- Best use: For a relatively small number of users, using a fairly small and well-defined set of Windows apps that have been tested to install and run under CrossOver Mac VirtualBox 5.1.26.
- Run Windows on Mac Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac. Optimized for the latest Windows 10 updates and macOS Catalina (10.15) Play PC games and run demanding graphics software; Work with Windows-based accounting and trading software; Run all your favorite Windows software on your Mac.
Download the PC software you want to run on your Mac. Right-click the PC software in finder. A drop-down menu should appear. Click “open with” and choose WineBottler. If the PC software is included in WineBottler’s application database, the application will run on your Mac. To make sure the PC software you want to use is compatible with.
Mac is renowned for safety and smooth operation. However, if you are not switching from your Windows to Mac, because you don’t want to lose the programs compatible specifically with Windows, then you must know that there is a workaround with which you can run those programs.
Yes, you heard it right, with the help of a virtual machine, it is possible to work on both MacOS and Windows operating system on the same computer. With virtual machines, you can run Windows on Mac and also switch both the operating systems effortlessly.
Simple Ways to Run Windows on Mac
You must be thinking what a virtual machine is and how it works! So, without any further ado, let us know about Virtual machines!
Virtual Machine
In simple words, a Virtual machine (VM) is a program or image which acts an emulation of a computer system. It is one of the best methods to run Windows on a Mac, eliminating the need for actual physical hardware. With VM, a user can install Windows, Linux or any other OS in a window on Mac. Windows stay under the impression that it is running on a real computer however, it is running within software on Mac.
The Virtual Machine is based on computer architecture and operates as a physical computer. It runs in a window just like any other program on a computer, which provides a similar experience on Virtual Machine as they get on the host operating system. The software inside the Virtual Machine can’t tamper with the computer settings as the VM is sandboxed from the rest of the system.
Therefore, the virtual machines are an ideal software for those who want to use another operating system for testing beta releases, creating OS backup, accessing infected files and more. Every virtual machine has its own virtual hardware that’s CPU, hard drives, network interfaces, and other devices.
Run Mac Applications On Windows
The VM is linked to the actual hardware on a physical machine which reduces the costs, as you don’t need physical hardware, hence, no maintenance costs applied to it.
Now you know about Virtual Machines, then read further to know some of the best ways to run Windows on a Mac using virtual machine apps.
Parallels Desktop
One of the best ways to run Windows on Mac is by using Parallels. Whether you want to switch from Windows to Mac or want to transfer data between them, Parallels can do it all. The tool is available for trial and you can get all of it in the paid version.
Let’s check the requirements to run Windows programs on Mac.
Hardware
- Mac computer with Intel Core i9, Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, Core 2 Duo, Core i7, Intel Core M or Xeon processor.
- Recommended 8 GB, 4 GB minimum required.
- 600 MB disk space on Macintosh HD for Parallels desktop application installation.
- Working internet connection to activate the product and select features.
- SSD drive for better performance.
- Additional disk space for VM
Software
The tool is available all mentioned operating system of Mac in the list:
- OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 or later
- macOS Sierra 10.12.6 or later
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 or later
- macOS Mojave 10.14
Guest Operating System
- Windows Server 2019
- Windows 8
- Windows 8.1
- Windows 10
Features Of Parallels:
Using Windows and Mac on the same screen on your Mac computer is easy with Parallels. It makes sharing files and folders, images and text between Mac and Windows apps effortless.
Once downloaded, it is easy to install and get started with another operating system. No matter how heavy a Windows application is, it will run smoothly without affecting your Mac’s performance.
The program works for both the latest version of Windows 10 and macOS Mojave. For easy access, it enables a user to add Windows application to Touch Bar. Parallels has the potential to optimize VM settings and performance for you, to match up the current mode. So, whether you are playing games or are into testing or development, Parallels will modify VM settings as per the need.
VMware Fusion
Vmware Fusion gives you the power to run Windows and other operating systems side by side with Mac apps, without even rebooting. The platform is quite simple, therefore could be useful for home users and is powerful to be handle developers, professionals and businesses needs.
To install Vmware Fusion on your Mac to run Windows, you need:
- Mac launched in 2011 or later except 2012 Mac Pro “Quad Core” using the Intel® Xeon® W3565 Processor.
- 2010 Mac Pro “Six Core”, “Eight Core” and “Twelve Core”.
- OS X 10.12 Sierra Minimum Required
Features Of VMware Fusion
VMware Fusion comes with an updated user interface along with customizable support for the latest Touch Bar enabled Macs. The tool supports the latest versions of Windows 10 as a virtual machine running on your Mac. Vmware Fusion has an ability to drive complex, GPU intensive applications and games with an improved hardware-accelerated 3D graphics engine by taking advantage of Apple Metal graphics technology.
When it comes to graphics performance and accuracy, VMware Fusion leads the way. With Unity View Mode, it allows you to hide Windows desktop, so you can run Windows apps on your Mac seamlessly.
