How to open Windows applications on Mac. Mac Emulator: Run Mac OS on Windows

In most cases, OS X users are quite satisfied with the existing set of software for this system. What to do when the required application is developed exclusively for the more popular Windows system? There are several ways to run a Windows program on a Mac computer in OS X.

There are three such ways:

BootCamp

Boot Camp is a program included with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that allows you to install and use a compatible version of Microsoft Windows on your Intel-based Mac. (Apple)

Apple introduced BootCamp in 2006, after Macs switched to Intel processors. For the sake of historical justice, we note that it was possible to run Windows applications on the Macintosh before: for this, an expensive expansion card was installed on the Macintosh. For obvious reasons, this solution was not popular.

Before you create an additional partition on your Mac's hard drive, back up your computer's contents using Time Machine, then launch BootCamp Assistant (located in Programs - Utilities) and follow the instructions.

The solution is not ideal, but the main thing is that the Mac turns into a Windows computer. This means that the Microsoft system will work at maximum speed.

Disadvantages of BootCamp:

1. A complete reboot of the Mac is required to start Windows. To select an operating system (OS X or Windows) during boot, press and hold the Option (Alt) key.
2. Partitions (logical drives) created in Windows are not visible in OS X and vice versa. Why? Windows does not understand the HFS+ file system that OS X works with, and the latter does not work with NTFS by default. Using additional utilities like Tuxera NTFS, you can add NTFS compatibility (read and write) to OS X.
3. BootCamp only installs certain versions of Windows. So, only Windows 8 with all its inconveniences.

BootCamp is suitable when there is no need to load two operating systems at the same time and you need maximum performance. For example, it may be useful for gamers: after working in OS X, they restarted the computer and launched their favorite game in Windows.

Windows Emulator

This method is only good for running one or two Windows programs in OS X. It provides fairly high performance and there is no need to install an additional system.

Using Wineskin and CrossOver, you can try to run software that is not compatible with OS X. Just give it a try, since this trick doesn’t always work: even if successful, problems with stability may arise.

Beginner users may encounter problems, since working with the emulator requires certain knowledge. Nothing complicated, information is easy to find on the Internet, but given the fact that there are other methods, this method cannot be called elegant.

Virtual machine

Virtual machine(VM, from English. virtual machine) is a software and/or hardware system that emulates the hardware of a certain platform (in our case, OS X) and executes programs for the target platform (Windows). (Wikipedia)

The best solution when you need two systems at the same time, or need to switch between them frequently. For example, for developers. When running Windows in a virtual machine, there is no need to restart the Mac, and files from different partitions can simply be dragged and dropped from one window to another. In addition to Windows, you can install any modern operating system in a virtual machine, with the exception of outright exotic ones.

To deploy an operating system (one or more) that is not supported by a Mac, you must install a virtual machine (program) in OS X. There are quite a few similar programs: Parallels Desktop, Vmware Fusion and Virtual Box. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but in any case there is plenty to choose from.

Separately, I would like to mention Virtual Box from Oracle. This program has one important advantage - it is free, while competitors cost a lot of money: Parallels Desktop - from $79; Vmware Fusion - from $150. A free virtual machine has performance problems and even frequent lags are inevitable. Virtual Box is an excellent solution if you only need Windows for a couple of undemanding utilities.

After creating a virtual machine (installing the program and configuring the machine), you can begin installing the system. It is important that this can be done directly from a bootable flash drive connected in a virtual machine via a virtual USB port. Also, Windows can be installed from an ISO image.

Disadvantages of virtual machines:

1. Limited performance - Virtual machines suck up a share of the Mac's hardware power.
2. When you connect an external device to a Mac, it is not available in the virtual machine (it is connected in a separate menu).

What to choose?

The answer to this question depends on your needs. If you only need a single application, using BootCamp is not advisable because you need to restart your computer. In this case, it is easier to run Windows in an emulator. A virtual machine allows you to install different operating systems and easily switch between them - ideal for developers creating cross-platform applications.

Well, if you need high performance (for gamers), then BootCamp will be ideal.

P.S.: Some virtual machines are capable of running Windows installed using BootCamp.

Even the most ardent OS X fans sometimes need to take advantage of the “enemy” Windows. There are different situations: from the need to use banking clients and corporate software to launching games. There are many ways to run applications written for Windows, using both third-party tools and proprietary Apple solutions.

Conventionally, they can be divided into three categories: a full installation of Windows, the use of virtual machines and emulators of the Windows software environment. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages, so we will look at them all so that you can choose the one that is most convenient for you.

Installing Windows using Boot Camp

Especially for those unfortunates who are unable to break all ties with Windows, Apple created the “Boot Camp Assistant” utility, with which you can prepare your Mac for installing Windows and, in fact, install it. In this case, a separate partition is created on the disk, allowing both operating systems to work independently of each other.

