Bottles, a graphical tool for managing Wine environments that lets users create isolated “bottles” for Windows software with separate runners, dependencies, settings, and launch options, has released version 65.
This release is accompanied by Soda 11.0-4, the most recent version of Bottles’ own Wine-based runner, described by developers as being the best Soda build ever produced for Bottles.
A particularly significant addition is support for LSFG-VK, a Vulkan layer that enables Lossless Scaling frame generation in compatible games. In version 65 of Bottles, a frame rate limiter has also been introduced, which can be configured individually for each bottle, allowing users to restrict a particular game or application without imposing a limit across the entire system.
There are also several improvements to gaming compatibility, including support for D7VK, a Vulkan-based translation layer for Direct3D 7, and preliminary changes in preparation for future Proton FSR 4 upgrades. This release also enhances the environment for launching HDR applications and adds support for running Gamescope in windowed mode.
Another major improvement comes on the Steam integration side. Bottles is now able to detect Proton runners that have been installed via Steam, pick up on Steam games that are already installed, and add those games directly to the Bottles library. The way Steam shortcut prefixes are handled has also been improved, with the system selecting the appropriate Steam installation when multiple installations are available.
On top of that, the library now supports custom covers, and users can manually reorder their Bottles. Program icons are shown in several locations, full runner names are displayed in the interface, and console windows can be hidden for certain Windows programs.
Bottles 65 also improves its backup features by allowing users to back up only the selected program data rather than copying the whole bottle, and it is now possible to cancel a backup operation that is in progress. Further corrections address the problem of files disappearing during backups and ensure that hidden files are preserved when bottles are duplicated.
For regular Windows applications, the release introduces file associations, allowing supported file types to be opened with programs installed inside a bottle. Applications can also be configured to launch automatically when the user logs in.
Users working with existing Wine installations should benefit from improved importing of external Wine prefixes, while imported bottles now restore their original configuration more reliably. A new option also allows the default Wine Z: drive to be configured.
Sandbox integration has been extended, as it is now possible for Bottles to share some of their USB and input devices with applications running within dedicated sandboxes. HOTAS flight-control devices can be made available via HIDRAW, and sandbox settings can be accessed directly when the bottle is being created.
Other features available to users include a language selector for the application, the ability to set the text size according to user preferences, the option to install only some of the dependencies, and a choice to hide updates to components. Components which have been cached can also be installed when not connected to the internet.
Under the hood, Bottles 65 improves NTSync capability detection, NVK Vulkan driver detection, Wine and Proton user-profile handling, drive mappings, desktop entries, MangoHud configuration, and Flatpak-based application launching.
Finally, the developers have also sorted out a large number of crashes that were affecting the creation of bottles, the installation of dependencies, the handling of malformed environment variables, the availability of working directories, the presence of executables, working templates, backup operations, and the startup of the application.
For additional details, see the changelog. Bottles 65 is available through the project’s official distribution channels, with Flatpak remaining the recommended installation method for most Linux users.
