Chapter 6. Using OfficeSetup

Table of Contents

Managing Bottles
Bottle Windows versions
Bottle modes
Bottle Settings
Configuring a bottle
Advanced Bottle Settings
Menus
Associations
Plugins
Fonts
Advanced Configuration Settings
CrossOver Settings
Bottle Defaults
The Control Panel tab

OfficeSetup is the main tool for configuring CrossOver. It can be run from the CrossOver menu by selecting the Configuration option, or it can be run from the command-line like this:

$ ~/cxoffice/bin/cxsetup

Managing Bottles

A bottle is a virtual windows environment. Each bottle contains a unique C drive and all its standard sub directories: Windows, Program Files, etc. A bottle also contains a complete Windows registry, a full set of most CrossOver settings, and one or more Windows applications.

CrossOver Linux Professional allows you to maintain multiple bottles in one CrossOver installation. This is like having several different Windows machines operating together on your single Linux computer. This is useful anytime you want to install multiple applications yet prevent them from interacting or damaging one another. For example: Typically the Internet Explorer 6.0 installer upgrades any existing Internet Explorer 5.0 installation. Using bottles it is possible to install Internet Explorer 6.0 into a new, empty bottle, while leaving an existing install of Internet Explorer 5.0 intact and untouched.

Multiple bottles are also useful anytime a particular application requires special system settings that are otherwise undesirable. It is also possible to maintain bottles that emulate different Windows versions. For example, Microsoft Office 2003 only works on Windows versions 2000 or later, whereas Microsoft Office 97 runs best in a bottle that emulates Windows 98.

Most CrossOver users will be happy using a single, default bottle. The CrossOver Installation Wizard will automatically create the default bottle and any other bottles which you may need during normal use.

[Important]

Parts of this manual that specifically relate to multiple-bottle installations are marked with a bottle icon, like this.

The Manage Bottles tab allows you to create, delete, and modify the bottles in your CrossOver install. For the most part, the CrossOver Installation Wizard will take care of creating appropriate bottles, but this tab provides more direct control.

+.  This button creates a new bottle. You will have an opportunity to choose which Windows mode the bottle will emulate.

-.  This button will delete the selected bottle. This will remove all applications, settings, and documents that are inside this bottle's directory.

Configure.  This button will launch the bottle configuration dialog for the selected bottle.

Rename.  This button allows you to change the name of the selected bottle. The contents of the bottle will remain unchanged.

Copy The copy button allows you to create a duplicate of an existing bottle. The duplicate will contain the same applications and settings as the original.

Make default.  This button changes the selected bottle to the CrossOver default bottle. The default bottle handles system .exe associations and is used when running Wine tools from the command-line.

Archive.  The archive button creates a compressed archive of the selected bottle. It is often prudent to make a backup archive of a bottle before installing new software or modifying bottle settings. Archives can be restored using the Restore archived bottle button.

Create RPM.  CrossOver Linux Professional supports the creation of bottle RPMs which can be used as backups or installed on other systems. More information about bottle RPMs can be found in the Creating an RPM from a bottle chapter.

Restore archived bottle This button will allow you to choose and restore a bottle archive created with the Archive button. The restored bottle will be replaced in your bottle list, and the files copied into your bottle directory.

Publish...  The Publish... button makes a managed copy of a selected bottle. You will be prompted for a name for this managed bottle. Once the bottle is copied, all the users of your system will have access to the applications and data in that bottle.

[Tip]

Any private data that is stored in a bottle's C: drive (for example, passwords, login information, private emails, etc.) will be available to all users on the system. Generally it is best to publish a new bottle before you have configured or used any of the installed applications.

Bottle Windows versions

Most bottle settings can be adjusted once a bottle is created. The Windows version of a bottle, however, must be chosen when the bottle is created.

The CrossOver Installation Wizard will set the Windows version appropriately when creating a new bottle. If you are creating a bottle by hand you must specify a Windows version.

Most supported applications run best in a bottle of type 'win98'. A few applications (Office 2003 and iTunes in particular) require a newer operating system to run, and must be installed into a 'win2000' or 'winXP' bottle. When installing unsupported applications, it may be worthwhile to test them in both a win98 and a win2000 bottle to determine which works the best. For purposes of compatibility, winXP and win2000 are generally equivalent.

Bottle modes

CrossOver Linux Professional supports bottles of two types: managed and private. A given installation of CrossOver may make use of both bottle types at once.

Private bottles.  A private bottle is used by a single user, and is generally placed in that user's home account. Applications installed in a private bottle are unavailable for use by other users on a system. Bottles are created in private mode by default if you have chosen to run CrossOver in private multi-user mode.

[Tip]

It is not generally useful to create a private bottle when running as root. Such bottles will only be usable by the root user.

Managed bottles.  Managed bottles are created within the CrossOver subdirectory, and can be used by all the users on a system. Applications installed in a managed bottle can be run by any user, and each user is able to configure and customize existing applications.

Managed bottles save space and time by requiring only a single installation of each Windows application. However, some applications (those not properly designed for multi-user use) may perform erratically.

When a user accesses a managed bottle, a 'stub bottle' will be created in their home account. Stub bottles contain a user's custom alterations to the bottle, and contain symlinks that refer to most large files and directories in the managed bottle. A stub bottles have the same name as the managed bottle to which it refers.

[Tip]

Managed bottles are created using the Publish button.

Bottle Settings

Advanced settings (described later in this chapter) are also accessible from this tab.

Hide file extensions.  When this option is selected, Windows file dialogs will display filenames without their extensions. For example, the file "Resume.doc" will appear as "Resume". Note that this can make it hard to distinguish files when they only differ by their extensions such as "photo.jpg" and "photo.png".

Make this browser the default for Windows applications.  When you install Internet Explorer under CrossOver, IE sets itself to handle all web documents and URLs. Clicking this button changes this association to replace IE with your browser of choice as specified in the above two options. The default browser listed may be changed on the CrossOver settings tab.

Sound driver load order.  CrossOver contains support for several different sound drivers. Depending on your hardward and operating system, Some sound systems will work better than others. This setting allows you to specify a set of different drivers for CrossOver to try, in order.

Hide CrossOver system tray.  Some Windows applications place icons in the Windows system tray. Because Wine does not support the system tray in some window managers, such window managers may create an additional window for each system tray entry. Selecting the Hide CrossOver system tray option will suppress this behavior.