Installing LTspice

Windows

Analog Devices offers two Windows builds on the download page, so take the one that matches your machine:

• Windows 10/11 ×64 (LTspice64.msi) — almost certainly you. Intel or AMD processor.
• Windows 11 ARM64 (LTspice64_arm.msi) — only if your laptop has an ARM processor, such as a Snapdragon-based Surface. If you are not sure, check Settings → System → About: “System type” names the processor.

Then:

1. Run the installer and follow it.
2. Open LTspice and choose Tools → Update Components. Analog Devices recommends this after every install or update; it pulls down the current device models.

macOS

1. Download the macOS installer (a .pkg file) from the download page.
2. Open it and follow the installer.
3. Open LTspice and choose Tools → Update Components.

Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. If you use Homebrew, brew install --cask ltspice installs the same package.

On an older Mac, update macOS if your hardware supports it. If it does not, see Older Macs below.

Linux

Analog Devices does not build LTspice for Linux and does not support it there. Its own documentation points Linux users at Wine, which runs the Windows build — and that is what we suggest.

These steps were verified in August 2026 on Ubuntu 24.04 with Wine 11.0 and LTspice 26.0.2. That test ran under WSL2, so the packages, commands and install path below are confirmed; font rendering and window behaviour in a full desktop session may still differ.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo mkdir -pm755 /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/keyrings/winehq-archive.key https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key
sudo wget -NP /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/dists/noble/winehq-noble.sources
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

export WINEPREFIX=~/.ltspice
export WINEARCH=win64
wineboot -u
wine msiexec /i LTspice64.msi

WINEPREFIX=~/.ltspice wine "$HOME/.ltspice/drive_c/Program Files/ADI/LTspice/LTspice.exe"

find ~/.ltspice/drive_c -name LTspice.exe

Older Macs

If your Mac cannot run the macOS version the current LTspice requires, you have two options. Neither is ideal, and which one suits you depends on what you would rather put up with.

The easy one: install the old Mac build. Analog Devices still offers LTspice 17.2.4 for macOS from the download page, marked “End of Support”. It installs natively and runs on much older macOS versions. The catch is that it is the pre-2024 generation with the old Mac interface, so the shortcuts, menus and screenshots in the lab guides will not match what you see, and it gets no further updates.

The faithful one: run the Windows build under Wine, the same way Linux users do. More work to set up and more fragile — macOS, Wine or LTspice updates can break it — but you get the current program, so everything in the lab guides applies to you as written.

To take the second route:

1. Install Homebrew if you do not have it. The .pkg installer is the easiest route. You may need to add it to your PATH afterwards — Homebrew prints the two commands to run.

2. Install Wine:

   brew install --cask --no-quarantine wine-stable

3. Install Rosetta 2, if Wine asks for it. It usually does not:

   softwareupdate --install-rosetta --agree-to-license

4. Install the GStreamer framework, which Wine expects:

   brew install --cask gstreamer-development

5. Download LTspice64.msi — the Windows installer — from the download page, then install it into its own Wine environment:

   export WINEPREFIX=~/.ltspice
   wine msiexec /i LTspice64.msi

   Accept the default install location.

6. Run it:

   WINEPREFIX=~/.ltspice wine "$HOME/.ltspice/drive_c/Program Files/ADI/LTspice/LTspice.exe"

   If it is not there, locate it with find ~/.ltspice/drive_c -name LTspice.exe.

Tutorials

Analog Devices publishes short video series on its own tool. Most LTspice tutorials you will find elsewhere predate the 2024 interface change and show menus and shortcuts that have since moved.

• LTspice Basics — four parts: downloading and installing, schematic capture, transient simulations, and AC simulations. Start here. It was recorded for the current interface, parts one through three cover the Lab 1 prelab, and part four is what you need for the filter measurements in Lab 3.
• LTspice Essentials — transformers, third-party models, and building your own component symbols. Beyond anything the labs ask for, but worth knowing about if your final project needs a part LTspice does not ship.
• AC and Noise Simulation — the AC analysis and op-amp stability episodes go deeper than the course requires while connecting directly to Labs 3 through 5. The noise episodes are outside the scope of this course.

Keyboard shortcuts

LTspice 24 changed the default keyboard shortcuts, so any tutorial or video made before then shows a different set. Two things worth knowing:

• The current list is in the program. Help → Keyboard Shortcuts opens a cheat sheet you can leave open beside your schematic — it always matches the version you are actually running.
• Print the quick reference. Analog Devices’ LTspice quick reference puts the shortcuts, the SPICE directives and the value multipliers on four pages, with the Windows and Mac keys side by side. Worth keeping open while you work through a prelab.
• You can go back to the old keys. If you are following an older tutorial and nothing matches, use Settings → Schematic → Keyboard Shortcuts → Restore LTspice Classic Values. (Before LTspice 24, “Settings” was called “Control Panel”.)