Windows compatibility layer Wine 11 arrives bringing masses of improvements to Linux

What's new in Wine 11.0

WoW64

• The new WoW64 mode that was first introduced as experimental feature in Wine 9.0 is considered fully supported, and essentially has feature parity with the old WoW64 mode.

• 16-bit applications are supported in the new WoW64 mode.

• It is possible to force an old WoW64 installation to run in new WoW64 mode by setting the variable WINEARCH=wow64. This requires the prefix to have been created as 64-bit (the default).

• Pure 32-bit prefixes created with WINEARCH=win32 are deprecated, and are not supported in new WoW64 mode.

• The wine64 loader binary is removed, in favor of a single wine loader that selects the correct mode based on the binary being executed. For binaries that have both 32-bit and 64-bit versions installed, it defaults to 64-bit. The 32-bit version can then be launched with an explicit path, e.g. wine c:\\windows\\syswow64\\notepad.exe.

Synchronization / Threading

• The NTSync Linux kernel module is used when available, to improve the performance of synchronization primitives. The needed kernel module is shipped with the Linux kernel starting from version 6.14.

• Thread priority changes are implemented on Linux and macOS. On Linux, this is constrained by the system nice limit, and current distributions require some configuration to change the nice hard limit to a negative value (in the -19,-1 range, where -5 is usually enough, and anything lower is not recommended). See man limits.conf(5) for more information.

• NTDLL synchronization barriers are implemented.

• On macOS, the %gs register is swapped in the syscall dispatcher. This avoids conflicts between the Windows TEB and the macOS thread descriptor.

Kernel

• NT Reparse Points are implemented, with support for the mount point and symlink types of reparse points.

• Write Watches take advantage of userfaultfd on Linux if available, to avoid the cost of handling page faults in user space.

• NT system calls use the same syscall numbering as recent Windows, to support applications that hardcode syscall numbers.

• On ARM64, there is support for simulating a 4K page size on top of larger host pages (typically 16K or 64K). This works for simple applications, but because it is not possible to completely hide the differences, more demanding applications may not work correctly. Using a 4K-page kernel is strongly recommended.

Graphics

• The OSMesa dependency is removed, and OpenGL bitmap rendering is implemented with the hardware accelerated OpenGL runtime.

• The EGL OpenGL backend is extended, and used by default on the X11 platform. The GLX backend is deprecated but remains available, and is used as fallback if EGL isn't available. It can also be forced by setting the value UseEGL=N in the HKCU\Software\Wine\X11 Driver registry key.

• The VK_KHR_external_memory_win32, VK_KHR_external_semaphore_win32, VK_KHR_external_fence_win32, VK_KHR_win32_keyed_mutex extensions and the related D3DKMT APIs are implemented.

• In new WoW64 mode, OpenGL buffers are mapped to 32-bit memory space using Vulkan extensions if available.

• Front buffer OpenGL rendering is emulated for platforms that don't support it natively.

• OpenGL context sharing implementation in wglShareLists is improved.

• The Vulkan API version 1.4.335 is supported.

• Image metadata handling is better supported in WindowsCodecs.

• Many more conversions between various pixel formats are supported in WindowsCodecs.

Desktop integration

• X11 Window Manager integration is improved: window activation requests are sent to the Window Manager, and the EWMH protocol is used to keep the X11 and the Win32 active windows consistent.

• Exclusive fullscreen mode is supported, and D3D fullscreen mode is improved, especially improving older DDraw games.

• Shaped and color-keyed windows are supported in the experimental Wayland driver.

• Performance of several windowing-related functions is improved, using shared memory for communication between processes.

• Clipboard support is implemented in the Wayland driver.

• Input Methods are supported in the Wayland driver.

Direct3D

• Hardware decoding of H.264 video through Direct3D 11 video APIs is implemented over Vulkan Video. Note that the Vulkan renderer must be used. As in previous Wine versions, the Vulkan renderer can be used by setting renderer to vulkan using the Direct3D registry key or WINE_D3D_CONFIG environment variable.

• Direct3D 11 sampler minimum/maximum reduction filtering is implemented if GL_ARB_texture_filter_minmax is available (when using the GL renderer) or VK_EXT_sampler_filter_minmax (when using the Vulkan renderer).

