- Update: I think Virtual PC is gone. Their web page seems to be a parking page now. That's OK, there are plenty of other products to choose from. See the Virtualization Index for much more. Www.connectix.com (link dead, sorry) Virtual PC for Windows, Mac (OS 9 or X) and OS/2 creates virtual machines that can run multiple Windows versions.
- Virtual PC for Mac lets you run Microsoft Windows applications, access Windows networks, use Windows-only Internet applications, and share files with Windows-based colleagues.
- May 25, 2005 Expand the power of your Mac with Microsoft® Virtual PC for Mac Version 7, the application that makes it possible for you to access PC-only software, files.
- Virtual PC for Mac lets you run Microsoft Windows applications, access Windows networks, use Windows-only Internet applications, and share files with Windows-based colleagues.
- Parallels Desktop 15 for Mac Run Windows on Mac. Develop & test across multiple OSes in a virtual machine for Mac; Access Microsoft Office for Windows and Internet Explorer; Fast—run Windows apps without slowing down your Mac; Quickly move files, apps and more from a PC to a Mac.
Jun 21, 2005 This update is recommended for all users who are using Virtual PC for Mac Version 7.0 or 7.0.1. This update improves overall stability of Virtual PC and allows Virtual PC.
A topic that has interested many users of late is cross functionality of operating systems in purpose-built hardware and one question that I have been asked on several occasions is, “Is it possible to install Mac OS on PC?”. Whilst the short answer is yes, it is, we need to look deeper at how this can actually be done and both the pro’s and the cons of doing it. The process of cross functionality in operating systems involves using things referred to as Virtual Machines and Hackintosh.
A Virtual Machine is a computer program that acts like a genuine computer would be expected to. The program can be run as a window as any other program would be. In essence, It is a computer within another computer. The end game of the Virtual Machine is to give the user the full experience of if they were using the actual operating system itself. These types of programs are usually ring-fenced. This means that the data and software in the program is unable to interact with the machine it is installed on. This generally means software can be used on machines it wasn’t originally intended to be used on and virtually prevents the risk of transmitting viruses and affecting its host hardware. Several of these virtual machines can be run at the same time on the same computer. What you will usually find is there will be an overseeing piece of software that facilitates this. Download pokemon for mac. Specific examples of a Virtual Machine could be either VirtualBox or VMware. So now we have a basic knowledge of what a Virtual Machine is and how it works. Let’s move on to Hackintosh.
In simple terms, Hackintosh is the name given to the action of installing Mac OS on PC. So instead of installing Windows, you would install Mac. Whilst running Mac OS on a traditional PC is not supported by creators Apple, with the proper hardware and user knowledge, it can be done. The term “Hackintosh” itself implies that the software needs to be patched in order to run efficiently and correctly. Naturally, some parts of the hardware would need to be altered in some cases as well. Now that we have a brief understanding of both Virtual Machines and Hackintosh, let us go over the pro’s and the cons of both.
macOS Mojave on Virtual Machine
- It is generally easy to install macOS on a PC. The user just needs to download a VMware Image (VMDK) or VirtualBox Image (VDI) and run the program.
- Virtual machines are designed to work with all types of hardware, making them universally accessible.
- Any piece of hardware with a working internet connection (LAN) is able to run a virtual machine.
- Support is available in a variety of languages making it accessible to people who would usually be classed as technologically uneducated, all around the world.
- With the way that Virtual Machines work, you are able to work efficiently, running different operating systems in side by side windows. For example, you could be running macOS and Ubuntu, simultaneously.
- Share your Windows file or hard disk in easily using the “drag and drop” function.
- Installing the operating system is simple and straightforward and there are often user guides available.
- Virtual Machines are easy to maintain. Regular updates are supplied by developers allowing users to upgrade their operating software with ease.
- VirtualBox and VMware Player are both available free of charge, making them an even more attractive option to users.
- If the user is running several virtual machines simultaneously, this can contribute to an unstable CPU performance.
- Virtual Machines do not support genuine graphics cards. Virtual Machines are not designed to fully support the user’s Camera, Bluetooth.
