Where Does Protontricks Find Game Prefixes?
Where Protontricks finds Steam prefixes and how compatdata maps to games.
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Protontricks is a thin wrapper over Winetricks for Steam Play prefixes, which live as numbered appid folders under steamapps/compatdata with pfx children. The tool resolves the prefix from the appid you pass it.
Flatpak installs see a different Steam root, so set STEAM_ROOT or use the flatpak overrides when prefixes resolve empty. Prefix contents mirror a Windows drive with users, Program Files and registry hives inside pfx.
Where Protontricks stores this, by platform
~/.local/share/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/<appid>/pfx/
Per-game Wine prefix with pfx child holding the virtual Windows drive. Find appids via protontricks -s. Flatpak Steam needs adjusted paths. Back up the appid folder for full prefix migration.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find the appid for a game?
Run protontricks -s to list games with their appids, or check the game properties in Steam. The compatdata folder name is always the numeric appid.
Does Protontricks store my saves?
Saves live in the prefix drive_c users tree or in Steam userdata, never in Protontricks itself. Protontricks only edits prefixes; back up the compatdata appid folder or the userdata id folder for saves.
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