If you want to run Windows on your Mac there are two ways to do it. One is to partition your main drive using the built-in Bootcamp Assistant and then install Windows on the partition that doesn’t house macOS. You can then boot into whichever operating system you choose.
There are many other ways to run Windows program on a Mac. Here is a comparative table to understand the advantages of our solution. Virtual machines. (Parallels, VMWare Fusion) Price. HostMyApple is the #1 Provider of macOS Big Sur Cloud Servers! With up to 32GB of RAM and high speed SSD storage, HostMyApple offers powerful and affordable MacOS cloud VPS and dedicated hosting options.With no hardware to purchase, running your own macOS server is an easy choice for anyone looking to run iMessage in the cloud, AirMessage, host their own website, share files, run mail.
While that method means running Windows natively and so is optimal in terms of performance, it means you have to reboot every time you want to move between operating systems and you can’t, for example, copy and paste between macOS and Windows. If you want to run Windows and macOS side by side, you’ll need to create a Windows virtual machine for Mac.
What is a virtual machine?
A virtual machine (VM) is a computer that’s created in software and looks and feels just like a real PC. But it runs inside a Mac application. The whole virtual machine, with the operating system and all its applications, is stored inside one big file on your Mac. That means you can have multiple virtual machines on the same Mac. Once you launch it and ‘boot’ the virtual PC, Windows VM on Mac behaves like any other Windows machine, except that it’s running inside a window on your Mac.
If you have two screens connected to your Mac, you can have macOS on one and Windows on the other. Or you can use Mission Control to swipe between them. A virtual machine can share accessories like printers and external storage with your Mac, and you can copy and paste between the two operating systems. You can even set up the virtual machine to use Mac keyboard shortcuts instead of their Windows equivalents.
Can I run a virtual machine on my Mac?
As long as your Mac has an Intel processor (and it will have unless it’s more than 12 years old), in theory it can run a virtual machine. However, running a virtual machine alongside macOS needs lots of memory (at least 8GB in total, and more if you want to run more than one virtual machine) and at least two processor cores. You’ll also need at least 16-20GB of hard drive space, and that’s before you start installing applications and saving files. Most modern Macs should run any of the virtual machine applications described here without a problem.
The other thing you’ll need is a copy of Windows. Virtual machine applications don’t come with Windows installers, so you’ll need to supply your own, along with a licence key.
Best virtual machine software for Mac
There are three contenders here: Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion, and VirtualBox. We’ll discuss Virtual Box in the next section.
Parallels Desktop 13
The latest version of Parallels Desktop has support for features in the latest Macs, like the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar. It also allows you to make the Windows desktop ‘invisible’ when you’re running apps, so it looks like you’re just running Windows apps in macOS. Or, if you prefer, you can shrink Windows desktop down to a thumbnail preview, so it doesn’t get in the way but you can keep an eye on what it’s doing.
Creed 2 subtitles. Of course, virtual machines aren’t just about running Windows on your Mac. Parallels Desktop allows you to install Linux, or a different version of macOS, say a beta of the next version if you don’t want to install it on your Mac. If you’ve previously installed Windows on a Boot Camp partition, you can use that partition as a virtual machine, allowing you to boot into it from within Parallels without re-booting your Mac.
Touch Bar support includes functions in Microsoft Office apps, as well as Windows Task Bar.
When it comes to performance, Parallels Desktop is about as good as it gets for virtual machines. That means you can run most applications just fine, but demanding 3D graphics-intensive games, and other apps that place lots of demands on the CPU and GPU are still a bit of a struggle. If you want to run those in Windows, you’re still better off using Boot Camp.
VMWare Fusion
The other main contender when it comes to running a virtual machine on your Mac is VMWare Fusion. Amt emulator 9.2 tutorial. It comes in two versions, Fusion 10, which costs about the same as Parallels Desktop, and Fusion 10 Pro, which is more expensive but adds feature aimed at enterprise customers, such as support for managing virtual servers.
In terms of features, there’s little to choose between Parallels Desktop and Fusion. Like its rival, Fusion allows you to choose between running Windows inside a window on your Mac (or full-screen if you prefer) and in what it calls Unity mode, where the operating system disappears and Windows apps look like they’re running natively on the Mac. That means you can run Windows and Mac apps alongside each other and switch between them seamlessly. You can also copy and paste between Mac and Windows, share peripherals, and map Mac keyboard shortcuts in Windows.
Support for OpenGL and DX10, as well as Apple’s Metal technology means that playing resource-hungry games is theoretically possible. But, as with Parallels, performance in the latest games lags behind Boot Camp and may prove frustrating.
The latest version of Fusion adds support for the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar.
Choosing between Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion may be as much a matter of a preference for one or the other’s user interface. They have very similar features, and cost almost the same. Fortunately, both offer free trials — Parallels for 14 days and Fusion for 30 days — so you can download each one and try them out before making a decision on which to buy.
