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Other than a few interesting years in the mid-2000s, Apple’s approach to the enterprise market has been one of benign neglect. The one exception, starting in 2005, has been consistent support for running Windows on Macs.
By now, the practice is well-established. But the issue of management still looms large. How can IT deploy Macs that run Windows without multiplying the complexity (and cost) of deployment, maintenance and security by at least a factor of two? The enterprise question that vendors are now addressing in a variety of interesting ways is, “How can we make Macs running Windows securely maintainable components of the IT infrastructure and ecosystem?” Related: Windows on Mac works, and can work well. The most relevant question for enterprises is which Windows-on-Mac virtualization options offer:.
The best overall integration. The lowest TCO, including maintenance and security. Good usability. End-user satisfaction How we tested running Windows on a Mac Apple test beds in our lab include a variety of Mac desktops and laptops (and even a few Xserve servers), but most cross-product benchmark testing for this review was done using fully upgraded 2012 Mac Pro towers as a reference platform. Though getting a little long in the tooth, they are quite fast, rock-solid and standards-compliant, and unlike more recent Macs, the hardware can be swapped, modified and expanded as needed (CPUs, RAM, storage, standard PCIe graphics and expansion cards, etc.). The primary Windows drives on the test platforms are on mSATA or M.2 SSDs run from a PCIe expansion card to maximize throughput and performance, but we also run baseline tests with virtual machines stored on standard 5,400rpm rotating drives to make sure performance is still acceptable with low-end hardware. I tested five Windows-on-Mac options in our lab — currently shipping versions of Apple’s Boot Camp, CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac, Oracle VirtualBox, VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop.
They vary in cost, complexity and feature sets, and my perceptions of their pros and cons might help you decide which will be best for your circumstances. I will follow up in coming weeks with a deeper look at VMware Fusion’s upcoming version 10 and Parallels’ recently released Desktop 13.
To comment on this story, visit. Performance isn’t the issue Using a basket of benchmarks covering CPU, graphics and sample workflow measurements, performance was simply not a key differentiator in these tests. All of the products we tested are mature and stable, and aside from the natural differences between Boot Camp and the rest (native hardware support vs.
Virtualization or emulation — discussed further below), the average performance difference between products in most circumstances was 10% or less. That is not to say there are not quantifiable performance differences, but rather that all of the products I looked at (sometimes with a little tweaking of virtual machine settings) can do what needs to be done with reasonable and effective speed — as long as what you want to do isn’t to play 4K-resolution twitch games at 60fps, that is.
Virtualization always incurs processing overhead, and it will never be as fast as native, non-virtualized instances — which brings us to the first option, Boot Camp. Apple’s Boot Camp was the first supported option allowing Mac users to run Windows on Macs, and if you need to get the absolute maximum speed out of your Mac hardware while running Windows, Boot Camp is still the way to go. A Mac running Windows via Boot Camp will perform at pretty much the same speed as a dedicated Windows machine with equivalent hardware specs — in fact, Macs have often made great higher-end Windows machines, and compatibility is usually not an issue (as long as Apple supports the version of Windows you need; see below). A big drawback with Boot Camp, however, is that every switch between Windows and macOS requires a complete reboot, which gets frustrating if you have to do it a lot.
There can also be compatibility issues when accessing files on NTFS-formatted Windows drives from the Mac side — though third-party drivers are available, such as those from, that bridge that gap. And the new APFS drive format used in High Sierra is going to raise similar compatibility issues, at least until Apple or a third party comes up with a fix for reading APFS drives from Windows. Even an individual machine can be difficult to set up with Boot Camp, and of course a large, heterogeneous enterprise deployment will be more so.
Adding stand-alone, unmanaged copies of Windows to your environment via Boot Camp may not be advisable from a security or manageability perspective. Apple’s Boot Camp Assistant program, used to install Windows on an individual Mac, is certainly usable and does the job, but it’s not always the easiest program to work with, especially if you have a complicated hardware setup. (To be fair, this can at times have as much to do with how Microsoft’s Windows installers handle things such as multiple drives and drive formatting/partitioning options as it does with Apple’s installation process.) Expert users (and IT staff) should have no problem, but those used to fairly seamless and simple Mac installations may find it far from intuitive. And there is the fact that the combination of your hardware, the installed operating system version (macOS) and the version of Windows you want to run (especially if it’s an older version) might not be supported. The current version of Boot Camp (6.1) shipping with macOS Sierra (10.12) does not support installation of versions of Windows earlier than 8.1, so the newest Macs are not officially supported to install Windows 7 at all.