- The user usually requires a high CPU and RAM to run a single Virtual machine, let alone several at once.
- You will find that your computers audio is not utilising its peak performance when using a Virtual Machine.
- Even when functioning at less than its intended efficiency. It is still more efficient than running Windows 10 for example. You can expect a vast reduction in hardware related crashes and you will find the operating system generally handles better.
- You can enjoy almost fully customisation of your computer. For example, if you don’t want to use the traditional ATI graphics card used by Mac, you could use Nvidia instead.
- Use of a Dual-Boot system. You can utilise both Windows and macOS on a Hackintosh machine.
- It enables a “Try before you buy” culture. If you are someone who has always been hesitant in using apple products. Building a Hackintosh machine is the ideal way to experience Apples operating software before committing to buying it. If you don’t enjoy it, you can simply change it back to a standard PC with virtually zero consequences.
- You are essentially stuck with the parts that you have. The parts that you are currently using are all tested to work together and any attempt to upgrade or change any parts can break your system.
- It is not for beginners. You really need some sort of experience in building computers before you attempt to build a machine using Hackintosh as not all parts work.
- Strange foreign errors. It is important to remember that macOS was never intended to run on a PC. This can lead to frequent and unexplained errors. This again leads us back to the point that Apple support cannot help you with this.
- It is a very tricky set up process compared to that of a PC. You will need to download numerous drivers and add-ons that can easily go wrong if you are inexperienced in this field.
To summarise, although theoretically, it is possible to install Mac OS on PC, I would strongly suggest that those of us that truly love Apples OS, that you invest in a Mac Mini.
A Mac Mini is essentially a very small computer created by Apple that is capable of connecting to almost any standard computer screen. Originally introduced in 2005, the Mac Mini was targeted at consumers switching from traditional PC’s over to Mac. In my opinion it is the ideal computer for anyone who is looking to make the switch from a traditional PC over to Mac but is conscious of their budget.
It features the full Apple software that many of us have come to know and love and comes with the massive benefit of the wonderful Apple customer support we discussed earlier. Users can generally get their hands on a Mac Mini for around $500. The standard cost of a regular PC. Apple recently updated the Mac Mini for 2018. The Mac Mini hadn’t been refreshed since 2014 prior to this and now boasts the 8th generation CPU and a massive 64GB of memory. It’s new eco friendly design is a welcome addition to Apple lovers worldwide and is available to purchase from many mainstream retailers, as well as the official Apple store.
Virtual PC for Mac OS X
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Update: I think Virtual PC is gone. Their web page seems to bea parking page now. That's OK, there are plenty of other products to choosefrom.See the Virtualization Index for much more.
Easy doesn't necessarily mean fast. It took two hours to installLinux on my iBook, and after installation, running 'makewhatis'took 13 minutes. A 'time dd if=/dev/hda2 count=1024k of=/dev/null',which would have run in perhaps 18 seconds on a real install, took24 seconds here. None of that is awful, but it is noticeable. Partof the problem is that the iBook isn't exactly high performance tostart with, and the limited memory available (640 MB) does nothelp. If you are going to run Virtual PC, load up your machine withas much memory as you can. XP runs horribly slow, it's quitepainful to use, and seems to have gotten worse after upgrading toPanther.
Windows OS Packs
For Windows OS installs, the easiest choice is to buy an OSPack. This gives you a legal, licensed version of whateveroperating system(s) you want, and it is very easy to install. Iinstalled Windows XP Professional from a Connectix OS Pack and hadabsolutely no difficulties. The installation of RedHat 8.0 was notso easy.
Virtual PC enables you to play poker on your mac as well.
Linux Install
You begin by creating a virtual drive and allocating memory. Igave it a 15 GB hard drive (potential) and 128 MB of memory. Youthen simply pop in your install CD and startup the virtual machine.You can also do this using CD images: start up the machine, and ofcourse it will fail. Now drag a CD image to the little CD icon atthe bottom of the window, and use the Control menu to sendControl-Alt-Delete.
