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Using wine under linux, I want to start up a Windows desktop which doesn't run any program. I then want to interact with that desktop's Start menu, desktop icons, etc.

I know that I can run a specific Windows executable in a desktop by doing this ...

wine explorer /desktop some_executable.exe

However, if I leave some_executable.exe off, then the empty Windows desktop simply opens and then closes a few seconds later.

Is there any way to use wine to simply start an empty Windows desktop that remains on the screen?

Thank you in advance.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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I realize now that I can do the following:

  • run winecfg, and under the "Graphics" tab, specify Emulate a virtual desktop
  • then run winetricks explorer

This causes a virtual Windows desktop to be opened with explorer running. I can iconify explorer, and I can then run any wine-installed programs via that virtual Windows desktop.

This seems to be stable enough for my purposes.

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WINE is not designed to create a stable Windows Desktop.

It provides a Linux system the limited ability to run some Windows-specific apps, but the Desktop is not one of them.

To do what you want, the well-accepted solution is to add desktop virtualization to your Linux system, using the Linux system as a virtualization host, if your hardware is capable (see https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-xen-vmware-kvm-intel-vt-amd-v-support/ for details).

Do cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep lm to confirm you have a 64-bit processor (required).

If so, then do cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -h "svm | vmx" to see if that CPU is virtualization-capable.

There are many virtualization host apps.

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  • Thank you. When I invoke wine with the /desktop option that I described above, it starts up a Windows desktop in which the application on the command line is opened. I think that I could get an apparently empty Windows desktop by writing a do-nothing Windows application which doesn't even open a window, installing it into my wine environment, and then starting it on the command line in place of some_executable.exe that I mentioned above. I guess that's the best I can do with wine. If I could get that to work, I'd rather do it that way than to go down the virtualization path.
    – HippoMan
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 20:41
  • I found a way to do what I want. See my answer here.
    – HippoMan
    Commented Feb 29, 2020 at 16:37
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Here is a tool that gives the start menu. Also, if you enable the desktop emulation in Wine, you'll get the taskbar when you use the Wine Start Menu Systray.exe app.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqfbu6gTBYg

The download is within the youtube description.

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  • While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes. - From Review
    – Markus Meyer
    Commented Oct 2, 2022 at 9:53

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