Your .wine directory is left alone by a uninstall / reinstall ofThanks.  I appreciate the continued interest and effort.  I've removed and reinstalled wine several times, and somewhere along the way I got  a message box with Windows 2000 in it.  It is difficult to sort it out now in looking back.  XP, eh?  Now you would think that would work, being further along than 2000.  Still, what works with one generally works with the other.
Wine.... It is also what is most likely to break.. (You can't break
Wine itself if it normally installed, without having root permissions)