The cutoff date for Windows 7 support for most Macs is 2014 — most Macs from that date or earlier can use older versions of Apple’s Boot Camp software (version 4 or 5) to install Windows 7, but more recent Macs will officially support Windows 8.1 or 10 only via Boot Camp 6. Don’t panic, though. If the combination of hardware and operating system you want is not officially supported, there is almost always a fairly simple workaround. For instance, while Boot Camp 6.1, which installs Windows 10, is not supported for my Mac Pro 5,1 (2012) test platform, Windows 10 can still be installed and works without a hitch — just without official support from Apple.
Clearly, one of the advantages of deploying virtualized Windows on Macs as opposed to using Boot Camp is that you don’t have to deal with any of these issues — your virtualization program should handle all of these complexities for you, allowing deployment of any version of Windows you need on whatever Mac hardware you have. Furthermore, a number of the virtualization solutions either include or can be integrated with tools to help with the creation, migration and deployment of standardized VMs, greatly simplifying large-scale implementation and support. That said, using Boot Camp to run Windows on Macs provides unmatched bare-metal performance and has the additional advantage of being free (not including the cost of the Windows licenses).
So for both speed and cost, Boot Camp is the baseline. At a glance Apple Boot Camp Pros: Free (Windows licenses are extra); great performance Cons: Switching requires reboot; compatibility issues; non-intuitive setup Best fit: Individual or small groups of users who don’t need to switch between OSs often, or who require maximum performance (Wine 2.0) CodeWeavers released the first version of CrossOver Mac in early 2007, providing a Windows compatibility layer based on the Wine open-source project. Basically, CrossOver Mac is a commercial version of Wine with a variety of enhancements and end-user support. Richard Hoffman/IDG CrossOver Mac (and Wine) runs individual Windows programs directly in macOS, inside a container called a “bottle,” acting as a kind of translator between the Windows API calls and macOS. In short, you can run (some) Windows apps with CrossOver Mac without having to have a copy of Windows installed. This is an entirely different approach from Boot Camp, which assists in running a full copy of Windows directly on Mac hardware, and from the three other virtualization products in this review, which run an entire “guest operating system” (in this case Windows) within a VM.
The catch (and you knew there had to be one) is that CrossOver Mac does not support all Windows programs, and those it does support are not always supported perfectly. CodeWeavers shoots for supporting as many of the most popular Windows programs as possible, and it currently supports nearly 15,000. It maintains an online inventory of programs that have been tested and either do or do not work (or work with bugs or workarounds), with a. But of course there are a lot more than 15,000 Windows programs. For those programs that do work, however, performance can be very reasonable, especially on faster machines. This means that if you have a relatively small and defined set of Windows programs that you need to run on Macs, CrossOver Mac might be a good fit, but researching the compatibility database and doing thorough hands-on testing prior to implementation are essential.
CodeWeavers conveniently provides a 14-day free trial to allow time for testing before deciding whether to commit to a purchase. Installation of a single Windows app into a CrossOver Mac bottle is fairly simple and straightforward using the included installer, though perhaps it’s not something a typical business user would casually attempt. Once running, the Windows app appears on the Mac desktop without the surrounding interface (or overhead) of the full Windows operating system. CrossOver Mac Version 16 supports Windows apps going back to Windows 98, and all the way up to 64-bit Windows 10. Pricing for CrossOver Mac depends on several options: a one-time purchase of the current version is $39.95 per copy. For $59.95 you get the current version, one year of free upgrades, and a single support call (phone support can also be purchased as needed for $19.95). A one-year plan can be renewed at a 50% discount.
Finally, there is a lifetime license option (perpetual upgrades, unlimited email and phone support) for $499.95 per seat. The standard one-year subscription is periodically substantially discounted, so watching for discounts (or negotiating for volume licensing) can provide cost savings. The next version, CrossOver Mac 17, is due to be released this autumn and will be built on Wine 2.8, will be compatible with macOS 10.13 (High Sierra) and will support Microsoft Office 2016 (which the current version does not). At a glance CrossOver Mac 16.2.5 Pros: Simple; small footprint; low cost; no need for Windows licenses Cons: Supports only some Windows applications; minimal management tools 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 is the odd duck in this list, in a way.
Having been acquired by Sun Microsystems in 2008 (which then became part of Oracle in 2010), it’s a commercially supported, open-source project (somewhat like CrossOver Mac), but it’s a well-respected, major virtualization product (like VMware). And it has some of the pros and cons of each. Richard Hoffman/IDG VirtualBox can do almost anything the commercial products can do, and the price (for the core package) is right. It has an extensive list of supported operating systems and enthusiastic online forums. Developers tend to love VirtualBox, partly because the core product is free and open source, so it’s a good choice for a pilot project, or if you have a bunch of in-house developers who can adopt the project and make it part of their area of expertise. But compared to the offerings from VMware and Parallels, VirtualBox is less polished and less easy to use. It’s a little clunky, lags a bit in speed and is lacking in some features.
