14 DAY TRIAL // It’s been a while since the last release of the Wine software used by hundreds of thousands of Linux and Mac OS X users to install applications that only work on Microsoft Windows operating systems. Wine 1.7.39 is a development release and it comes three weeks after the Wine 1.7.38 version that introduced multi-channel audio support.
According to the release notes, a total of 24 bugs have been squashed in Wine 1.7.39, which you can download right now from Softpedia. Please keep in mind though that it’s an unstable software that shouldn’t be used on production machines. The stable version of Wine is 1.6.2. Prominent features of Wine 1.7.39 include support for DirectX Media Objects filters, Kerning support in DirectWrite, and WinMM joystick support in Mac OS X.
Furthermore, Wine 1.7.39 comes with better support for animated GIFs in GdiPlus, improved support for “Known Folders” in Shell32, better support for the Mac OS X Joystick, a patch for the buggy sound effects in BridgeMaster 2000, improvements for Winhttp sample, Caps Lock and Shift support for the Steam overlay, 98Plus! Screensavers improvements, as well as Simplified Chinese translation fixes for the Wine GUI on Mac OS X.
Support for Microsoft Word and Nero Burning ROM has been improved
Wine 1.7.39 repairs incorrectly rendered animated GIF images whose transparent areas were black, adds wmvcore.dll.WMCreateWriter for many applications and games that requested it, such as iMesh 7.x or Tinker, fixes some issues with the Nero Burning ROM 8 application, addresses a Microsoft Word issue related to opening a document that is already opened in other application, and fixes the eTax 2014 installation issues.
Picasa has also been fixed in Wine 1.7.39 and it can now play MP3 files during slideshows, fixes some issues with Evolve Client 1.8.3, which failed to install downloaded updates and apps after login, repairs AutoHotkey script crashes, adds missing WshScriptExec's Terminate method, fixes Chemcraft crashes, and makes the SoManyEuros, Brink, EBWin Unicode, and Barbri Study Smart programs work properly.