The first problem I had was caused by my lack of patience. Thedifficulty was simply that I needed to wait for the Mac Desktop tomount the CD before telling Virtual PC to start up theinstallation. My impatience showed up again on CD 2 in a laterinstall; if your install refuses to recognize a CD, try ejecting itand reinserting.
After getting by that, my impatience caught me again at thescreen shown above. The installation hangs for a LONG time there; Iassumed something was wrong and rebooted Virtual PC. Fortunately,when it hung again I had to take a fairly long phone call. Thatkept my hands off the keyboard, and after ten minutes or so theinstall continued. If I had paid attention to the activityindicators at the bottom of the Virtual PC window, I would haverealized that it wasn't dead at all.
The final problem with RedHat was the GUI configuration. You canjust accept the defaults here; I used Unprobed Monitor with ahorizontal sync of 31.5-48.5kHz and a vertical sync of 50-70Hz, anda screen resolution of High Color (16 bit), 1024x768. When Iclicked 'Test Setting', everything went well until it returned tothe installation. I had a much smaller window and it would notresize. I'm quite sure I could have tabbed my way to properanswers, and I did try, but I kept getting stuck in the same placeso finally I gave up and started over. This time I did NOT test thesettings, and the the only concession I made to the possiblility ofit not working was to have the login be character based.
The RedHat install suffers from another problem: the mouse getsstuck in the Virtual PC Window. The Windows XP I purchased fromthem has a custom mouse driver that eliminates this problem (exceptbriefly at startup), but here we have to live with it. UseApple-Tab to switch away. At one time Virtual PC sold a bundledRedHat OS that might have not had this or other problems, but theystopped doing that, and now that Microsoft has bought them, I doubtwe'll see it again.
The Linux AlT-Screens work as they should: hold down Control andAlt (Option) then fn (the key to the left of Control on my iBook)and press a function key.
Performance
As mentioned aboove, the performance is a little sluggish attimes. Connectix has a .lot of good help on the Windows OS side;for example http://www.connectix.com/downloadcenter/pdf/OptimizingWinXPProandHome.pdf. I don't spend a lot of time in XP or Linux; my main use is tocheck out how to do something for a client or test scripts I'mwriting. The small performance penalty doesn't really botherme.
Mac blu ray player software. Macgo offers the first Blu-ray Player for Mac, the best Blu-ray Player software for Windows and iPhone tools like iPhone Cleaner, iPhone Data Recovery, iPhone Explorer, etc.
I mentioned above that I had the RedHat drive have a potentialof 15 GB. Its actual size is about 5 MB; it will grows as needed.That's an area where you could imporove performance bypreallocating the space you really need.
Networking
There are two ways to handle networking: you can either useShared Networking (meaning it shares your machines ip address) withthe machine set to DHCP, or you can have it set to 'Virtual Switch'and assign your own real ip address (or use a real DHCP server). Iused the Shared method on both XP and Windows but ran into a veryodd problem on the Linux side. I could ping anything by ip address,ssh to any ip address etc. I could also resolve host names with digor host. Yet I couldn't ping or ssh by host name. That's beyondstrange, and I've yet to figure out how that can be. However, formy use, it is unimportant.
Throw way changes
The very best thing about Virtual PC is its handling of drivechanges Whenever you shutdown an OS (using the Virtual PC menus),you are asked what to do with hard drive changes: discard, carrythem forward, or make them permanent. When I'm about to trysomething odd, this feature can be a lifesaver: I save the PC'sstate first, then do whatever awful thing it is I want to do. If Ithen get crashes or unpleasant behavior, I simply discard thechanges and I'm back to a working configuration. This is justwonderful for people who have to screw around with all kinds ofstrange software that can do damage to your system. It's also aclean sweep of anything you don't want: you don't have to trusttheir uninstaller.
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Inexpensive and informative Apple related e-books:
Take Control of IOS 11
Take Control of Parallels Desktop 12
Take Control of iCloud, Fifth Edition
Are Your Bits Flipped?
Digital Sharing Crash Course