When should you install windows dlls for wine with winetricks?
I noticed in winetricks that it can install windows dlls to the wine folder. It even gives an option to install almost all of them at once. When should someone install these instead of staying with wine's own versions of the components? Will it increase compatibility? Are there any downsides except for the obvious ones of potential legal issues for businesses and introducing more proprietary software to your system?
I tried searching online, but the only answers I found were very out of date.
1 answer
Each situation is different. Some programs in Wine/Windows will work better with the Windows dlls, and some will work better with the Wine (builtin) dlls.
The best way to learn how which dlls work better for your specific application is experimentation, I'm afraid. Regarding increasing compatibility, maybe. Sometimes a wine built-in implementation works, and sometimes it does not.
The second-best way to learn, is to check https://appdb.winehq.org/ for your app and follow guidelines by somebody who reported success.
Downsides of using Windows (native) dlls: takes up more space, makes you dependent on sourcing those files (winetricks tries to download the components from proper sources like Microsoft VB6 runtime, which depends on Microsoft still offering those), and doesn't always make things better.
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