[Wine] exporting registry to Wine

L. Rahyen research at science.su
Tue Dec 18 09:25:44 CST 2007


On Tuesday December 18 2007 11:41, Markus Hitter wrote:
> Am 18.12.2007 um 12:02 schrieb L. Rahyen:
> > On Tuesday December 18 2007 09:46, Markus Hitter wrote:
> >> Am 17.12.2007 um 19:20 schrieb Sebastien Roret:
> >>> PS : I guess it is registry related, because I can install these
> >>> programs
> >>> through Wine. But I just wanted to launch through a complete C
> >>> drive :)
> >>
> >> It's generally considered the wrong approach to map a "real" C: drive
> >> to Wine's drive_c.
> >
> > 	Because it IS wrong approach.
> >
> >> That said, it's intuitive to do so, many people do it (intuitively)
> >
> > 	I don't think that this is intuitive.
>
> L.,
>
> obviously you rely on the assumption people use either Windows
> natively or Wine exclusively. However, many people (want to) use it
> at the same time.

	You didn't understand what I said. We talking here about Windows assumptions 
(WINE assumptions about how registry works are technically very similar) not 
my assumptions! What people want and what Microsoft have created very 
different things - otherwise no one would use Linux in a first place. If you 
are using it and having Windows you are using Linux because you are 
interested in. WINE give you ability to install and run Windows software in 
the way like you do it in Windows. Remember, WINE is *alternative* 
implementation of Windows API on UNIX and NOT 
super-perfect-Windows-for-lazy-users-who-is-so-lazy-that-even-don't-want-to-install-programs 
with perfect bugless infinite functionality.
	Point is very simple: if you don't like to install Windows programs - don't 
install them and don't use them. If you disagree - ask the developers of each 
Windows program to not use registry at all: in fact all Windows programs that 
don't use registry will work if you will run them on different Windows 
installation (or WINE prefix) without using their installer (of course in 
general it is important to make sure that Windows paths are unchanged or it 
might not work anyway).
	Registry is made in the way that prevent simple importing/exporting even 
between two different Windows installations. By definition you cannot just 
use registry from Windows in WINE. If you don't understand why you need to 
learn how WINE and Windows works.
	If you want simple explanation here it is. As I have said you cannot just 
replace WINE registry with Windows registry. You need only 
program-specific portions of it but there is no way to know what portions are 
needed and what not because Windows programs hide their registry keys in many 
different non-obvious places.
	If you think that it is possible to *correctly* and *transparently* implement 
exporting registry from Windows and importing to WINE - do it! But I and many 
others think this is impossible (read: extremely hard to implement, so hard 
that no one will do it).
	Only practically possible (but non-transparent and *unsupported*) way to 
export registry keys from Windows and import to WINE is to record ALL 
registry changes during installation and use of the the program on Windows 
then export these changes to WINE. But in this case you will need to 
reinstall your program in Windows on *clean* Windows installation (so you 
will need to reinstall Windows completely) - remember that second 
installation of any Windows program not necessary will create all needed 
registry keys. And after importing this information to WINE you will need 
either to monitor all registry changes in WINE registry by that program and 
then export them back to Windows (and you will not be able to use the program 
on Windows and WINE simultaneously) or just copy program' files somewhere for 
use with WINE only. Also in *general* case you will need to reinstall Windows 
before installing new Windows application and you cannot have two Windows 
applications on one Windows installation otherwise they might reuse existing 
registry keys and not create them (especially this is true for applications 
from same developer/company).
	Above way not only hard (reinstallation of Windows for each application + 
complete registry monitoring + reinstallation of all Windows programs in 
different clean installations of Windows... this is MUCH harder than clean 
installation of necessary programs in WINE) but it is UNSUPPORTED.
	As you can see this useless and time wasteful way - it is 
ONLY useful (but of course *unsupported* by both WINE and Windows) if you need 
to get Windows program working on Linux ASAP but its installer doesn't work 
in WINE and you cannot wait. But there is no guarantee that this way will 
work - because it is unsupported and you might just waste a lot of time 
without positive results.

> Reasons are very similar to why people set up dual- 
> boot systems or why they run Windows in a virtual environment (qemu,
> VMware). Even hardware emulators allow to map a native drive.

	They allow to use installation of Windows with *its* registry and programs on 
virtual hardware. You can use WINE with *its* registry and programs on virtual 
hardware too.
	As you can see, WINE and Windows are very similar, WINE is just free 
implementation of *Windows API* on UNIX. Here is simple rule of thumb: don't 
expect from WINE something you don't expect from Windows.



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