Running Capitalism Lab on Linux

We’ve compiled a set of instructions based on successful user experiences to help you get the game running on Linux through virtualization. Several methods are described below — start with Lutris, which is the one most users succeed with.

Choosing a Wine or Proton version

Capitalism Lab is a 32-bit Windows program, and like most Windows software it runs best on a current Wine or Proton build.

For that reason, prefer a recent Wine or Proton build. A current build is the safer starting point, since very old versions can lack features that modern Windows programs expect.

Changing the Wine or Proton version is easy in every launcher, which is handy when you want to try a different build:

• Lutris: open the game’s Configure window, go to Runner options, and choose a different Wine version.
• Steam: open the game’s Properties, go to Compatibility, and pick a different Proton version.
• Bottles: from the main menu open Preferences → Runners to download a runner, then open the bottle’s Settings → Runner to select it.

Method 1: Use Lutris to Run Capitalism Lab on Linux

Lutris is an open-source gaming platform for Linux that allows you to run Windows-based games. Capitalism Lab is listed as a supported game on the Lutris website: https://lutris.net/games/capitalism-lab/

Download the Capitalism Lab installer

Download Capitalism Lab Installer
If you encounter any issues running the installer on Linux, you may download the Capitalism Lab file in a ZIP file.

Install Lutris

Download Lutris from https://lutris.net/ and install it on your system.

Add Capitalism Lab to Lutris

1. Launch Lutris from your applications menu.
2. Add a new game: click the + (Add Game) button in the top-left corner.
3. Configure the game entry: enter “Capitalism Lab” as the Name, make sure Wine is selected as the Runner, and choose “Install game from executable” for the Game Executable.
4. Select the installer: navigate to and select the Capitalism Lab installer (.exe file) you downloaded.
5. Complete the installation: follow the on-screen instructions. Lutris handles the Wine configuration and dependencies automatically.

Configure the game settings in Lutris

1. Locate Capitalism Lab: after installation, find “Capitalism Lab” in your Lutris library.
2. Open the configuration: right-click “Capitalism Lab” and select “Configure”.
3. Set the Wine prefix, if necessary: on the “Game Options” tab you can see the “Wine prefix” path where Lutris installed the game. If the field is blank, the game was installed to the default directory:

   ~/.wine

   If a custom Wine prefix was used, note its location — you need it in the next step.

Locate the executable file

1. Open the Wine prefix directory in your file manager. For the default .wine directory, navigate to:

   ~/.wine/drive_c/users/YourUsername/AppData/Local/CapitalismLab/

   Replace “YourUsername” with your actual Linux username.

2. Find capstart.exe inside the CapitalismLab folder. This is the executable that launches the game.

Specify the executable in Lutris

1. Return to the Lutris configuration: go back to the “Game Options” tab in the Capitalism Lab configuration window.
2. Set the executable path: click the browse button and select the capstart.exe file you found in the previous step. For example:

   ~/.wine/drive_c/users/YourUsername/AppData/Local/CapitalismLab/capstart.exe

3. Apply the changes: click “Save” or “Apply” to confirm.

Launch Capitalism Lab

In Lutris, select “Capitalism Lab” and click the “Play” button to start the game.

Method 2: Add Capitalism Lab as a Non-Steam Game on Steam

Since Steam has solid Linux support, you can try adding Capitalism Lab as a Non‑Steam Game in your Steam library. Once added, Steam’s compatibility tools (like Proton) may allow the game to run smoothly on Linux.

Method 3: Use a Virtual Machine to Run Capitalism Lab on Linux

Set up virtualization

• Install QEMU/KVM and virt-manager on your Linux system.
• Create a new virtual machine using virt-manager.

Install Windows 7

• Use a Windows 7 SP1 ISO with all updates up to 2020.
• Complete the Windows 7 installation in your virtual machine.

Install the necessary components

• Download and install .NET Framework 4.8.
• Install Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable — both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions.
• Install .NET Framework Runtime 8.

Install Capitalism Lab

Install the game as you normally would on a Windows system.

After installing the game, first attempt to run it without any additional configurations. If the game does not work as expected, you might want to enable the “Use DirectDraw version” option within the Capitalism Lab launcher.

Method 4: Use Bottles to Run Capitalism Lab on Linux

Bottles is another popular application for running Windows programs on Linux, and it works well for Capitalism Lab. It is available from https://usebottles.com/ and is commonly installed as a Flatpak.

Create a bottle

Open Bottles and create a new bottle, choosing the Gaming environment. This gives the game its own self-contained Wine prefix.

Install Capitalism Lab

Inside the bottle, use Run Executable to run the Capitalism Lab installer you downloaded in Method 1. Once it is installed, point the bottle at capstart.exe so you can launch the game from Bottles.

Troubleshooting

The game closes immediately when I start it

Symptom. The game exits within a second or two of launching. Often no window appears at all, or one flashes on screen and disappears. It happens on every launch, and you never reach the main menu. Your launcher may show no error message.

How to confirm it is this problem. Start the game from a terminal and watch the output. If you see a line mentioning an unimplemented function and msvcrt, this is the issue.

Cause. The game’s video player opens video files through a Windows system library called msvcrt. On some Wine setups, the copy of that library inside your prefix or bottle is missing a function the video player needs, so the game stops the moment it tries to open the opening logo video. The most likely reason is that something installed into that prefix or bottle has replaced Wine’s own copy of msvcrt — a winetricks component, a Bottles dependency, or an older Windows redistributable. This is not a problem with the game, your graphics drivers, or your video files.

Fix. Try these, in order:

1. Force Wine to use its own copy of the library. In Bottles, open the bottle’s settings, find Environment Variables, and add WINEDLLOVERRIDES=msvcrt=b. In Lutris, the same variable goes in the game’s configuration under System options → Environment variables. Then start the game.
2. Check for an override directly. In Bottles, open the bottle’s settings and use its DLL Overrides panel. In Lutris or plain Wine, run winecfg against the prefix and open the Libraries tab. Either way, if msvcrt is listed, remove it or set it to “builtin”, then start the game again.
3. Start from a clean prefix or bottle. If it still closes, create a brand-new prefix or bottle, install no extra dependencies at all, install the game into it and run it. If it works there, something installed into the old one is responsible.

Changing the Wine or Proton version does not fix this one. It has been tried, and the problem follows the prefix, not the runner.

We have not yet had confirmation from an affected player that these steps work, so please let us know if they do.

Confirmed on. This has been seen on Bottles with two different runners — soda-9.0-1 and the much newer Soda 11.0.5. The failure was identical on both, which is what showed that the runner is not the cause.

It also affects other videos. Because it is the video player that is affected, the same missing function would break the scenario, tutorial and in-game videos too, on a build where the game does manage to start.

If none of these steps helps, please tell us — see the Reporting a problem section below, and include the terminal output as well as the crash file. That terminal output is the single most useful thing we can receive for this problem.

Reporting a problem

If you run into a crash, there is one file that helps us a great deal. When the game crashes it writes a crash report named CapLab_Crash_<version>_<date>_<time>.dmp.

You will find it in the Windows Documents folder inside your Wine prefix or bottle, under a CapitalismLab folder — typically:

drive_c/users/<your username>/Documents/CapitalismLab/

where <your username> is often steamuser.

When you report a crash, please attach that .dmp file and tell us which launcher you used (Lutris, Steam, Bottles or a virtual machine) and which Wine or Proton version you were running.

If you can, also start the game from a terminal and send us whatever it prints. A single line of terminal output is often enough to identify a problem like this — sometimes faster than the crash file itself.