Boxedwine vs Crosswire

Boxedwine is an emulator for running 16-bit and 32-bit Windows applications on Windows, Mac, Linux, and in a browser. It runs a 32-bit version of Wine while emulating the Linux kernel and CPU, and is released under the GNU General Public License v2. The browser build uses Emscripten, including WebAssembly and asm.js. Boxedwine supports multiple Wine versions from 1.6 to Wine 5.0. Its web version uses memory storage by default, so changes to d:/ are discarded when the browser tab closes. Users can configure Dropbox storage or use local storage, whose limits depend on the browser and operating system. The web build can accept a dropped directory to list executable files and can be configured with URL parameters. Documentation warns that on-demand loading of large files can block the interface or potentially crash the emulator, and requires server range-request support. The site also provides online demos for selected applications and games, including AbiWord, Age of Empires, and Caesar III, plus user and developer documentation.

Crosswire runs Windows games and apps on macOS, letting users install a Windows .exe and open it from a searchable library. Each installation has an isolated space, keeping apps separate. During installation, Crosswire detects common runtimes such as Visual C++ and .NET and offers to install them. For recognized games, it applies known-good settings automatically. The app can check for and update its Windows compatibility layer; automatic releases are available on version 1.1.1 or later. Crosswire is free and open source under GPL-3.0, with source published on GitHub. It requires an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14.6 or later, plus about 1 GB of free disk space for the base install. It is not Apple-notarized yet, so macOS requires users to confirm opening it in Privacy & Security. Compatibility varies by app version and macOS release. Microsoft 365 is unsupported, while League of Legends and Valorant are blocked by Vanguard.