A Managed Bottle is a bottle that is available for use by all users on a
system. These bottles are stored in the /Library/Application
Support/CrossOver/
folder and can be copied or deleted but not
modified. A Private Bottle, by contrast, is a bottle which is stored in a
single user's home and can be accessed only by that user.
The process of copying a private bottle to a managed bottle is called "publishing".
Any user may run the applications in a Managed bottle. All files that are created or changed during use are stored in that user's home folder and do not affect other users on the system.
For example, if a user wants to install Internet Explorer and then provide it for use by other family members, he or she would install Internet Explorer into a private bottle, and then publish that bottle. Subsequently, other users can run CrossOver and launch Internet Explorer without engaging the bottle manager or installing anything.
Once a bottle has been published, it cannot be modified. In order to modify a managed bottle it is necessary to make a private copy, modify it, and re-publish. Any copy of a managed bottle is automatically private.