• The following legacy Direct3D features are implemented for the Vulkan renderer:

  • Point size control.
  • Point sprite control.
  • Vertex blending.
  • Fixed-function bump mapping.
  • Color keying in draws.
  • Flat shading.
  • Alpha test.
  • User clip planes.
  • Several resource formats.

  Additionally, the bundled copy of vkd3d-shader includes many improvements for Shader Model 1, 2, and 3 shaders, including notably support for Shader Model 1 pixel shaders and basic Shader Model 1 texturing. The Vulkan renderer is not yet at parity with the GL renderer, and is therefore not yet the default.

Direct3D helper libraries

• D3DXSaveSurfaceToFileInMemory is reimplemented for PNG, JPEG and BMP files, enabling support for formats and other edge cases not supported by WindowsCodecs. It also supports saving surfaces to TARGA files.

• D3DX 11 texture loading functions are implemented, using code shared with earlier D3DX versions.

• Box filtering is supported in all versions.

• D3DXSaveTextureToFileInMemory supports saving textures to DDS files.

• D3DX 9 supports reading 1-bit, 2-bit, and 4-bit indexed pixel formats, as well as the CxV8U8 format.

• D3DX 10 and 11 support compressing and decompressing BC4 and BC5 formats.

• D3DX 10 and 11 support generating mipmap levels while loading textures.

• ID3DXEffect::SetRawValue() is partially implemented.

• ID3DXSkinInfo::UpdateSkinnedMesh() is implemented.

Input / HID devices

• Compatibility with more Joystick devices is improved through the hidraw backend. Per-vendor and per-device registry options are available to selectively opt into the hidraw backend.

• Force feedback support is improved, with increased compatibility for joysticks and driving wheels, and better performance.

• Better support for gamepads in the Windows.Gaming.Input API and with the evdev backend when SDL is not available or disabled.

• There is a configuration tab for the Windows.Gaming.Input API in the Game Controllers Control Panel applet.

• DirectInput compatibility with older games that use action maps and device semantics is improved.

• More device enumeration APIs from Windows.Devices.Enumeration and cfgmgr32 are implemented.

Bluetooth

• The Bluetooth driver supports scanning and configuring host device discoverability, with some basic support for pairing via both the API and a wizard. At this point, this is only supported on Linux systems using BlueZ.

• Bluetooth radios and devices (both classic and low-energy) are visible to Windows applications.

• Applications can make low-level RFCOMM connections to remote devices using winsock APIs.

• There is initial support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) services and characteristics, making them visible through the Win32 BLE APIs.

Scanner support

• DAT_IMAGENATIVEXFER is supported.

• Scanner selection and configuration are saved in the registry.

• TWAIN 2.0 API for scanning is implemented, which allows scanning to work in 64-bit applications.

• Multi-page and Automatic Document Feed scans are supported.

• There is a user interface showing scanning progress and error messages.

• The scanner user interface no longer blocks the application using it.

• Windows-native scanner drivers can be loaded if they're installed in Wine.

Multimedia

• The Multimedia Streaming library implements a custom allocator for DirectDraw streams, reducing the number of buffer copies required for filters which support a downstream custom allocator.

• Dynamic format change is supported in the DMO Wrapper, AVI Decoder, and GStreamer-based demuxer and transform filters.

• GStreamer-based demuxer filters support the Indeo 5.0 codec.

• The DirectSound Renderer filter more properly signals end-of-stream. Previously end-of-stream could be signaled too early, clipping the end of an audio stream.

• The ASF Reader filter supports seeking.

• The AVI Decoder filter supports nontrivial source and destination rectangles.

DirectMusic

• SoundFont(SF2) supports more features:

  • Parsing of preset, instrument and default modulators.
  • Layering support required for many SF2 instruments.
  • Reuse of downloaded waves and zero-copy access sample data to prevent out-of-memory errors.
  • Instrument normalization.

• The Synthesizer is improved:

  • The latency clock is derived from the master clock to fix uneven playback in certain tracks.
  • Voice shutdown is instant and the synth better handles channel pressure events and LFO connections.
  • Setting the volume is supported and is automatically done when creating a synth or adding a port.

• The DX7 version of the Style form is supported.

• Cache management improvements in the loader.

• More MIDI meta events are supported.