You will need 50 GB of free space and a Windows boot disk. The installation process itself is very simple, you just need to follow the wizard's prompts and wait for completion. After the reboot, you will have a full-fledged version of Windows at your disposal, just like on a regular PC. All you have to do is install the necessary applications or games - and you can use it. You can find out more about the requirements and supported versions.

Benefits of Boot Camp

• Performance. Since all the resources of the Mac are used by only one OS, we get maximum performance.
• Compatibility. Thanks to full-fledged Windows, full compatibility with any applications and games is ensured.

Disadvantages of Boot Camp

• Need to reboot. To start Windows, you will have to restart your Mac every time.
• Lack of integration. Windows does not support the HFS+ file system, which means you won’t be able to access OS X files from it, and vice versa.

Using virtual machines

This method has much in common with the previous one, but is slightly different in implementation. With it we also get a full-fledged OS, but it is installed not on real hardware, but on virtual one. Special software (virtual machine) emulates the hardware platform for running Windows, taking away some of the Mac's resources, and it turns out that one OS runs inside another.

Parallels Desktop

Perhaps the most popular virtual machine among Mac users. Parallels is regularly updated, always works with the latest versions of OS X and Windows, and has additional features such as hybrid mode, when the OS X and Windows interfaces are simultaneously displayed on the screen, and applications run regardless of their ownership. In addition, the program can launch Windows from Boot Camp partitions, which is convenient if you need to access any applications or data without rebooting.

The disadvantage of the program is that Parallels is not free. The junior version will cost you $79.99.

VMware Fusion

Another commercial solution for OS virtualization. The key feature of VMware Fusion is the sharing wizard, which allows you to transfer the entire environment from your Windows PC to a virtual machine and continue using applications on your Mac. Installed Windows shares a clipboard with OS X, as well as access to files and network resources. Its applications are fully integrated with OS X features (Spotlight, Mission Control, Exposé). In addition, it supports running Windows from the Boot Camp partition.

VMware Fusion costs 6,300 rubles, but before purchasing you can explore its capabilities in a free trial version.

If your plans do not include additional expenses for running Windows applications, then your choice is Oracle. Compared to paid analogues, it has much fewer capabilities, but is quite suitable for simple tasks. You shouldn't count on integration with OS X system functions, but basic things like a shared clipboard and access to network resources are available here. The free nature of VirtualBox fully justifies all of its limitations.

Benefits of virtual machines

• Simultaneous operation of two operating systems. You don't need to restart your Mac to run Windows apps.
• File sharing. Since Windows runs inside OS X, file system support is not an issue.

Disadvantages of Virtual Machines

• Poor performance. Because Mac resources are shared between the two operating systems, application performance is significantly slower, especially on older computers.
• Compatibility issues. Some applications (most often games) that require direct access to hardware may not work correctly or not work at all.

Using emulators

With emulators, everything is completely different than with virtual machines and Boot Camp. More precisely, they have something in common with virtual machines, only they do not emulate Windows as a whole, but only those of its software components that are necessary for the operation of the desired application. We will not have a full-fledged OS and access to its functions: we get a certain compatibility layer that allows us to run a Windows application directly in the OS X environment.

All emulators work on the same principle. The installation of the application is initialized via setup.exe, and then during its process the necessary launch parameters are configured and the necessary libraries are automatically loaded. After this, an application icon appears on Launchpad, which will work in the same way as all native OS X programs.

WineBottler

This emulator can turn an .EXE file into an OS X compatible application. WineBottler also allows you to automatically load some already configured Windows applications. It is completely free and compatible with OS X El Capitan.

Wineskin

Another emulator, which, like the previous one, uses the Wine libraries to create ports. Compared to the previous solution, Wineskin has more settings and allows you to fine-tune the parameters. We talked in detail about its setup and use in.

CrossOver

A commercial emulator whose development team has already adapted and configured many popular Windows applications and games for you. CrossOver has a friendly interface and eliminates the need to delve into settings and deal with possible errors. The only negative is that it is paid. The license costs $20.95, but there is a 14-day trial period.

Advantages of emulators

• No Windows license required. Emulators run applications through a compatibility layer, so a licensed copy of the OS is not needed.
• Performance. Again, due to the savings in resources that are spent on running full-fledged Windows in virtual machines, we get higher performance compared to them.

Disadvantages of emulators

• Difficulty setting up. To use Windows applications, you first need to configure them, and this is not always easy, especially with games.
• Compatibility issues. In some cases, applications (usually resource-intensive ones) may not work correctly or not work at all.

What to choose

What to choose in the end from such a variety? There is no clear answer to this question. In each specific case you need to build on your needs, but in general the recommendations are as follows.

