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5. Windows Apps & Games
Steam automatically updates Proton when using Proton Experimental.
Steam automatically manages separate wine prefixes when installing games (which is more reliable).
Steam automatically installs Windows dependencies needed for games (thanks to Steamworks Common Redistributables).
Steam is more reliable overall.
Go to Steam settings, Compatibility, tick "Enable Steam Play for all other titles" & select Proton Experimental.
Yes. Use Proton-GE, which is included in Gidro-OS.
Go to Steam settings, Compatibility, tick "Enable Steam Play for all other titles" & select Proton-GE.
Downside is that you always have to redo this setup if you want to use newer Proton-GE version. To update to latest version, apply this command:
ujust proton-ge update
ujust proton-ge remove-old (Don't use this command if you want to keep some specific Proton-GE version. In this case, delete Proton-GE's you don't need manually)
Go to Steam settings, Compatibility, tick "Enable Steam Play for all other titles" & select updated Proton-GE.
To uninstall Proton-GE, apply this command:
ujust proton-ge uninstall
You can also use Proton-GE combined with Proton Experimental when something is not working for the specific game, by going to that game properties in Library, Compatibility, ticking "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" & selecting Proton-GE.
If you use GOG, Epic Games or Amazon Prime Gaming, use Heroic Games Launcher. While not better than Steam's implementation, it is much better compared to other solutions.
For apps/games which do not use launcher, check out below.
Take in mind that this solution is not the best & I'm looking to improve this in the future.
Install Bottles app from Gnome Software, which is responsible for that.
- Open Bottles. Create new Bottle in Application environment & name it "Apps".
- Create new Bottle in Gaming environment & name it "Games".
In following text, "Apps" & "Games" are environments.
Not all Windows apps & games will work. Notably, Windows applications which are dependent & very deeply tied to Windows-only components (VPNs, kernel anti-cheats, anti-viruses etc.) will not work.
Use Windows installers as much as possible, avoid archives/folders as much as you can for the ease of setup.
When you download the Windows app/game installer, copy those files to Bottles environment location by going to Bottles Apps/Games environment, pressing 3 dots in header bar, Browse files.... I usually put it in C:/Users/Gidro-OS-User/Downloads folder. When you open the app/installer, it will ask you in which environment you want to install app/game in (Apps or Games). After you select that, app/game installer will launch. Follow the usual steps & those apps will now appear in Bottles. To create desktop shortcut, go to Apps/Games, in Program list you will find the app you installed, press 3 dots on it & select "Add Desktop Entry".
For apps/games which are in archived format, copy the downloaded folder/extracted archive, go to Bottles Apps/Games environment, press 3 dots in header bar, Browse files... Copy folder to the file location it needs. To create app shortcut, click "Add Shortcuts", navigate to the executable you want, you will see the listed app, press 3 dots on it & select "Add Desktop Entry".
If you use Cartridges app, it is recommended for Windows games to add them to Library by going to 3 dots on the Program & then select "Add to Library", instead of making an app shortcut. This will add those Windows games to Cartridges, while Windows apps won't get cached by it.
If you use:
- Origin
- EA Launcher
- Blizzard Battle.net
- Ubisoft Connect
- Star Citizen
go to Bottles "Gaming" environment, Install Programs & than select the mentioned app.
If you wish, you can also try Lutris as a popular & more capable alternative (with more complicated UI)
This setup is not ideal, as it does not involve creating separate prefixes per app, which is more reliable, but in this manual work, much more time-consuming. It does not automatically download & install dependencies for most affected apps (Bottles has only 21 Installer apps supported, while Lutris is much better there). If app/game installer doesn't automatically install dependencies, than you will have to install them manually.
For more details, please refer to official documentation of mentioned apps.
This is because Gnome does not ship system tray functionality by default & uses Background Apps functionality instead. Linux apps with system tray functionality are recognized as background apps, while Windows apps are not. Known affected apps are Battle.net launcher & Steam for Windows, among dozen others which implement system tray functionality.
To mitigate that issue, you can install Gnome extension Tray Icons Reloaded in included Extension Manager app, which has support for Windows apps. However, this will show all apps in system tray which support it, including Linux apps like Steam or Discord. This makes top bar a bit more cluttered, so it's not an ideal solution. You can blacklist Linux apps from system tray, but you have to do it manually. There is not an automatic option to use system tray for Windows apps only.
Take in mind that tray icon functionality in 1 form or another is not supported by Gidro-OS, so Github issues will not get support.