From an enterprise perspective, unless you can devote significant resources to it, you may be better off with one of the other options. At a glance VirtualBox 5.1.26 Pros: Cheap.
Advertisement While many Windows systems come bloated with crap you will never need or want, Mac OS X provides these following gems., but there’s no denying that Windows software is widespread. Thus, many Mac users find themselves needing to run Windows-only apps from time to time. Maybe you need to use a specific piece of software that only runs on Windows, or just Thinking about switching over to a Mac? It's easy to find faults with Windows. But are you aware of the things you'll miss? Whatever the case, you have options for running Windows programs on your Mac.
Here’s an overview of them all, plus our favorite method that will suit most people. Virtual Machines The term 'virtual' has been co-opted in so many ways. Virtual reality. Virtual schools.
But Virtualization in the context of PCs can be confusing. We're here to clear it up. inside a piece of software.
The virtual OS thinks it’s running on a real computer, but you have full control over it thanks to the virtualization software. On macOS, you’ll find three big VM names:,. Want to run Windows apps on your Mac? Parallels Desktop can have your Windows 10 installation up and running in under 10 seconds., especially for beginners.
You don’t have to configure anything or even download Windows yourself during the setup — the software does it all for you. Coherence mode lets you run Windows apps right alongside Mac apps, even pinning them to your Dock, and get Windows out of the way. Indeed, Parallels has surged ahead of VMware Fusion. The biggest downside is the cost.
Parallels costs $80, while VirtualBox is free. However, VirtualBox requires you to perform the setup yourself. It also isn’t quite as smooth as Parallels, since the latter was specifically designed for macOS. With VirtualBox you can easily install and test multiple operating systems. We'll show you how to set up Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux as a virtual machine. Will help you if you decide to try it, though.
We recommend giving the a try and deciding if it’s worth the cost to you. If you don’t want to pay, VirtualBox is your best bet for having a copy of Windows at the ready. Thankfully, you can Regardless of how you arrived at Windows 10, there's a way to create your own installation media. Sooner or later you might need it. Let us show you how to be prepared. And use it without having to even activate the OS. Opening a virtual machine doesn’t require you to reboot your PC.
Running Windows programs alongside Mac apps is a breeze. Parallels offers an impressively smooth experience. You can scale how much space the virtual hard drive uses.
Cons. Parallels is expensive. VM graphics performance is poor so this isn’t a good solution for playing Windows games on your Mac.
VirtualBox takes a bit of tinkering to set up. Older Macs might not have enough resources to keep a VM running smoothly. Boot Camp While virtual machines let you run a copy of Windows inside software, Boot Camp lets you install Windows right onto your Mac. Also known as dual-booting, this lets you run Windows and macOS side by side on one hard drive. The Boot Camp Assistant in macOS walks you through the entire process.
This will partition your hard drive and install Windows so you can reboot into it. We’ve covered Microsoft offers a simple tool to create a bootable USB on Windows, but there is no such tool for Mac users. Fortunately the process is pretty easy, if you know how.
And While Mac OS X works well for most tasks, there are times when it just can't do what you want it to. More often than not this means running Windows on your Mac. If you decide to go with this method. Undecided between Windows and Linux? It's possible to run multiple OSes on a single machine either by dual booting or using a virtual machine. Let's find out which one is best for you. With Boot Camp is that you can’t run Windows and Mac programs side-by-side.
Whenever you need Windows, you’ll need to restart your Mac and boot into Windows. However, this leads to better performance than a virtual machine, because Windows can utilize all of your machine’s resources.
Pros. No additional cost. Offers the best performance for running games and other intensive Windows software.
Cons. You must reboot every time you want to access Windows programs. Can take up a good bit of disk space. Wine Both of the above solutions involve actually using the Windows OS to run Windows programs. But Wine is different. It’s a Is there any way to get Windows software working on Linux? One answer is to use Wine, but while it can be very useful, it probably should only be your last resort.
On macOS and Linux. Wine is a lighter solution than an installation of Windows, if you just need to use a program or two. But it doesn’t come without its own set of problems. Wine isn’t guaranteed to work with all programs. Some may work perfectly, while others will crash or fail to run at all. You can check the to see if your preferred apps will work.
Another problem is that the vanilla Wine program requires some tweaking that will likely confuse new users. The best way to, which adds some much-needed conveniences. Download WineBottler and open the DMG file when complete. In the resulting window, drag and drop both the Wine and WineBottler icons to your Applications folder just like you’d install other software. Launch WineBottler, and you’ll see some programs that you can install right away, Is it possible to run the flagship Microsoft browser on an OSX machine? Read on to find out. To open other Windows programs, download them as EXE files Many software download sites are loaded with malware.
Here are some free software download sites you can trust. Right-click and choose Open With Wine and Wine can run them directly.