• Boot Camp Suitable primarily for gamers, as well as those users who need maximum performance and compatibility with software. We reboot the Mac and we get a full-fledged Windows computer.
• Virtual machines will help out in cases where you need both OSs at the same time. We sacrifice performance, but avoid reboots and get good integration.
• Emulators Can only be recommended for simple tasks and infrequent use. For example, when you need to use a bank client a couple of times a month or occasionally feel nostalgic in your favorite game.

Choose the most suitable option for yourself, and in the comments tell us for what needs you use Windows applications on your Mac and how you launch them.

Most software is developed for the Microsoft environment and is compatible with this operating system. Of course, there are analogues, but not for all applications, especially specialized ones. To install Windows programs on a Mac, special utilities have been developed that allow you to run them with almost no loss of power.

In this article we will look at one of the most popular free utilities for launching software for Microsoft - Wine. She has the following main advantages:

- widespread
- free
- ability to work with incompatible software in OS X
- performance comparable to installing a separate Windows via Boot camp.

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The disadvantages include:

- ability to run a small amount of software
- glitches and errors
- not a very friendly interface compared to its paid counterpart.

Operating principle- approximately like a translator from a foreign language, i.e. commands from another operating system are translated into a language understandable for Mac. Of course, as with regular text translation, inaccuracies arise, because Different languages ​​have different meanings for words, and some words have no translation at all. Similarly, when installing Windows applications on a Mac, errors may occur due to the impossibility of translating some commands. That is why, with the help of Wine and similar utilities, you can only run a small number of applications without glitches and errors.

How to launch:

In this article we will use the most popular free utility WineBottler, developed based on Wine to run on OS X.

What to do:

We type WineBottler in the search engine and download it; at the time of writing, you could download it from here winebottler.kronenberg.org, install it.

Then you need to download and install X11(X Windows System) on your mac, because... it is not included in OS X Lion. X11 is part of the XQuartz software developed by Apple to support the X Windows System. So, type XQuartz in the search, and download or from here xquartz.macosforge.org.

Everything is almost ready. Go to the application with the .exe extension, right-click and select “Open in Wine”.

Upon startup, a window will appear showing the path to unpack the software, in our case, this is the folder "/Users/Alexandr/Wine Files/". This directory contains the "drive_c" folder - an analogue of the c: drive in Windows. Click "Go".

We get the standard procedure for installing software on Windows; we also do not forget that drive C: is located in the folder “/Users/Alexandr/Wine Files/”, in our case, this is where the files are copied during installation with standard parameters and they must be launched from there in the future.

No matter how good Mac OS is, it is still inferior to Windows in one important thing - the number and variety of software. Sometimes there are situations when you just can’t do without some terribly specific program for which there are no analogues in our favorite OS. What should a devout poppy grower do in this situation?

First of all, don’t get upset or scared, because there are at least three ways to solve this problem. Let's look at them one by one.

Boot Camp

It’s not for nothing that Apple is famous for its attention to users, which is why Mac OS X has a built-in program that allows you to easily and quickly install Windows on your Mac. Yes, yes, install Windows. In this case, the operating system from Microsoft will be “next to” your Mac OS (or maybe even replace it completely - but this is an extreme option for ardent haters of the Apple operating system) and in order to gain access to it you will have to restart the computer.

This method is not very convenient if you only need to run Windows programs briefly or work with several applications at the same time, only one of which is not made for Mac OS. But this method will allow you to get maximum performance from your computer or laptop and is therefore ideal for running resource-intensive applications. Such as, for example, games.

In order to use this method, you will need little: just a windows disk. The installation is as simple and straightforward as possible: you need to launch the Boot Camp Assistant, which is located at , after which you will be asked to set the amount of disk space that you will give to Windows. After which you will be asked to insert the Windows CD into the drive and you will proceed with the normal installation of this operating system. It’s very nice that Boot Camp Assistant will download and install all the necessary drivers. After which you only need to reboot and now, you are already working in the good old (or not so good) Windows.

Pros:

• All applications will launch
• Maximum performance

Cons:

• Need to reboot

Virtual Box - virtual machine

A virtual machine is a kind of computer inside a computer. It is created (it is correct to say “emulated”) using special software. This method is good because it does not require reboots, however, it also has certain pitfalls: your computer will have to simultaneously support two operating systems, so the speed of both may noticeably decrease.

There are several virtual machines available for Mac OS X. These are paid VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop and free Virtual Box. There are actually more, but these three are the main ones.

The Windows installation process for any of the listed programs is approximately similar. We will consider the option with free Virtual Box. First, let's create a new virtual machine. To do this, you need to launch Virtual Box and click the New button. Next, you need to enter the name of the virtual machine and indicate which OS you want to install there. After that, on one of the screens you will be asked to set the amount of RAM that you want to give to the guest system. Another sticky point can be specifying the maximum size of the data file that your virtual machine will use - this file will be its hard drive.

