Installing Advanced Diary on a Linux system with Wine

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I needed to install Advanced Diary on an Ubuntu Linux system. for someone who had been using the program for journaling on a Microsoft Windows system. I had previously installed Wine, a program that allows one to run Windows applications on Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD systems. I used AdvDiary.sh, which contains the following lines, to install Advanced Diary:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -e

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
  echo "Usage: $0 AdvancedDiarySetup.exe"
  exit 1
fi

INSTALLER="$(realpath "$1")"
PREFIX="$HOME/.wine-advdiary"

echo "Creating 32-bit Wine prefix..."
export WINEPREFIX="$PREFIX"
export WINEARCH=win32
winecfg -v win7 >/dev/null 2>&1 || true

echo "Installing required components (gdiplus, corefonts)..."
winetricks -q gdiplus corefonts

echo "Forcing native GDI+..."
cat > "$PREFIX/user.reg" <<'EOF'
[Software\\Wine\\DllOverrides]
"gdiplus"="native"
EOF

echo "Running Advanced Diary installer..."
wine "$INSTALLER"

echo
echo "✔ Installation complete"
echo "Run with:"
echo "WINEPREFIX=$PREFIX wine \"$PREFIX/drive_c/Program Files/Advanced Diary/Diary.exe\""

To run it, you need to assign "execute" permission to the file, which can be done in a Terminal window with chmod + x filename or chmod a+x filename to make a file executable by all users or chmod u+x filename to make it executable by just the owner of the file, i.e., the user.

alice@Wonderland:~/Downloads$ chmod u+x install-advanced-diary.sh 
alice@Wonderland:~/Downloads$ 

When I ran the shell script .sh file, I realized I hadn't installed Winetricks beforehand, so I installed it with sudo apt install winetricks after running the script.

alice@Wonderland:~/Downloads$ ./install-advanced-diary.sh AdvDiary.exe 
Creating 32-bit Wine prefix...
Installing required components (gdiplus, corefonts)...
./install-advanced-diary.sh: line 19: winetricks: command not found
alice@Wonderland:~/Downloads$ sudo apt install winetricks
[sudo: authenticate] Password: 
Installing:                     
  winetricks

Installing dependencies:
  7zip  cabextract  fuseiso

Suggested packages:
  7zip-standalone  7zip-rar  tor  unrar-free  | unrar

Summary:
  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 4, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 2
  Download size: 2,327 kB
  Space needed: 8,465 kB / 1,787 GB available

Continue? [Y/n] Y
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu questing/universe amd64 7zip amd64 25.01+dfsg-2 [2,119 kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu questing/universe amd64 cabextract amd64 1.11-2 [24.7 kB]
Get:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu questing/universe amd64 fuseiso amd64 20070708-8 [22.3 kB]
Get:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu questing/universe amd64 winetricks all 20250102-1 [161 kB]
Fetched 2,327 kB in 1s (1,592 kB/s) 
Selecting previously unselected package 7zip.
(Reading database ... 180531 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../7zip_25.01+dfsg-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking 7zip (25.01+dfsg-2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package cabextract.
Preparing to unpack .../cabextract_1.11-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking cabextract (1.11-2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package fuseiso.
Preparing to unpack .../fuseiso_20070708-8_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking fuseiso (20070708-8) ...
Selecting previously unselected package winetricks.
Preparing to unpack .../winetricks_20250102-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking winetricks (20250102-1) ...
Setting up cabextract (1.11-2) ...
Setting up 7zip (25.01+dfsg-2) ...
Setting up fuseiso (20070708-8) ...
Setting up winetricks (20250102-1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.18-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-3ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.28-1) ...
alice@Wonderland:~/Downloads$ 

I then reran the installation script for Advanced Diary. The installation completed successfully — I selected the option to have the program opened automatically at the conclusion of the installation — and it appeared to open normally (I had to press Enter in the terminal window to return to the shell prompt).