Remember that not all programs will work under Wine, so you may have to Wine gives Linux users the the ability to run Windows software and can aid in switching operating systems. But it isn't, so what can you do to ensure your Windows software runs in Linux? If one fails. Wine is best if you need to run a Windows program or two and is worth keeping around for those times. But if you need to run many Windows programs, you’re better off with another method. Pros. Free and fast install.
Some common Windows software works out of the box. Doesn’t require installing Windows. Cons. Not guaranteed to work with all software. Even supported programs may have problems.
CrossOver is a paid tool that’s based on Wine. It features a solid user interface, allowing you to simply type the name of the Windows software you want to install and handles it all for you.
Since it’s commercial software, you can also ask the developers about adding support for a new piece of software if you’re a subscriber. But compared to your other options here, CrossOver really doesn’t offer the best package for most people’s needs. If you need to run several Windows programs, you’re better off with using a VM. Boot Camp will give you better performance for games, and Wine is free for testing one-off programs. At $40 minimum for CrossOver, we recommend skipping this one. Pros.
Marginally better support and interface than WineBottler. Focuses on supporting popular programs. Cons. Cost is a lot to pay when WineBottler is free.
Based on Wine, so may still have bugs. Not great for running lots of Windows software. Remote Access If none of the above solutions work for you, why not attack the problem in a different way?
Those who have a Windows computer already can simply use a remote control software to access Windows from their Mac. Is a free and powerful remote control tool that will do this job just fine. If you use Chrome, Need to remotely control your PC from another device? Struggling with RDP, or services like LogMeIn? Well, we have the solution: Google Chrome! Let's find out how to remote control a PC with Chrome. All you need to do is install your chosen tool on both your Mac and Windows PC, sign into your account on both machines, and you can access your Windows computer whenever you need to.
Depending on your internet connection you may experience some latency, and keyboard shortcuts may cause a bit of confusion. High-intensity programs like games aren’t ideal over a remote connection, either. But if you just want to perform an action in Windows or need access to a specific program, remote access is easy and free. Pros. Free and easy to set up. Doesn’t take up space on your Mac.
Windows programs are guaranteed to work since they’re running on a Windows machine. Cons. Requires you to have a Windows PC that’s always on. A poor internet connection can hamper the experience. It’s hard to use demanding programs over a remote connection. Don’t Forget Web Apps While you can’t run Windows apps through your browser, it’s worth mentioning that so much software is available online and doesn’t require an install.
No matter if you’re using macOS, Linux, or Chrome OS, these tools all work through any browser. If you prefer Microsoft Office to the iWork suite, you can Office Online is the free and cloud-connected version of Microsoft Office. Limitations are compensated by features, useful even to users of desktop Office. Best of all is its.
You need batch editing tools when you have lots of photos to process and very little time. We introduce you to the best batch resizers, optimizers, or converters available online. Offer an alternative to Windows apps like Paint.NET. And Collaborating online can save you and your team both time and money.
Collaborating quickly can save a bit more. These tools are ready to go when you are. No registration required. Let you communicate with others without anyone installing software. These give you a way to run alternative software if you don’t like the Mac offering available. The Easiest Way to Run Windows Programs on a Mac We’ve taken a look at the five most common ways to run Windows software on your Mac. But which is the easiest?
As it turns out Unless you’re playing games, running a virtual machine is the best way for most people to access Windows software on macOS. Using a virtual machine lets you open Windows software alongside Mac apps, all without rebooting your Mac. And it’s more reliable than Wine. Whether you should use Parallels or Virtualbox for your VM depends on your needs. If you don’t mind paying, aren’t comfortable with setting up your own VM, or want the absolute best experience, go with Parallels. Those who have some experience with VMs or don’t have extra money to spend will do fine with Virtualbox. Or Parallels if you don't mind paying every year for the upgrade to keep everything working.
— Thomas Lutz (@thomaslutzde) How Do You Run Windows Software on Your Mac? Just because a virtual machine is the best method for the average user to use Windows apps on a Mac, it doesn’t mean it’s the best solution for you. Let’s review the five methods in turn to summarize what kind of user can benefit from each:.
Virtual Machine: Best for anyone who wants to use a variety of Windows software along with their Mac apps without having to reboot into Windows. Doesn’t offer powerful performance for games.
Boot Camp: Best for those who need their machine’s full power when running Windows, like when playing video games. Inconvenient to reboot into Windows.
Wine: Handy to keep around if you only run a handful Windows programs on your Mac. Inferior to a VM if you want to run lots of apps, as many don’t work in Wine. CrossOver: Not worth paying for over Wine. You’re better off with a VM. Remote Desktop: Worth setting up if you have a Windows PC already.
May have problems with network latency. Using a VM is cheaper than buying a dedicated PC for this. What’s your favorite solution for running Windows software?
Is there a better method than the ones we’ve listed here? Talk to us down in the comments!