WINE and programs on other partitions

I was looking to create an Ubuntu partition on my PC, just to mess around with, and I was wondering how WINE handled running programs already install on a separate partition?

Namely, I was looking at screwing around with gaming on Ubuntu, so running something like WoW or Steam would be idle. I already have them installed, so installing them again would be a great waste. All my programs are installed on a partition separate from my XP partition just as an FYI.

 

The problem with most Windows apps is that they require registry entries to properly run, they don't keep their configs separately like Linux native apps. This causes a problem with upgrading operating systems, and with migrating to a new computer under Windows, and it makes it very unlikely that Wine will be able to just run the apps in-place. You COULD theoretically set your Wine drive to be your root Windows drive, and then reinstall the apps to the same location, but I can't guarantee anything.

In short, I doubt it. There are some apps like Notepad that will run ok, but most Windows apps are programmed to need the registry, and thus need to be installed into Wine to be used properly, doubly so with things like WoW and Steam.

 

Pitabred is right. Trying to run under Wine a random Windows app installed in a normal Windows partition is unlikely to be successful. Pitabred already explained why.

If you google around you may be able to find pages where people say they were able to do it. However, it is usually the case that they are not giving you the whole story. They forgot to mention crucial details to make it work. Or too often they consider their procedure successful if the software launches. They stop testing at that point. They don't realize that under normal usage patterns the application is unstable. So in theory it is possible to do it but in practice it is highly unlikely to result in a satisfactory outcome.

This being said, there is a class of application which should work well if installed in a normal Windows partition and then run inside Wine. Those are so-called "portable applications". That is, applications designed to be run from USB drives. These applications do not rely on the registry to keep configuration information. (It would be possible to argue that these applications are not really "installed" in any real sense of the word.) Google for "portable apps" to find which those applications are.

(Bonus Editorial: I really despise the usage of the label "portable" to mean "applications which can travel with you on removable media". In my book, a portable application is an application which can be ported to different architectures by means of recompiling the source code. This is a well established usage.)

 

I have a second HD that i mount through ntfs-3g and I run apps straight from that. I only have one partition on my main HD though and it's for Linux. The second is for all of my old windows stuff.

 

Take a look at PendriveApps. They have a large number of apps that run in windows without being installed, and also tools for making other apps portable (how well that works depends on how the installer is written for the app you're looking at). If you use the portable version of an app, it should not have problems residing on a Windows partition or a USB drive and running under Wine.

 

I started my Steam program that was installed on my Windows drive with Steam before... but like lemur said, I don't think I actually ran any games after that.

Also, since installing Steam through Wine, I don't think that running the Steam program in the Windows installation works anymore... I haven't really tested it yet though. In short, it's probably more trouble than it's worth for saving 5-10 gigs on a couple games. I would just reinstall them via Wine and you'll have much more success.