HowTo: Create Wine Application Shortcuts on Ubuntu

I use the Ubuntu partition on my laptop as my main/work desktop and I barely use Windows because I have all the programs and applications I need on Ubuntu even Windows programs like Adobe Photoshop. Running Photoshop on Ubuntu is made possible by Wine, a software that lets users install Windows software on other operating systems like Ubuntu, Mandriva, SUSE, FreeBSD, Solaris and OpenSolaris and run these applications like it was on Windows.

Once installed, Wine applications can be accessed via Applications > Wine > Programs. What I don’t like about this is, I don’t want to go through that process everytime I want to open a Wine application. I want to have a desktop shortcut that will give me a faster and easier way to access a Wine app. Installing Windows applications with Wine is fast and easy but creating shortcuts isn’t. Today, I’ll show you how to create Wine application shortcuts on Ubuntu.

For this tutorial, I’ll be creating a shortcut for Adobe Photoshop CS2.

1. Create a “Launcher”. Right-click on the desktop click on “Create Launcher“.

Ubuntu Wine Shortcut

2. On the Command field, click “Browse“.

Ubuntu Wine Shortcut

3. Follow this path – /.wine/drive_c/Program Files/ and look for the program’s executable file (.exe). Some programs will require you to go several folders deeper.

ex. /.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Photoshop.exe

Ubuntu Wine Shortcut
If you can’t locate the .wine folder in your home directory, Press Ctrl + H to show hidden folders.

4. Select the .exe file and click on “Open“. The Command field should have something like this:

“/home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/yourprogram.exe”

ex. “/home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Photoshop.exe”

5. In order for it to work, you’ll have to add “wine” at the beginning of the line.

wine “/home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/yourprogram.exe”

ex. wine “/home/username/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Photoshop.exe”

6. Fill in the details for the rest of the fields like “Name” and “Comment“. Take note that the “Type” field should be “Application“.

Ubuntu Wine Shortcut

7. Next thing to do is choose an icon for your shortcut. For this one, you’ll need to download an icon for your program shortcut. The ideal icon would be a .png icon with transparent background. You can find one by doing a Google search or try Deviantart. Save the icon in the “usr/share/pixmaps” folder.

Click on the small box on the left side.
Ubuntu Wine Shortcut

Click Browse then go to “usr/share/pixmaps” folder and select the custom icon that you downloaded and saved earlier. Click on the icon and click OK.
Ubuntu Wine Shortcut

8. After you’ve chosen the icon for your shortcut, click OK and that’s it. Now you have a desktop shortcut of your favorite Wine application.

Ubuntu Wine Shortcut

Hope you like this tutorial on how to create Wine applications on Ubuntu. If you find it helpful and useful, please don’t forget to bookmark and share it. Thank you!

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10 Comments

  1. Thank you for the article.

    An almost natural procedure, of sorts. I have one app that I followed this for and it worked great. I have another that just won’t work.

    I can double-click it in nautilus and it works, but the launcher only opens a black window. It is set to be executable and application, I am using the “” in the launcher command line, it is set to open with wine windows program loader, I have set the launcher with wine prefix and without. I am at the end of my rope with this one. Any ideas?

    Thanks for your time.

  2. Hello, I can’t seem to work this out on a program that was installed but just copied to the Program Files folder. I have a extracted Plants vs Zombies and just pasted it in the Program Files folder of wine. Can you help me?

    Here’s the exact location of the executable file for the game.
    /home/prescilla/.wine/dosdevices/c:/Program Files/PopCap Plants vs Zombies v1.2 Game of the Year Edition/PlantsVsZombies.exe

    Eventhough I prefixed the command with wine, there is an error:
    FATAR ERROR
    Resource not found
    properties\resources.xml

    something like that.

    But if I do run the program from the exact location not from the desktop it works. Please help I really would like to have it on my desktop. Thank you.

  3. Mark Southonsays:

    Thanks for this. I also found that opening the menu for the program in Applications > Wine > Programs, and then right-clicking on the program’s icon gave me the option add the launcher to the desktop or panel.

  4. Yes, you can play games! I’ve not tried many, but those I have tried run through wine. I remember having a heck of a fiddle to get Football Manager 2007 up and running though…

  5. I have an installer Ubuntu 9.04 but I haven’t installed it yet. I just explored it using its live cd. I’ve planned on using it actually but as you mentioned, i also work with Photoshop that’s why i stick with windows xp (xtra problem). anyway, with your post i think i’ll spare a space for ubuntu. thanks for sharing.

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