After the setup is completed, we will see the created virtual machine in the main program window. In order to install Windows there, you need to run it for the first time. Then, using a convenient wizard, specify where the installation will be made from (either a disk with a recorded OS or a disk image on a hard drive will do). After which you can install Windows the same way as on a regular computer.

Pros:

• No need to reboot
• All programs work

Cons:

• On weak machines, the simultaneous operation of two operating systems can cause “brakes” for both

Wine

This method consists in the fact that a special emulator program runs a Windows application within itself and “translates” the commands it sends to the OS into a language understandable for Mac OS X, and translates the responses received from it into a language understandable to the program.

This approach will not require either reboots or the installation of a full-fledged Windows and works faster than the option with virtual machines - it would seem that it is free of the shortcomings that are relevant for the first two methods. However, not everything is so rosy. Unfortunately, not all programs will work correctly with this approach: some may not even start, and some may glitch during operation. However, emulator programs are constantly being improved, expanding the list of supported applications. Therefore, if the program you need is not too complicated, then you can safely try to run it in an emulator.

The two most common Windows emulation programs are CrossOver and Wine. The first is paid, and the second is distributed free of charge and migrated to us thanks to the roots of Mac OS X, which grow from Unix.

Installing Wine

We will use the free option again. To install, we will need XCode (you can download it from the Mac App Store for free) and the Mac Ports program, which can also be downloaded from the Internet for free, as well as a terminal that is already installed on your system and is located at /Programs/Utilities/.

Once you have installed XCode and MacPorts, open a terminal and type:

sudo port install wine-devel

which will install the latest version of Wine on your Mac (you will need to enter your password). Please be patient, the installation process may take quite some time.

After the installation is complete, you can safely use this program. In order to run the exe file, you need to open a terminal and write in it

wine (leave a space after this word and do not press enter)

after that, drag the file from the finder window into the terminal window (the path to the file will be inserted there) and press enter. It is important not to close the terminal window until you are finished with your program.

Pros:

• Decent program speed
• No need to reboot

Cons:

• Not all programs will work properly

If you use Apple Mac, iMac or MacBook that run on the Mac OS X operating system, you will not be able to run most programs and applications that are written only for Microsoft Windows operating system. What to do if you still need to run some apps or games Windows, which are not available for the platform Mac OS X? In reality, Mac provides users with multiple options.

Users Mac can download and install Apple Boot Camp Windows, For Mac OS X and they will work on the machine Mac dual boot. Other options Microsoft Virtual PC, which creates a virtual machine (VM) emulating the base Windows machines And Parallels Desktop For Mac. How to install Windows, as a guest operating system in a logical partition with Mac OS X, so what would Windows worked together with Mac OS X through emulation or virtualization.
Now you have another option to run Windows programs and applications on Apple Mac OS X, without the need to install a dual boot utility Apple Boot Camp, or any virtual PC and virtual machine virtualization software. CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac is a program that allows users to install and run many Windows programs, games and applications for the operating system Mac OS X on computers MacIntel. CrossOver Mac based on an open source project Wine, which does not emulate, but reuses Win32 API implementations to run Windows applications natively to the target OS. So for launching applications Windows x86 compatible processors (such as Intel or AMD processors) are required, and this explains why CrossOver Mac only supports Intel Macintosh computers, but with the advantage that applications, games and programs will initially run at full speed.

WITH CrossOver Mac, users can handle MacIntel as with a regular PC with Windows operating system. Users can use regular software installation CDs Windows, click the button and launch the application directly from Finder OS X and run the appropriate program for Windows by clicking on the file Windows, or document, including email attachments, so you can work on them directly. CrossOver Mac best of all, operating system licenses Microsoft Windows not required. CrossOver Mac is now available as a free download as a limited-time beta version that expires after 60 days. If you want a free version of the utility that works for Windows applications on Mac OS X, you can use the application Wine, which is created based on CrossOver Mac. Nevertheless, Wine does not support itself Mac OS X. Instead, you can download and install , as well as other supporting tools that allow you to Mac OS X users run Windows applications, without windows, and also provide compatibility with the Win32 API at the application level of the source code. In addition, with Bochs you can run applications for Windows x86 on Mac OS X on PowerPC (PPC). Darwine is still in development, and perliminary files for PowerPC And x86 Macintosh free to download on the Internet.

One of the disadvantages CrossOver Mac and Darwine (Wine), is that not all applications, programs and games are supported. Many applications and games were supported, such as Quicken, Microsoft Project 2000 and 2003, Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Visio 2000, 2002 (XP) and 2003, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0, Lotus Notes R5 and Adobe Photoshop 7.0.