Mono / .NET / WinRT

• XNA4 applications run based on SDL3, and render using the new SDL_GPU API by default.

• A text layout engine supporting System.Windows.Documents APIs is added to WPF (Windows Presentation Framework).

• Theming works in Windows Forms.

• WinRT metadata files can be generated by widl, and there is an initial implementation of the loader classes.

• WinRT C++ exceptions are supported.

Internationalization

• Locale data is generated from the Unicode CLDR database version 48. The following additional locales are supported: bqi-IR, bua-RU, cop-EG, ht-HT, kek-GT, lzz-TR, mww-Hmnp-US, oka-CA, pi-Latn-GB, pms-IT, sgs-LT, suz-Deva-NP, and suz-Sunu-NP,

• Unicode character tables are based on version 17.0.0 of the Unicode Standard.

• The timezone data is based on version 2025a of the IANA timezone database.

Internet and networking

• MSHTML exposes DOM attributes as proper DOM nodes in standards-compliant mode.

• JavaScript typed arrays are supported.

• The MSHTML objects DOMParser, XDomainRequest and msCrypto are implemented.

• Ping is implemented for ICMPv6.

Databases

• MSADO supports writing changes to the database.

• Most of the MSADO Recordset functions are implemented.

• ODBC remaps Unicode strings to support ANSI-only Win32 drivers.

Debugging

• The PDB file loader in DbgHelp is reimplemented, to support large files (> 4G), faster loading, and use fewer memory resources.

• NT system calls can be traced with WINEDEBUG=syscall. Unlike WINEDEBUG=relay, this is transparent to the application, and avoids breaking applications that hook system call entry points.

• It is possible to generate both DWARF and PDB debug information in a single build.

Builtin applications

• The Audio tab of WineCfg allows configuring the default MIDI device.

• The Command Prompt tool cmd can create reparse points with mklink /j, and display them in directory listings.

• The Command Prompt tool cmd supports more complex instructions, and file name auto completion in interactive prompt.

• The Console Hosting application conhost supports F1 and F3 keys for history retrieval.

• The timeout application is implemented.

• The find tool supports options /c (display match count) and /i (case insensitive matches).

• The whoami tool supports output format specifiers.

• There is a basic implementation of the subst command

• There is an initial implementation of the runas tool.

Miscellaneous

• Common Controls version 5 and version 6 are fully separated DLLs, and v6-only features are removed from the v5 DLL for better compatibility.

• The PBKDF2 key derivation algorithm is supported in BCrypt.

• The well-known shell folders UserProgramFiles, AccountPictures and Screenshots are supported.

Development tools

• The IDL compiler can generate Windows Runtime metadata files (.winmd) with the --winmd option

• The winedump tool supports dumping MUI resources, syscall numbers, embedded NE modules, and large PDB files (>4G).

• The wine/unixlib.h header is installed as part of the development package, as a first step towards supporting use of the Unixlib interface in third-party modules. This is still a work in progress.

Build infrastructure

• The X11-derived install-sh script is reimplemented in C, to enable installing several files in a single program invocation. This speeds up the file copying phase of make install by an order of magnitude.

• Compiler exceptions are used to implement __try/__except blocks when building with Clang for 64-bit MSVC targets.

• The WineHQ Gitlab CI supports ARM64 builds.

Bundled libraries

• The LLVM Compiler-RT runtime library version 8.0.1 is bundled, and used when building modules in MSVC mode.

• The TomCrypt library version 1.18.2 is bundled and used to implement cryptographic primitives in the RsaEnh and BCrypt modules.

• Vkd3d is updated to the upstream release 1.18.

• Faudio is updated to the upstream release 25.12.

• FluidSynth is updated to the upstream release 2.4.2.

• LCMS2 is updated to the upstream release 2.17.

• LibMPG123 is updated to the upstream release 1.33.0.

• LibPng is updated to the upstream release 1.6.51.

• LibTiff is updated to the upstream release 4.7.1.

• LibXml2 is updated to the upstream release 2.12.10.

• LibXslt is updated to the upstream release 1.1.43.

External dependencies

• The OSMesa library is no longer used. OpenGL bitmap rendering is implemented using EGL instead.

• The HwLoc library is used for CPU detection on FreeBSD.