Best free virtual machine software for Mac
If you want to run a virtual machine on your Mac but can’t stretch to the $70 for Parallels or Fusion, there is a third option — VirtualBox. Owned by Oracle and made available as open-source software for personal or educational use, VirtualBox won’t cost you a penny if you fall into either of those two categories.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that VirtualBox, because it’s open source and free lacks all of the polish of Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion. While it does the basics competently, it’s much less user friendly and much less easy to use than the other two. And while there is help available online from other users, there’s no official support if you run into problems. And remember, while VirtualBox itself is free, you’ll still need to supply your own copy of Windows. Alternatively, you could use VirtualBox to run Linux on your Mac, instead of Windows.
Alternatives to a virtual machine
As we mentioned earlier, the alternative to running a virtual machine on your Mac is to partition your main drive using the built-in Boot Camp Assistant (it’s in the Utilities folder). You can then install Windows or Linux, or another version on macOS, on the other partition.
Boot Camp Assistant is very easy to use and once you’ve set it up, booting into, say, Windows, is just like using it natively on a PC. That means, of course, that you won’t be able to copy and paste between Mac and Windows, and you won’t be able to use external storage that’s formatted in APFS or Mac OS Extended, but Windows will run faster than it does on a virtual machine.
If you plan to use Boot Camp Assistant to partition your main drive, remember to back it up first. Partitioning a drive is not quite major surgery, but it definitely carries the risk of losing data.
How to make space for a virtual machine on your Mac
Depending on how many applications you plan to install on your virtual machine and what you plan to use it for, you may need tens of gigabytes of free space on your Mac. If space is tight, don’t worry, there’s plenty you can do to make room. As a first step, we recommend installing CleanMyMac X. It scans your Mac and looks for files that can be safely deleted. These include “junk” system files like cache files and other temporary files that are still hanging around, as well as language support files, and data in Photos and iTunes you may not need. Once it’s scanned your Mac and found all those files, you can delete them all with a click, or review the results of the scan and decide for yourself what you want to trash.
CleanMyMac can also uninstall files completely, getting rid of all the files that are left if you just drag and app to the Trash, and highlight large and old files that you haven’t opened for a while. Best of all, you can download it free here and give it a try. You’ll be surprised about how much space you can free up.
Virtual machines are the most convenient way of running a second operating system on your Mac. The ones we have highlighted here are the best VMs for Mac, so download one and give it a go.
You can run MacOS in Virtualbox. Because? Because.
In the pursuit of Hackintosh, you need a Mac. That’s well and great, but I didn’t want to screw around with my partner’s Macbook. So what if you want to sandbox something? Virtualbox!
I had no expectations that this was going to work. OS X has always been runnable in Virtualbox for a while, but the performance has normally been lacklustre. While it’s not exactly daily-driver level, the performance in Virtualbox wasn’t too bad!
The macOS Virtualbox option is designed for genuine Apple hardware. You will not get community support from Virtualbox if you have trouble with this process, as it’s against Apple ToS.
VMware more your jam? We’ve got this working in there too.
🤔️ What do I need?
You need a donor Mac to start this process. You will not need access to it permanently, but just during the process of creating an ISO for your VM to setup with. Else, you need:
- A Mac to create an ISO with.
- MacOS Mojave installer from the Mac App Store.
- Virtualbox (Windows, Linux or MacOS).
- Virtualbox Extension Pack is required.
- At least 4GB of RAM (8GB or more recommended).
- 40GB of free disk space (more preferred).
- 2 core CPU or more.
This guide will discuss installing MacOS Mojave, however installation process should be similar for all MacOS versions.
⚠️ At the time of writing, Virtualbox and Hyper-V cannot co-exist on Windows. MacOS is also not installable on Hyper-V. I use Linux in my screenshots as I use Docker on Windows. This also includes Windows Subsystem for Linux, which tripped me up from installing.
💿 Creating the ISO
Virtualbox installs generally prefer to use an ISO file, which unfortunately will require some handiwork to get a hold of. Persevere and you will get there!
On the MacOS machine, download the Mojave installer. Don’t worry about actually running this application, as we’re going to use some terminal magic to build the ISO from the package.
This process is not affected by MacOS Installer expiry.If your MacOS installer has expired, you can continue with this guide.
Once the package has been downloaded, pop open Terminal (Utilities folder in Launcher), and run the following commands:
hdiutil create -o /tmp/Mojave.cdr -size 8000m -layout SPUD -fs JHFS+
This will create a virtual ‘disc’ stored in your temporary directory. This is what we’ll stuff the Mojave installation stuff into.
hdiutil attach /tmp/Mojave.cdr.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/installer_goes_here
Now MacOS can ‘see’ your disc as an actual disc, ready for writing to!
asr restore -source /Applications/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/SharedSupport/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/installer_goes_here -noprompt -noverify -erase
We’re now grabbing the installation DMG from within the updater package, and storing it within the disc image. This will rename the disc image, so don’t panic that ‘installer_goes_here’ has vanished.