This app allows you to launch Windows apps from Dock, Launchpad or Spotlight. With the common VMware hypervisor, Fusion makes it simple to transfer virtual machines back and forth with drag and drop or control VMs right from corporate data from the comfort of your Mac
BootCamp
Bootcamp is an inbuilt utility app which enables Mac OSX user to use Windows on the same screen. The app is easy to use and after installation, you just need to restart and switch between Windows and MacOS to run Windows on Mac.
Free app to remove apps on mac. Mac Uninstalling Software Paid and Free Mac philosophy assumes that commercial soft is better. In fact, though, you don't have to pay to remove apps on your Mac. There are both paid and free versions. Free app removers, though, don't grant you support and timely updates. Even the best Mac uninstaller you can find for free has its downsides.
Before you get started with it, let’s check the requirements to run Windows programs on Mac.
- Sufficient free disk space to form a Boot Camp disk partition with at least size of 64GB.
Note: It is recommended to have 128 GB space for better performance.
- An external mouse and Keyboard, in case you are on Mac desktop.
- A USB with free 16GB or more.
The List of Mac Models Supporting Windows 10 Home 64-bit version or Pro:
- MacBook Pro (2012 and later)
- MacBook (2015 and later)
- MacBook Air (2012 and later)
- iMac (2012 and later)*
- iMac Pro (2017)
- Mac mini (2012 and later)
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
- Mac mini Server (Late 2012)
Features of Bootcamp:
Bootcamp is popular due to its performance. Having Windows on an internal drive of Mac eliminates the need for a virtual machine or external device. If you have ample space on your Mac, you should install Windows using this utility app.
Upon installing Windows on your Mac, you could use Windows & its applications with best possible performance. Your Mac and Windows PC both will perform with the same specifications. Install Windows using Bootcamp and enjoying using both platforms on the same screen.
VirtualBox
If you want to run Windows on Mac, without even rebooting your computer, then VirtualBox can help. VirtualBox is a free and open source hosted hypervisor for x86 computers.
If you want to get Windows 10, then you need to check the Installation requirements:
- 16GB free space on hard disk.
- A processor of 1 Gigahertz or more
- 1GB RAM for 32 bit and 2 GB for 64 bit
- Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device along with WDDM driver.
- IDE, SATA, and SCSI hard drives are supported.
- ISO disk image files are supported.
Supported guest operating system
You can install Windows Server 2008, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows XP, Debian, and FreeBSD while using VirtualBox
Features Of VirtualBox
Virtual Box allows you to run the applications on Windows and the applications on Mac side by side seamlessly. It allows the guest system to access physical hard disk partitions present on the host system.
It lets your guest system to directly access the USB devices connected to the host computer. You can set Shared Folders which can be accessed by both guest and host operating system. Copy, paste, drag and drop the files from guest to host or vice versa easily.
If you want to run server software inside the Virtual Machine, then VirtualBox allows you to set up port forwarding. Running VM on a remote system or server is possible with VirtualBox. The tool makes it possible with the help of VRDP which is backwards compatible with Microsoft’s RDP protocol. So, you can establish a remote connection to your VM by using the Remote Desktop Connection program(Windows program) without any VirtualBox app.
Wine
Wine originally means Wine Is Not An Emulator. The app is based on Linux. It is a compatibility layer that enables Windows applications to run on other operating systems. It is open and legal and is available for free. Also, you don’t need any Windows license to use the tool.
To install Wine on your Mac, you will need to have the following things:
- macOS 10.10 or later
- A working internet connection
- Access to an Admin account, with credentials
Features Of Wine
With Wine, Mac and Windows run side by side and you can switch between the two via Boot Camp. However, you need to reboot your computer every time you switch. Unlike other apps used to run Windows on Mac, Wine doesn’t take up a lot of disk space and doesn’t hog memory.
As it takes permission to use system resources such as disk space and memory from OS. Wine makes sure all the requests are responded so that the program can run properly. Therefore the programs get all the connections to work properly and it doesn’t feel that it is not on Windows. As it is only interpreting requests, no need to copy real Windows OS. Being an open-source, Wine is continuously refining and new features are added to it now and then.
So, these are popular ways to run Windows on Mac. We know it is not as easy as installing Windows apps on Windows computer but with these apps, you can beat the need of having two operating systems on two separate machines, instead, you can have both of them on the same machine.
Which One To Choose?
If you have a Windows license and want the best compatibility on your Mac, then you must go with Parallels. However, don’t have or don’t want to buy Windows license key then you can use Wine to run Windows on Mac.
Well, this was our opinion on how to run Windows on Mac. Did you like the article? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
It’s 2018, and numerous of the operating system, available on the internet. No doubt in this, Windows is the most widely used operating system. But it doesn’t mean that other Operating Systems are not Good. If you are planning to switch from Windows to Mac, then maybe you are looking for a way, to try Mac OS. Or maybe you want to use some mac software, which isn’t available for Windows. Whatever your reason is, at the end, you want to run Mac on Windows.
The first time, when I thought to install MacOS on Windows, First thing that came to my mind was – Is it possible?. Officially Apple doesn’t provide any ISO file of Mac OS, But you can get it from some third-party sites. There are two ways to install and run MacOS on Windows PC.
