Hi, I'm trying to run wine. I install the .rpm file but don't know where the package was installed to or to even how to run the program. I've also been trying to do this for a few other programs. I install or "unzip" the files to the root but I have no idea how to get it running. I tried running the make file command under run program but I get some type of error, perhaps Im putting in the wrong command line. Any detailed help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

to run wine (in a console) type: wine notepad.exe (for example) or wine /path/to/file/file.exe

to install an unzipped or tarred file you should cd to the directory where you have unzipped to:
tar xvzf programname.tar.gz
cd programname
./configure
make
su (to become root or admin)
enter root password
make install

when you say you unzipped to root, do you mean that you were running as root and then unzipped? If so, you shouldn't run as root - you could accidentally delete a necessary file and render your system unusable. Far better to run as a normal user and use 'su' if you need to install.

I unpack the files to the home directory it makes it's own folder etc. and I keep it where it's installed at.

what happens if you run wine notepad.exe?

when I do it, it takes several seconds to open notepad and I get lots of progress messages in the console, and then it opens.