What's great if you try to install your OEM windows on a different computer it will often go mad, and you may lose your drivers for onboard sound etc.

Secondly my Windows is a OEM version and it worked, just have your product code to hand - and it works, and activates the product via the internet. without the fiddling I had to do when I was using it for real! I have to say that Wine can be useful but the 'real thing' works quicker in a virtual XP - I love Ubuntu just that it can't do certain things (Windows is the same) - nothing wrong with that I tend to think that certain Linux users take a special pride in avoiding Windows at all costs, and stick with some pretty shaky Wine emulations just to say it works (just)! Top tip for installation of Virtualbox seems a minor point - make sure your Windows CD is nice and clean and you've got it in the correct CD Draw (if you have two) - for some reason any tiny flaw on the CD seems more likely to upset the virtual machine than it would in a real installation.

And strangely Windows XP for me runs quicker in Ubuntu (as a guest) than it ever did in real life! Also oddly the Windows XP recognised my sound card, wireless etc. The main advantage of using the PPA packages is that you can find an exe file and just right click->open with Wine without having to manually set it as executable. The 2.21 one will remain stable, while the 3.3 will receive updates as new Wine releases come out - which means 3.3 will generally work with more apps, but might break on an update as well. You can get instructions here: - on 14.04, 16.04, and 17.10 you can install either the wine2.21 or wine3.3 (beta) packages. If every app you need works in Wine, then you also get the added benefit of not needing a copy of Windows for your virtual machine.Īn alternative to testing them in Wine is to look them up in Wine's application database: Ĭurrently, I also recommend using my packages from the Wine PPA rather than the packages that come with Ubuntu (which are also mine). When Wine does work there are some important benefits over virtualization: performance is noticeably better, they're easier to run (links right off the Application menu), and they become integrated with the system (easy access to the files in your home folder, no windows in windows, and if they have a system tray icon it sits in the panel). I highly recommend at least testing the applications in Wine before virtualizing them.

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