CrossOver Support - Community Forums

Hi, can someone help me with a few newbie questions? I'm trying to run software that does not require an install. So, I have the folder that is the final product after the install is done. CrossOver doesn't seem to want to run a program that it doesn't have to install. Maybe this is because I don't understand what a "bottle" is. In any event, I tried to go ahead and "install" this program by choosing the .exe file as the install file. CrossOver successfully launches and runs the applications, no problems, but in the background I see that it perpetually tries to "install" it. Apparently I can go ahead and keep doing it this way every time I want to launch the program, but there has to be a better way to do this.

Sorry if this is covered somewhere else, but I can't seem to find any basic information about how to use CodeWeavers to run software that doesn't need to be installed. Any suggestions or tips to help me understand what I'm doing would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

So I may have answered my own question. If I create a bottle, is that basically a new instance of Windows (whichever Windows you choose at bottle creation)? Then I guess I could just copy that folder to "Program Files" in the new bottle and run the program from that location. Is that basically the best way to accomplish this?

Sure thing...

Your idea is pretty good, what follows is what I was writing before your last post.

There's two way to do this as I see it.

Method 1: Don't move anything

1) Use the "run command", and point to your software .exe.

2) Choose a default bottle (If your software doesn't need anything special, it doesn't matter. If you don't have a bottle on hand, look at part 1 of method 2)

3) Make sure to press "Save Command to Programs Menu", as that will create... well I'm sure you've know! 😀

Method 2: Imitate a standard install

1) Create a bottle with the bottle manager. But I believe, you should already have one created by your original attempt to install.

2) Go the the advanced tab of the bottle manager and press the "open c: drive in Finder button".

3) Copy your portable software's files in that folder,

4) Essentially use "method 1", but now your files are "in" the bottle, more closely immitating a standard install.

This is mostly in the manual which is good because, being a Linux geek, I wouldn't have been realy capable of helping otherwise. But some extrapolation is necessary, leaving a newbie to scratch his head, but not that much in your case.

Anthony Giuliano wrote:

there has to be a better way to do this.

Actually, CrossOver has a preference which will allow you to tell CrossOver to run a .exe by default instead of assuming it is an installer. You should be able to find that under CrossOver's Preferences menu, under the 'Installer Assistant' tab. I believe it is the bottom-most checkbox on that tab.

(Note that this checkbox is not present in older versions of CrossOver, but as you appear to be a newer user, I am imagining you have a version which includes this option. If you do not see the option in CrossOver's Preferences, write back here and say so.)

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Josh.

Is there something like that option in the Linux version?

Otherwise, I can't find any such option to "run the .exe by default". I've looked real hard, I swear. I can't find anything either in the Mac or Linux manual about that.

Not to be an ass, but if this exists, how about putting it in the manual?

J-P Simard wrote:

Is there something like that option in the Linux version?

We actually have a bug about this - on Linux, we hope that a right-click on a .exe file gives two options, one to 'open' and a second to 'install.' I think that at some point that is actually what happened. We need to triage on a variety of modern distros, however, as something may have gone awry such that Gnome 3 and Unity are no longer exhibiting the 'both options available on right-click' behavior.

So, there is no preference switch in our GUI on Linux, but the option to do either is supposed to be exported to the desktop. However, that may often now be broken.

Not to be an ass, but if this exists, how about putting it in the
manual?

Not at all, you are correct. Our documentation is out of date on several points, this being one of them. We have a bug about that, too ... (and actually it has been long enough that it's due to be addressed).

Yeah, if it was in the manual, I might had given a more proper answer, and it would be nice to know. Thanks for the answer Josh.