Using the Wine Emulator with NCH Software

Running Our Software Under Linux and Other Unix Flavours

To use this application using a Unix based operating system (Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris for example) the Wine emulator/run environment is required. Wine is an open source implementation of Windows running on Unix. It supports the x86 varieties of Unix including Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris. Without Wine the application will not run.

Additionally, you will need a Window Manager like Gnome or KDE to run our software. Follow the instructions below to get your NCH Software up and running on your computer.

Step 1: Install Wine

Wine comes installed in many Unix distributions already but it is an actively developed application. Our applications will only work correctly with the version dated 20050930 or later (including the 0.9 beta release). If you do not have Wine or you have an earlier version, please download the current version. Similarly if you have not updated for more than a month we would recommend upgrading as a new version is released approximately once a month.

Wine can be downloaded from WineHQ. Please select and install the appropriate binary version for your operating system. Download Wine Now Once downloaded you must then install it. This installation process is operating system dependant (installpackage, rpm) so please refer to your documentation for details on installing packages. Additional information can be found in the WineHQ website for configuration.

Step 2: Install the Application

To install our software using the Wine emulator please do the following:

You must first be running a Window Manager (e.g. Gnome or KDE)
Open a terminal window.
Download our application you wish to use from our downloads page (select the Windows download).
Install the application as follows:
wine installer
e.g. wine imssetup.exe
imssetup.exe is the name of the downloaded installer for IMS. This will install the application and automatically run it.

Step 3: Run the Application

After installation you will need to browse to the installed folder and run the application directly.

For example: cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/NCH\ Swift\ Sound/IMS, wine ims.exe

Please Note: All of our applications install into ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/NCH\ Swift\ Sound/application, however the application folder may vary a little (Express Scribe uses the folder Scribe). A desktop shortcut can be used to start the application and creating one is described below for Gnome and KDE.

Other things you may need to know...

Uninstalling your NCH Application

To uninstall the application you will need to browse to the installed folder as for running above and run the uninstall application directly.

For example: cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files/NCH\ Swift\ Sound/IMS, wine uninst.exe

Gnome Configuration Guide

Creating a Desktop Icon
A desktop icon can be created by browsing to the install folder, then right clicking on the application executable and selecting 'Make Link' from the popup menu. You can drag the created link onto the desktop.
Getting the Application to Automatically Run on Log On
You can make the application automatically run when you log-on by creating a bash script with contents like:
#! /bin/sh
sleep 10s;
/usr/bin/wine ~/.wine/drive_c/Program\ Files\NCH\ Swift\ Sound\IMS\ims.exe
Note: This example is for IMS so if different, please change the folder name and executable name for your application.
You now need to add this script into the startup programs via the Desktop menu, Preferences option, Sessions sub-option. Click on the tab 'Startup Programs' and then the add button. Browse and find the script you have created and enter a command like:
sh startwine
where startwine is the name of the script you created (note it requires the executable flag to be set using chmod +x). You will need to fully qualify the path to the script (the above example has the script in the home folder for the user.

KDE Configuration Guide

Creating a Desktop Icon
This is the same as for Gnome (see above).
Automatically Running on Log On
You can make the application automatically run when you log-on by creating a bash script as above. Copy this script into the folder:
/usr/local/home/username/.kde/AutoStart
where username is the user id you are logged into KDE as.

General Notes on Compatibility Problems

Toolbars
Some icons do not list on Toolbars or are truncated. In most cases this will be fixed when we release a new version of the application. Some icons (the standard delete button) are missing due to Wine implementation issues and may be solved by a later release of Wine
Explore Folders
Various of our applications have the option to explore a folder (generally a backup or log folder). Under Windows this opens Windows Explorer the browse the contents of the folder. Wine has not implemented this functionality so these options do nothing. You will need to manually examine these folders yourself. Later releases of our programs should address this issue.
System Tray
Many of our applications use the system tray for background processing. Depending on your Window Manager this is often implemented as a floating icon. Exact details are implementation specific.
Run on Startup/Run as Service
These features do not work under Wine. You can possibly create a startup shell file to automatically run the application on startup of the Window Manager. Again this is implementation and Window Manager specific.
Open/Save Dialogue
In many cases browsing though folders to open or save a file can result in Wine crashing. This does not seem to be an application error on our part but an issue in Wine.