http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10669
--- Comment #3 from Austin English austinenglish@gmail.com 2007-12-05 12:27:02 --- Either move or remove your wine directory:
rm -rf ~/.wine -or- mv ~/.wine ~/.wine-backup
As for running as root: http://wiki.winehq.org/FAQ#head-96bebfa287b4288974de0df23351f278b0d41014 It's in the FAQ.