Now, detach the image from our MacOS. You can just eject it like regular DMGs. If not, run the command:
hdiutil detach /Volumes/OS X Base System
(it may change since OS X is legacy. To check, run ls /Volumes and see if it’s there, renamed).
Now for the final process, let’s convert our CDR image to an ISO!
hdiutil convert /tmp/Mojave.cdr.dmg -format UDTO -o ~/Desktop/Mojave.iso
You should now have a file on the Mac desktop called ‘Mojave.iso’. Congratulations, you have your installation disc! Copy this over to where your Virtualbox is setup. The Mac is no longer needed at this point.
🛠️ Setting up Virtualbox
⚠️ Before continuing, install the Virtualbox Extension Pack, if you haven’t already. This comes with a special USB 3 driver that without, the Mac simply won’t see USB devices.
Virtualbox has the option for a MacOS virtual machine in it’s New VM dialog, but we will need to make further adjustments to make it truly Mac-ready.
Pop open Virtualbox, and Create a new Virtual Machine. Name this MacOS Mojave, and set it to Mac OS X (64-bit).
Set the RAM to 4096 MB (or higher if you can achieve it!).
When creating the disk, you can use either format versions. Dynamic will not immediately take up the storage size you chose, whereas Static immediately reserves the chosen size for the VM. The latter is slightly better for performance.
Now you should have a new, primed MacOS machine. But you will need to run some commands now. This can be hit-and-miss, and may require some Google-fu. The following works for my AMD FX computer:
Windows? Change VBoxManage to 'C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBoxVBoxManage.exe' (if you didn’t change your Virtualbox install location).
The above does the following, in order of command:
- Sets a known CPU ID set that MacOS will recognise.
- Especially for AMD machines, changes what MacOS sees as your processor to something it supports.
- Tells MacOS you’re installing Mojave onto a mid-2010 iMac. You can change this to your preference.
- These two specify a fake DMI, typically found in Apple PCs.
- A device key to pass system checks.
Before starting the VM, open the VM settings and make the following changes:
- System > Processor > Processor(s) is 2 or more.
- System > Acceleration > uncheck Enable Nested Paging.
- Display > Screen > Video Memory is 128MB.
- USB > USB 3.0 Controller.
- If greyed/not there, you did not install additions.
With all that done, we’re ready to start the VM!
You should be greeted with the following screen:
Click on the folder icon, and find your ISO created on the Mac before, then click Start.
And wait. yes, this process takes a long time. If your installation stops, try googling the last output message to see if there is a community fix, or post below… Otherwise, this is generally a slow process.
If all has gone well, you should be greeted by the MacOS installer language selection. If so, you’re almost there! On the top menu, open Utilities > Disk Utility.
There should be a disk named VBOX HARDDISK or similar. This is the VDI you created during the setup process, and not your actual hard drive. So go ahead and full-erase this disk, with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID Partition Map.
Once the disk formatting has completed, close it down. You should now be able to start the installation!
Once this is complete and you filled all the required details in, congratulations! You’re running MacOS Mojave within Virtualbox!
❓ What works?
✔️ Does
- Screen (No 3D).
- Regular input methods (mouse sharing).
- Networking.
- USB devices.
- Mac App Store.
Mac Virtual Desktop
At the end of the day it’s still a virtual machine, and a technically unsupported one at that. However, considering the matter it’s still impressive how Virtualbox can cope with MacOS.
Files can be shared using typical Windows share features. If you share a folder on your network from your host machine, your Mac VM should be able to connect to it.
🌟 Special Thanks
This required a lot of Googling, and these are the people who saved me at the end of the process!
- This How-to Geek article, that started this whole process. They have a much better step-by-step guide on this!
- Forchia on Reddit for a different instruction set.
- miranhasan on Reddit for AMD processors.
- kvotheV on Reddit for disabling nested paging.
🐛 Troubleshooting
This is a difficult one, and will require investigation. I checked the logs as the error message said, and discovered:
HM: HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM: AMD-V is not available
If you’re on an Intel processor, it’ll likely say VT-x instead.Obviously, check if this is enabled. If you’re on a legacy BIOS computer, it’s a straightfoward scan for AMD-V/VT-x in your settings. If it’s UEFI, you’re gonna have to Google it.
Strangely, on my machine it was enabled. Supposedly Virtualbox and Hyper-V can run side-by-side, so at this point I decided to remove Hyper-V, to see if that would improve. It didn’t, but I forgot something. For this to work, you must turn off Windows Subsystem for Linux!
I completely forgot that WSL uses Hyper-V, and apparently still does when it’s disabled. Unfortunately, it would seem (for me at least) you need to trade it off for macOS in Virtualbox.
Virtual Mac online, free Stream
I will retest this when WSL2 is launched.