes on startup (WinLicense software protection, avoid forwarding some msvcr80 API to msvcrt)
  34651  'INFINITY' and 'NAN' undeclared

Run Microsoft Windows Applications and Games on Mac, Linux or ChromeOS save up to 20% off  CodeWeavers CrossOver+ today.