Guide: Installing Adobe Photoshop 2025 on Linux with Wine and Steam

One of the longest-standing hurdles for the Linux community is finally becoming history: Adobe Photoshop can now run on Linux with near-native performance. In early 2026, revolutionary Wine patches released by PhialsBasement (Phiality) managed to overcome Adobe’s complex installer mechanisms and Windows-specific library dependencies.

In this guide, we will explain how to run Photoshop directly on your Linux desktop without using a virtual machine or dual-booting.

🧐 The Root of the Problem: Why Didn’t It Work?

Adobe Creative Cloud (“ACCC”) installers rely on very old and non-standard Windows components (MSHTML and MSXML3) in the background. Standard Wine versions could not handle Adobe’s “aggressive” data processing methods on these libraries (e.g., expecting to parse broken XML structures), causing installations to often fail and freeze at percentages like %19 or %42.

Developer PhialsBasement developed special patches (mixin patches) that add “flexibility” to Wine’s logic for processing these components. This allows Linux to tolerate Adobe’s “faulty” requests just like Windows does.

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⚙️ Installation Steps

⚠️ Important: This installation will not work with standard Wine. You need a patched, custom Wine version.

1. Preparation and Dependencies

Ensure that winetricks and basic tools are installed on your system:

# Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install winetricks zenity git curl

# Arch Linux:
# Caution: Ensure the "multilib" repository is enabled in /etc/pacman.conf!
sudo pacman -S winetricks zenity git curl

Note for Arch Users: Wine and Steam require the multilib repository (due to 32-bit libraries). Make sure you have uncommented the [multilib] line in your /etc/pacman.conf and ran sudo pacman -Syu.

2. Getting the Custom Wine Build

Download the compiled Wine package from the developer’s GitHub wine-adobe-installers repository.

1. Go to the PhialsBasement/wine-adobe-installers Releases page.
2. Download the latest wine-adobe-x.x-x86_64.tar.xz package.
3. Extract the archive to a directory like ~/opt/wine-adobe.

3. Preparing a Clean Wine Environment (Prefix)

We will set up a completely isolated environment so that Photoshop does not affect (and is not affected by) your other Wine settings:

# 1. Set environment variables
export WINEPREFIX="$HOME/.wine_adobe"
export WINEARCH=win64
# Add the 'bin' folder of the custom Wine you downloaded to PATH
export PATH="$HOME/opt/wine-adobe/bin:$PATH"

# 2. Boot Wine (You can cancel Mono/Gecko prompts, winetricks will handle them)
wine wineboot --init

4. Installing Critical Libraries

This step is vital. Install the following components with winetricks for Photoshop’s UI and Licensing services to work:

winetricks atmlib gdiplus msxml3 msxml6 vcrun2017 vkd3d corefonts

Note: Continue by clicking “Next/Install” on any windows that pop up during installation.

5. Installing Photoshop

Run the Creative_Cloud_Set-Up.exe file you downloaded from the official Adobe site:

wine ~/Downloads/Creative_Cloud_Set-Up.exe

You will be asked to log in via your browser in the window that opens. After logging in, the Creative Cloud application will launch. From there, you can select and install “Photoshop (Beta)” or “Photoshop v25.x”.

Tip: A start menu shortcut will be created after installation. However, if you want to launch it from the terminal, don’t forget to define export PATH=... again.

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🎮 Alternative Method: Installation via Steam

If you don’t want to deal with terminal commands and already use Steam, you can manage this process using Steam’s “Proton” infrastructure.

1. Installing the Compatibility Tool

1. Download the archive labeled bleeding-edge-local from the Releases page again.
2. Extract this archive into Steam’s compatibility folder (Create the folder if it doesn’t exist):

   mkdir -p ~/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d/
   tar -xf wine-adobe-*.tar.xz -C ~/.local/share/Steam/compatibilitytools.d/
   

3. Completely close and restart Steam.

2. Adding the Installer to Steam

1. Open Steam and click “Add a Game” > “Add a Non-Steam Game” at the bottom left.
2. Select and add the Creative_Cloud_Set-Up.exe file you downloaded.
3. Right-click on “Creative_Cloud_Set-Up.exe” in your library -> Properties.
4. Go to the Compatibility tab and check the “Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool” box.
5. Select “bleeding-edge-local” (or whatever the downloaded version is named) from the list.

3. Running

Now when you click the Play button, Steam will prepare the custom Wine environment (Prefix) for you in the background and launch the installer. This method is much more practical, especially for Arch Linux / Steam Deck users.

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⚡ Performance and Known Issues (Caveats)

Not everything is perfect. Here is what you need to know:

Feature	Status	Notes
Photoshop 2024/2025	🟢 Stable	Most tools work without issues.
GPU Acceleration	🟢 Working	Hardware acceleration is active on modern cards (NVIDIA/AMD) thanks to vkd3d.
Lightroom Classic	🔴 Unstable	The “Develop” module may give GPU errors and crash. Not recommended yet.
Camera Raw	🟡 Partial	Some AI features might throw errors depending on the GPU driver.
Wayland	🟡 Problematic	Drag-and-drop might not work, or windows might flicker.

🔧 Solution for Wayland Users:

If you experience window issues (e.g., brush cursor flickering) in a GNOME or KDE Wayland session, force the application to run in X11 mode or switch to an X11 session temporarily.

# An attempt to fix drag-and-drop issues:
export WINE_RT_PRIO=1

This method has replaced old scripts like Gictorbit and is currently the gold standard for running Photoshop on Linux. Happy designing!

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🔗 Sources and Community

If you want to follow this revolutionary work and support the developer:

• GitHub Repo: PhialsBasement/wine-adobe-installers
• Reddit Discussion (Original Announcement): I Made Adobe CC Installers Work on Linux
• Valve Wine PR (Technical Detail): ValveSoftware/wine PR #310