How to Install Wine on Ubuntu 25.10

Running Windows applications on Ubuntu 25.10 is reliable with Wine. The process is straightforward: enable 32-bit support, add WineHQ’s official repository, install the stable build, and initialize your Wine prefix. Follow these steps to get a clean, up-to-date setup that works well for most productivity apps and games.

Enable 32-bit (i386) support

Wine uses 32-bit libraries for many Windows apps. Enable multiarch so APT can fetch i386 packages alongside amd64.

dpkg --print-architecture
uname -m
sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Example output:
amd64
x86_64

Install prerequisites

Install tools for secure key management, HTTPS repositories, and general package tasks.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y curl wget gnupg ca-certificates software-properties-common apt-transport-https

Add the WineHQ signing key

Trust the WineHQ repository by adding its GPG key to APT’s keyring.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key -o /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key

Add the WineHQ repository (Ubuntu 25.10)

Register the correct WineHQ repo using your system’s codename, ensuring you get native 25.10 builds when available.

. /etc/os-release
echo "$UBUNTU_CODENAME"
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list >/dev/null <

Refresh package indexes

Update APT so it sees WineHQ packages for Ubuntu 25.10 with both amd64 and i386 variants.

sudo apt update

Install Wine Stable (recommended)

Install the stable channel with recommended dependencies for best compatibility. Staging and Devel are optional alternatives.

sudo apt install -y --install-recommends winehq-stable
# Optional channels:
# sudo apt install -y --install-recommends winehq-staging
# sudo apt install -y --install-recommends winehq-devel

Verify installation and version

Confirm APT pinned the WineHQ build and that Wine runs correctly on Ubuntu 25.10.

apt-cache policy winehq-stable
wine --version

Example output:
wine-9.0 (stable)

Initialize Wine (create the prefix)

Run the configuration tool once to create your default Wine prefix (~/.wine) and to set initial libraries.

winecfg

Tip:
- Close the Wine configuration window after defaults are created.
- For a 32-bit prefix (legacy apps): WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.wine32 winecfg

Install Winetricks and core fonts (optional)

Winetricks helps install common runtimes (.NET, Visual C++ redists, DirectX). Core fonts improve rendering.

sudo apt install -y winetricks fonts-wine
winetricks --version

Run a Windows installer or app

Execute .exe or .msi files directly with Wine. Use a dedicated prefix per app for cleaner isolation.

# Single default prefix
wine ~/Downloads/installer.exe

# Isolated prefix example
export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/wine-prefixes/MyApp
mkdir -p "$WINEPREFIX"
winecfg
wine ~/Downloads/MyAppSetup.msi

Update or remove Wine

Keep Wine secure by updating regularly. If needed, cleanly remove and purge the repository.

# Update to latest WineHQ build
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

# Remove WineHQ (keep prefixes)
sudo apt remove --purge -y winehq-stable wine-stable wine-stable-i386 wine-stable-amd64
sudo apt autoremove -y

# Remove the WineHQ repo (optional)
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list
sudo apt update

That’s it—Wine is ready on Ubuntu 25.10 for running many Windows applications with strong performance and compatibility. For more reading, help, and to purchase managed servers with expert support, visit dropvps. For more guides, visit dropvps.com