alice@Wonderland:~/Downloads$ ./install-advanced-diary.sh AdvDiary.exe 
Creating 32-bit Wine prefix...
Installing required components (gdiplus, corefonts)...
Executing cd /usr/bin
winetricks latest version check update disabled in the Debian package for privac
y reasons.
You may enable it by setting WINETRICKS_LATEST_VERSION_CHECK=enabled or creating
 /home/alice@wonderland/.config/winetricks/enable-latest-version-check
Using winetricks 20250102 - sha256sum: 9df4af038f04c753f3b0b02817cf60a51d8eac323
57d070c45dfd139b93bd3f5 with wine-10.0 (Ubuntu 10.0~repack-6ubuntu1) and WINEARC
H=win32
Executing w_do_call gdiplus
Executing load_gdiplus 
Executing mkdir -p /home/alice@wonderland/.cache/winetricks/win7sp1
Executing cd /home/alice@wonderland/.cache/winetricks/win7sp1
Downloading http://download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/software/svpk/20
11/02/windows6.1-kb976932-x86_c3516bc5c9e69fee6d9ac4f981f5b95977a8a2fa.exe to /h
ome/alice@wonderland/.cache/winetricks/win7sp1
--2026-02-24 11:24:11--  http://download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/sof
tware/svpk/2011/02/windows6.1-kb976932-x86_c3516bc5c9e69fee6d9ac4f981f5b95977a8a
2fa.exe
Resolving download.windowsupdate.com (download.windowsupdate.com)... 23.54.127.1
64, 23.53.11.13, 2600:1408:ec00:1406::1735:b0d, ...
Connecting to download.windowsupdate.com (download.windowsupdate.com)|23.54.127.
164|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 563934504 (538M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe’

windows6.1-KB976932 100%[===================>] 537.81M  10.4MB/s    in 50s     

2026-02-24 11:25:01 (10.8 MB/s) - ‘windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe’ saved [563934504
/563934504]

<text snipped>

Forcing native GDI+...
Running Advanced Diary installer...
0128:err:winediag:ntlm_check_version ntlm_auth was not found. Make sure that ntl
m_auth >= 3.0.25 is in your path. Usually, you can find it in the winbind packag
e of your distribution.
0128:err:ntlm:ntlm_LsaApInitializePackage no NTLM support, expect problems

✔ Installation complete
Run with:
WINEPREFIX=/home/alice@wonderland/.wine-advdiary wine "/home/alice@wonderland/.w
ine-advdiary/drive_c/Program Files/Advanced Diary/Diary.exe"
alice@Wonderland:~/Downloads$ 0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional
 destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0140:err:richedit:ReadStyleSheet skipping optional destination
0150:err:menubuilder:InvokeShellLinker failed to extract icon from L"C:\\Program
 Files\\Advanced Diary\\AdvancedDiary.url"
0198:err:winediag:ntlm_check_version ntlm_auth was not found. Make sure that ntl
m_auth >= 3.0.25 is in your path. Usually, you can find it in the winbind packag
e of your distribution.
0198:err:ntlm:ntlm_LsaApInitializePackage no NTLM support, expect problems
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0
0198:err:listview:LISTVIEW_WindowProc unknown msg 109d, wp 0, lp 0

alice@Wonderland:~/Downloads$ 

I had selected the option during the installation to have a shortcut placed on the desktop and I saw two there afterwards.

Advanced Diary desktop shortcut

When I double-clicked on the "AdvancedDiary.desktop" shortcut, I saw an "Untrusted Desktop File" window with the message below.

Untrusted Desktop File

This .desktop file is not trusted, it can not be launched. To enable launching, right-click, then:

Enable "Allow Launching"

Untrusted Desktop File

I clicked on Close, then right-clicked on the shortcut and selected "Allow Launching". I then deleted the "Advanced Diary.lnk" shortcut below it by right-clicking on it and selecting "Move to Trash".

Advanced Diary desktop shortcut

I was then able to use the remaining shortcut to open Advanced Diary and set it to open the file that I had copied from the directory where it was stored under Microsoft Windows.