IMPORTANT – Before you try any method, the first thing you should know that – Apple’s license for macOS, not allows it to be installed on the non-apple hardware.
First Method – Build a Hackintosh.
What is Hackintosh?.
A Hackintosh is a non-apple hardware, that act like Apple hardware and made to run macOS. It could be manufacture made, or can be built computer personally.
After setting up hardware, the next thing is – Create a bootable drive to install Mac OS.
Note: But you can create bootable drive only using MacOS, with the help of UniBeast. That’s why I don’t prefer this method to run Mac OS on PC.
Second Method – Create MacOS X virtual machine.
This is the best method to run Mac on Windows, you don’t need a Mac or MacOS hardware. And, the best part about creating the virtual machine is, you don’t need to remove your current OS and no external drive required.
What things you”ll need, to run MacOS on Windows PC.
– PC with 64-bit windows, dual-core processor (Intel/AMD) and minimum 4GB of RAM. (VT-x support required)
– Virtualization Software – You can use VirtualBox or VMware Workstation. (check out my article on – VMware vs VirtualBox)
– MacOS X ISO File. (Check the link in the comment section.)
Contents
- 1 Run mac on windows.
- 1.1 Run virtual mac on windows – VirtualBox.
Run mac on windows.
This method will work with all Mac OS ISO file, And in this article, I am using Mac OS Sierra 10.12.
Run virtual mac on windows – VirtualBox.
Step: 1 Download and Install VirtualBox software on your Windows Computer. Now open it, and then click on the new button to create a new virtual machine.
Step: 2 Virtual machine installation setup will ask you to enter machine name, OS type, and version.
You can enter anything in name, but in OS type and version choose this –
Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan (64 bit)
Note: Always choose the lower version of available ISO file. And if you have 32-bit OS ISO then choose 32-bit version. Here I have Mac OS X Sierra 10.12 version, that’s why I am selecting 10.11 version to run OS smoothly.
Step: 3 In next windows, the virtual software will ask you to select RAM for the virtual machine.
The minimum RAM required to run Mac on Windows is, 4GB. But if your computer has total 4GB RAM then you can allocate 2GB (2048 MB) to the virtual machine.
Step: 4 After selecting the RAM, now time to create a virtual hard disk. Select “Create a virtual hard disk now” option and then click on Create button.
– Choose VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) and click on next.
– Choose Dynamically allocated and click on next.
Now, setup will ask you to allocate hard disk size, You can select between 50 to 100 GB, then click on next.
Step: 5 Right-click on created Mac OS virtual machine, and then select settings option.
– First, Click on system and unmark floppy option.
– Then click on the processor and choose 2 CPU. (Dual core required to run Mac OS)
– After selecting 2 CPU, Go to display settings section and select 128 MB video memory.
Step: 6 Add ISO File – Click on storage devices then you can see the empty option, right click on it and then choose “remove attachment” option.
– Click on “+” icon to add new storage controller and then select Add SATA Controller to add.
– Then choose the third option to add new storage and then choose “Add Optical Drive”.
– Now use “Choose Disk” option to select Mac OS ISO file that you have downloaded, Click on OK.
If you have download MacOS files from my link then you”ll get VirtualBox VM settings text file. To run Mac OS without any error you need to apply settings mentioned in that text file.
Apply VirtualBox Settings.
– First, open VirtualBox VM settings text file in notepad++.
– Press Ctrl+F key and then click on Replace button.
– Now, Replace “VM Name” with “MacOS Sierra 10.12” (Or use the name you entered while creating virtual machine)
To apply these settings, which appears in the text file. Open the command prompt and then copy and paste these commands, one by one and press enter.
Run Mac OS X Virtual Machine.
To Run Mac on windows, Right click on created Mac OS virtual machine then, Go to Start> Normal Start. (First, it will take a few minutes to verify all details and hardware.)
Note: Close all other running windows program, While using Mac OS virtual machine.
– Select “Use English for the main language” option then click on start button.
– Now, from MacOS file menu, select Utilities > Disk Utilities > Click on VBOX HARDDISK MEDIA > Click on erase button > Enter OS Name (MacOS Sierra 10.12) and click on erase button.
After erasing VirtualBox hard disk, close utility menu, and then click on continue button.
On next windows it will ask you for license agreement click on Continue> then click on Agree button.
Now, Disk selection menu will appear, choose macOSSierra and Click on Continue.
After clicking on continue, the installation process will get started, and it will take minutes or an hour according to your computer hardware.
When installation process gets completed, Mac OS will ask you few things like – Country, Keyboard language, Location services, and Apple ID. Set all things and then you can use MacOS on your Windows PC.
Conclusion – Run Mac on Windows.
This is the best method to install Mac OS on PC using Virtual Machine. If you follow complete guide properly then you will not face any error. But if still, you face any issue while installing or running Mac OS on your Windows PC then, you can comment. And, If you like VMware Workstation then you need to apply different settings using the command prompt. But I suggest you, to use VirtualBox because Mac OS installation is easy with it.