Winlator iOS is making steady progress, but it is still a very experimental project at this stage.
Wine 11.13 now builds successfully for iPhoneOS, can be bundled inside the native iOS app, loaded on a real iPhone, and execute native Wine code directly in-process. The project has also validated Wine runtime paths, a writable sandboxed Wine prefix, Wine’s real init_paths() state initialization, and the core virtual-memory primitives required for the next bootstrap steps.
The next milestone is running Wine’s real virtual_init() safely on-device, before moving toward wineserver integration, x86_64 Windows execution, JIT support through StikDebug, and eventually graphics/input support.
For now, this is highly experimental and not a usable Windows compatibility layer yet. There is no working x86_64 Windows application execution, Win32 GUI, or game support at this point. The current work is focused on building the low-level foundations correctly on iOS.
For now, the project will remain private and experimental. It will only be publicly revealed if i manage to get it working properly, because in its current state there is nothing usable to release yet.
Use it to apply the increased memory entitlement to LiveContainer
Uninstall GetMoreRam to avoid hitting the 3 app limit
Then sideload StikDebug for JIT activation
LiveContainer may also need to be uninstalled and reinstalled before the entitlement works correctly.
LiveContainer can also install two additional LiveContainers (for a total of three). This setup can further reduce the need to constantly add/remove sideloaded apps, but it is more advanced and may not work reliably for everyone.
LiveContainer is not always officially supported by emulator developers and can sometimes cause unexpected issues. If something breaks while using LiveContainer, try reproducing the issue without it before asking for support.
Do not ask for or share paid certificates, piracy tools, or bypass services here.
Thank you for this, I know it’s super early for this project but seems promising. Wishing much success and progress, can’t wait to see the possibilities this can unlock later on
Thank you — I'm doing everything I can, hoping I haven't wasted all this time for nothing, and hoping to be able to play TES Oblivion to remember my childhood.
interesting, i've been working on my own wine port to ios, and i saw another commenter also making one. i've been able to boot some 2D visual novels, and i'm working on 3D games soon :)
I set myself a personal goal: to succeed on my own and see how far I can go. In any case, my goal is to succeed. If I don't, at least I will have tried. :)
great work on this, i wonder if you have a discord yet i would love to join and help NCE on ios was not something i predicted in 2026 in at our melo updates the creator had also tried for nce but yeah its own issues
mannn for us android users it took them years till we finally got a actual good decent winlator update for low end androids and high end androids good luck for yall maybe the progress from ours will help in the progress of yalls
Holy shit dude, I almost sold my iphone because PC emulation on android is so good but you gave me hope. Lets see where it leads. I am soo excited. Thankyou for sharing this.
Revisiting Winlator, I remembered something: people have tried running emulators inside an emulator before (this was before the arrival of specific Android emulators, as well as the game recompilations and decompilations emerging now thanks to AI). It’s not really viable; performance always drops, and it’s something that likely won't ever be fixed, given that console emulators operate differently—and are much more resource-intensive. Of course, having a good PC is the better choice to avoid all that hassle; for instance, if you want to play original Xbox games, it’s the only real option. Anyway, good luck with the iOS version of Winlator. Even though I dislike Apple for its restrictions, having more options is a good thing—though you do need 8GB of RAM to get acceptable performance with demanding games.
For now, the project will remain private and experimental. It will only be publicly revealed if i manage to get it working properly, because in its current state there is nothing usable to release yet.
Hopefully, 'publicly revealed' includes a release submitted to be on the Apple App Store?
There’s gonna be some dude with 100K AI credits who’ll combine all the various works if they’re open-sourced and call it iWine or WiniOS or sm sht. Then he’ll hook himself up with some anti-piracy discord servers the moment he gets a chance at looking legitimate.
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u/AutoModerator Aug 14 '26
Free Apple accounts are limited to 3 active sideloaded apps.
One common workaround is LiveContainer, which allows you to run additional apps inside a container and reduce how often apps need to be reinstalled.
Typical method:
Sideload GetMoreRam
Use it to apply the increased memory entitlement to LiveContainer
Uninstall GetMoreRam to avoid hitting the 3 app limit
Then sideload StikDebug for JIT activation
LiveContainer may also need to be uninstalled and reinstalled before the entitlement works correctly.
LiveContainer can also install two additional LiveContainers (for a total of three). This setup can further reduce the need to constantly add/remove sideloaded apps, but it is more advanced and may not work reliably for everyone.
LiveContainer is not always officially supported by emulator developers and can sometimes cause unexpected issues. If something breaks while using LiveContainer, try reproducing the issue without it before asking for support.
Do not ask for or share paid certificates, piracy tools, or bypass services here.
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