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Bottles & CrossTies: Why XP instead of Win8 or Win7?

Within a CrossTie that is apparently designed for a WinXP bottle, I tried to select a Win7 bottle. I got the incompatibility message, but proceeded anyway. The app didn't appear to install correctly, so I deleted the bottle & ran thru the CrossTie again, leaving it at XP.

I'm brand new to CrossOver & WINE, but I'm a bit puzzled as to why the CrossTies would install apps into WinXP bottles. XP is no longer supported by MicroSoft & it seems like there would be an ever increasing likelihood that newer apps would fail to install or run in an XP code base.

I "think" I searched the forums for an explanation, but maybe missed it. If so, can you just point me to the discussion?

If it hasn't been discussed, can anyone explain it?

I know the CrossTie bundles some other installations (e.g. .NET Frameworks, fonts, etc.). Is it possible to make a laundry list of things needed for the App & then install those things manually into a Win7 or Win8 bottle? Or is that the trick; knowing what needs to be in that list for Win7 or Win8?

You should know that the difference between any bottles is really what it reports itself as. The code in the bottles doesn't change because of the version of Windows it is supposed to be. So in thruth, unless the software's maker explicitly programmed his software to refuse installing on WinXp, a WinXp bottle won't make a bit of difference compared to an win7 bottle. In other words, this has nothing to do with a winxp or win7 codebase, as all botles have the same code. Therefore, I'm not convinced changing the defautl of "winxp" is much of a priority. I'm sure this will change at some point, just not right now. Of course, if a software doesn't mention winxp as a viable OS, it might be best to change to win7, but that is far from a certainty.

As for crossties, those are receipies for bottles. Of course, you can build up the bottle content on your own, but if there is Crossotie, why bother? It isn't rocket science to figure out what you need in most cases, and you have to do it yourself in the case of an unsupported software. Otherwise, I don't really see a good reason to avoid a Crosstie if one is available. The place to start, if you have to figure it out yourself, is the requirements mentionned on the website of the software/game you are trying to run. From there, you should have a pretty good idea what to add. The next step would be to generate a debug log, which might yeild further clues.

I'm hoping this is clearer, but I'm not sure! ;)

I think I'm kind of following, but your answer has lead me to some new questions.

If the bottle's windows version doesn't matter and the code in all bottle versions is the same, why is there even an option to pick the Win version? Why did it give me an incompatibility message when I switched the CrossTie from XP to Win7? & finally, why did it fail to install/run?

Crossties have a set winver (which can be updated if the need arises). If that and the winver of the bottle do not match, you'll get a notice just like the one you mention.

The fact that Microsoft does not support XP is not of concern. Just the other day I was helping someone with running Paint Shop Pro v.9 on her Mac. Win7 is not a default because usually, programmers check for win version and then assume that all sorts of functionality and runtimes are there. In this case, one could assume that they can use direct write or direct2d. But you can't, because they both require directx 10 support in wine, which is still work-in-progress.

So, TL;DR: Windows version alone will not magically make applications run. Default Windows XP bottles reflect the state of wine functionality currently. What may hamper new applications from running is functionality not implemented in wine, not a registry value.

Well, it's not that the version "doesn't matter". The version a bottle reports itself as will tell a given software what API (or what programmatic channels) are available. So changing the version does have an effect, but it might not be as great as changing from WinXP to Win7 on an actual PC. In fact, it might have no effect at all.

That being said, your software might make use of different APIs depending on the bottle version, and work better with one choice over another. Fundamentally, the code between one bottle version and another still did not change. It is the behavior of your software which changed because of the windows version reported. This change in behavior might make the difference between it working or not. In other words, the change in behavior, from what a given software expects, is why there is a choice for the bottle version.

But as Silviu has alluded to, what API are really available are really wholy dependent on what Wine / Crossover has implemented, not what you clicked on.

Yet, to this day, the number of software out there expecting WinXP as a minimum is still substantial, hence the default. Eventually, those softwares expecting WinXP will become less significant, and the default will change.

OK. Thanks to both of you for your time.

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