The Wine Project, a compatibility layer that enables Linux and macOS users to run Windows applications, has officially released version 11.0. The headline change is the completion of the new WoW64 architecture, which is now fully supported and considered feature-complete.
First introduced experimentally in Wine 9.0, the new WoW64 mode now supports 16-bit Windows applications, removes the separate wine64 loader in favor of a single unified loader, and deprecates pure 32-bit prefixes created with WINEARCH=win32. Existing 64-bit prefixes can be forced into the new mode by setting WINEARCH=wow64.
Another major improvement is NTSync support, which allows Wine to use the Linux kernel’s NTSync module when available. Starting with Linux kernel 6.14, this significantly improves the performance of Windows synchronization primitives, reducing overhead in multi-threaded applications and games. Wine 11.0 also adds thread priority handling on Linux and macOS, along with new synchronization barriers in NTDLL.
At the kernel interface level, Wine 11.0 introduces NT reparse points, supporting mount points and symbolic links, and improves write-watch handling on Linux by using userfaultfd when available. NT system calls now follow modern Windows syscall numbering, improving compatibility with applications that rely on hardcoded values.
On ARM64 systems, Wine can now simulate a 4K page size on hosts with larger pages, though a native 4K kernel remains recommended for demanding workloads.
Graphics and rendering see broad improvements, as Wine 11.0 removes its dependency on OSMesa, switching OpenGL bitmap rendering to a hardware-accelerated OpenGL runtime. EGL is now the default OpenGL backend on X11, with GLX deprecated but still available as a fallback.
Regarding Vulkan support, Wine 11.0 now supports Vulkan API version 1.4.335, implements several Windows-specific Vulkan extensions, and improves OpenGL buffer handling in the new WoW64 mode via Vulkan when available.
Desktop integration has also been refined. Wine 11.0 improves interaction with X11 window managers using EWMH, adds exclusive full-screen support, and enhances full-screen handling for older DirectDraw titles. The experimental Wayland driver now supports shaped and color-keyed windows, the clipboard, input methods, and improved performance via shared-memory communication between processes.
Direct3D support expands further, including hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding via Direct3D 11 video APIs over Vulkan Video, new sampler filtering features, and a large set of legacy Direct3D features now supported by the Vulkan renderer. While Vulkan is still not the default renderer, bundled updates to vkd3d-shader improve compatibility with older Shader Model 1, 2, and 3 applications.
Wine 11.0 also brings notable progress across input devices, Bluetooth, scanning, multimedia, DirectMusic, and .NET-related components. Highlights include better gamepad and force-feedback support, initial Bluetooth pairing and BLE GATT support on Linux using BlueZ, a full TWAIN 2.0 implementation for scanners, improved multimedia pipelines, and expanded WinRT and WPF functionality.
Finally, additional updates touch debugging tools, built-in Windows utilities, development infrastructure, and bundled third-party libraries. The release also improves build performance, expands ARM64 CI coverage, and updates key components, including vkd3d, FAudio, FluidSynth, and libpng.
For more information, visit the announcement. Wine 11.0’s source code can be downloaded from GitLab’s project page for those interested in trying out or upgrading their current installation. The binary packages for various distributions are expected to be available shortly.
