Release day 2022.1.28

It’s Release Day again!

Another two weeks of work has been done and it’s time to celebrate another release day!

This release came with a lot of new features and improvements and focus on compatibility and stability.

News

Ok now let’s get to the point. What’s new in this version?

New WINE Backend

This version introduces a new backend for managing WINE. Previously this was done by a single Runner class that was concerned with simply running commands and managing their output. In many cases this system did not allow for easy extension and resulted in multiple confusing and repetitive calls.

The new manager is structured in 3 essential components: WineCommand, WineProgram, Executor.

The WineCommand is a complete wrapper for the execution of WINE commands, this manages the environment and all the bottle options and allows you to l aunch commands in a minimal version that does not include some settings such as gamescope and gamemode (not always necessary).

WineProgram (s) are WINE (and non) tools mapped into a class to be used “natively” by Bottles, exposing all their commands as methods. At the moment the following have a WineProgram:

regedit
cmd
winedbg
start
msiexec
net
control
reg
taskmgr
uninstaller
wineboot
wineserver
winecfg

The Executor is the manager of executables and works as a bridge between the WinePrograms, launching the correct one based on the file extension (.exe, .lnk, .batch, .msi), it also supports other extensions, for example by launching a jpeg this should be opened automatically by the program in the bottle which is capable of supporting the extension.

We are also working on a winebridge, a tool in .NET Standard that Bottles will use for some operations, such as obtaining the list of processes or killing one (avoiding the use of winedbg which requires the debugger to be connected to the process in order to terminate it). This tool also simplifies other operations such as getting and killing a process by its name or pid. In the future it can be used to integrate functions that WINE does not offer by default as a command, we are in fact working on a command that returns the list of installed programs, avoiding heavy searches on the disk.

Hide/show programs

Finally, it is possible to hide a program, even if it was automatically found by Bottles in the search process.

Hide/show programs in Bottles

Just click on the eye icon in the headerbar to show hidden programs.

Caffe 7 and Futex2 support

The new Caffe runner is based on WINE 7 (here the complete changelog) supports Futex2 synchronization for greater performance. This requires kernel 5.16+ or a patched one. In Bottles it is now possible to choose Futex2 synchronization from the bottle preferences, such as for esync and fsync.

New manifest dialogs

Dependency and installer manifests are now shown in a new dialog with code syntax.

Manifest dialogs in Bottles

They are not only much prettier but also easier to read.

Improved installers view

The new installers screen now has a search bar (does this mean that many more installers will arrive? Well we hope so, the feature is on its way to stable).

New installers view

The compatibility grade and full application name is also now displayed instead of the package name.

All other changes

There are a lot of other changes and improvements in this release. Below are other noteworthy ones, for all the others, refer to the GiHub organization.

Each runner change will re-initialize the installed components (DXVK, VKD3D, DXVK-Nvapi ..) to avoid breackage
New WINE backend ensures stable and faster operations
New WINE registry WineProgram, allows to write multiple keys in a single call, reducing waiting times
New net WineProgram allows Bottles to manage bottle services
New wineserver WineProgram checks the bottle status to prevent commands from being executed when the server is down
New start/msiexec/cmd WineProgram(s) for handling .lnk shortcuts, .msi/.batch files
New executor manager handle all executables launched in Bottles, automatically redirecting the call to the correct WineProgram based on the extension
Choose a shell script to be executed after a program
Bottles handle 2 types of commands: minimal and full, allowing to run commands on lighter environments when needed (no gamescope, gamemode..)
Changing Windows/DXVK/VKD3D/DXVK-Nvapi/Runner version displays visual feedback
Support for Futex2 sync (need kernel 5.16 or patched)
Iinstallers can edit config files (json, ini, yaml) using the update_config action
Bottles shows in the console which WineProgram(s) are running
Manifests are now shown in a source view
Bottle detail page icon changed
Installers view now shows the pretty title and compatibility grade
Search in installers view
Hide and show items in the programs list
Rename auto-detected programs
Fixed Health Check crash in some distributions
Fixed Wayland support
Fixed unwanted program start ups when Bottles asks for the process list
Fixed 3D controller GPU detection
Fixed backup import feature
Fixed programs list, was disappearing after renaming a program
Fixed 64-bit dependencies installation, some actions was not able to place the DLLs in the correct folder
Fixed Windows version switch, some keys was missing causing some dependencies to fail to install (like .NET 3.5)
Fixed installers, was not interrupting the installation process when a dependency failed to install
Fixed bottle creation, was allowing some special characters in the name
Fixed Desktop entires, was setting the wrong path to the executable
Fixed the Download manager, was unable to reach some resources (e.g. physx) due to lack of User-Agent
Fixed dependencies installation during bottle creation, was breaking the bottle if a dependency is unreadable
Fixed a recursion in gamescope settings
Portuguese translations thanks to @hugok79, @laralem
Bulgarian translations thanks to @kostadin04
Italian translations thanks to @albanobattistella, @phaerrax
Portuguese (Brazil) translations thanks to @davipatricio, @andrelomba86, @farribeiro
Sweedish translations thanks to @Lemonmeth, @eson57
Basque translations thanks to Sergio Varela
Greek translations thanks to @dim20
Croatian translations thanks to @milotype
Danish translations thanks to @emiltang, @ettmetal
Dutch translations thanks to @MichelN86
Polish translations thanks to Krzysztof Marcinek
French translations thanks to @julroy67
German translations thanks to Lasse Palm
Spanish translations thanks to @Lvaskz, @d33vliter
Norwegian Bokmål translations thanks to @comradekingu
Indonesian translations thanks to @rezaalmanda
Turkish translations thanks to @ersen0
Russian translations thanks to @mclvren
Esperanto translations thanks to phlostically
Chinese (Simplified) translations thanks to Eric, @lumingzh
Finnish translations thanks to Jiri Grönroos
Japanese translations thanks to @shuriken1812
Czech translations thanks to @panmourovaty
Hungarian translations thanks to @ovari
Chinese (Traditional) translations thanks to @XiaoPanPanKevinPan
Vietnamese translations thanks to Giai Ngo