Whisky alternatives: where to go now Whisky is discontinued

What happened to Whisky

In April 2025 Whisky's developer announced that development was ending. His reasoning, as reported by MacRumors: Whisky contributed almost nothing back to Wine while competing with CrossOver, whose sales help fund Wine development — so he recommended users switch to CrossOver. The GitHub repository was archived (made read-only) on 11 May 2025, and its README now reads: "Whisky is no longer actively maintained. Apps and games may break at any time."

Can you keep using it?

For now, often yes — archived software doesn't switch itself off. But every month adds risk:

• Launchers update themselves. A Steam, Epic or EA app update can stop working in an old Wine build overnight, and nobody will patch Whisky for it.
• No new Wine or graphics layers. Newer games that need newer Wine, DXMT or D3DMetal versions won't run.
• macOS moves on. Apple says macOS 27 is the last release with Rosetta for Intel apps, beyond continued support for older games. Wine-based tools are likely to need updates around that change; Whisky won't get any.

The alternatives

If you used Whisky mainly for Steam, look at CrossOver or Grapple (see Windows Steam on a Mac). For Epic or GOG games, Heroic or Mythic will feel familiar. For DirectX 12 games specifically, you'll want D3DMetal, which CrossOver and Grapple include — see Game Porting Toolkit GUIs. The full list, including non-Wine options, is in CrossOver alternatives.

Moving your games over

1. Back up save files from your Whisky bottles (see above).
2. Install the new tool and let it create a fresh Windows environment (a bottle or wrapper, depending on the app).
3. Install your launcher — Steam, Epic, GOG — inside it and sign in.
4. Re-download games, or copy the game folders from the old bottle's drive_c into the same place in the new one and let the launcher verify the files.
5. Restore your saves, launch, and check it works before deleting anything from Whisky.

Copying a whole bottle between apps is tempting but rarely clean: each app sets up Wine, graphics layers and registry settings its own way. Starting fresh is usually quicker in the end.

FAQ