Here I explain how to install Windows on a Mac using the (free) virtualization software, VirtualBox.
- Installing Virtualbox On Mac
- Virtualbox Mac Os On Windows
- How To Run Mac Os On Windows 10 Virtualbox
- Mac Os Virtualbox Image To Run On Windows
- Virtualbox Run Mac On Windows 10
- Using Virtualbox To Run Mac On Windows
- Virtualbox Mac On Windows 10
VirtualBox is free software that allows you to install different operating systems on your machine. By using VirtualBox, you can install Windows on your Mac. This enables you to run Windows-only applications on your Mac.
Here are the main steps involved in installing Windows on a Mac:
Now open Virtualbox and create a new virtual machine with the “Type” set to “Mac OS X”, the version set to whichever version of MacOS you are going to use and however much RAM you want to allocate. Make sure to select “Do not add a virtual hard disk”, as we will do this later. Select your OS X machine in VirtualBox’s left sidebar and click the Start button in the toolbar. It’ll bring you to the HackBoot boot screen, with one icon in the middle labeled HackBoot. Virtualbox lets you run Mac OSX within Windows by creating a virtual machine, which is a program that simulates a normal computer. To create a virtual machine, open up Virtualbox and click “New” on the upper left. Give your new virtual machine a name, and choose “Mac OS X” for the OS Type.
- Download and Install VirtualBox
- Create a Virtual Machine
- Download and Install Windows
Here they are in more detail.
Download and Install VirtualBox
To run Windows on a Mac, you need to use virtualization software such as VirtualBox. While there are other options available (such as Parallels and VMware Fusion), VirtualBox is free. And while Bootcamp is also a free option, it doesn't let you run macOS and Windows simultaneously (you have to reboot the machine every time you want to switch to the other operating system). So with VirtualBox you get the best of both worlds — it's free, and it allows you to run both Windows and macOS simultaneously so you can switch between them as required without having to reboot.
Download VirtualBox
Go to the VirtualBox download page and click OS X Hosts.
Install VirtualBox
Double-click the VirtualBox.pkg icon to install VirtualBox. This will enable you to run VirtualBox from your Applications folder.
Create a Virtual Machine
Now that you've installed VirtualBox, you can create a virtual machine. This virtual machine is where you'll install Windows.
Launch VirtualBox
Launch VirtualBox via the Applications folder (just as you'd launch any other application).
Start the Wizard
Click New to start the process of creating a new virtual machine.
Name and Operating System
Enter a name for the virtual machine (make it descriptive, such as
Windows 10 or similar).Also choose Microsoft Windows and select the 64 bit version (unless you have reason to choose the 32 bit version).
Click Continue.
Set the Memory Allocation
Use the slider to specify how much memory is allocated to the virtual machine. I selected 4 GB (4000 MB), which should be sufficient to run SQL Server inside Windows. If your Mac has a lot more RAM, then you might be able to allocate more to the virtual machine.
Click Continue.
Hard Disk
Leave it at the default setting and click Create.
Hard Disk File Type
Leave it at the default setting and click Continue.
Storage on Physical Hard Disk
Leave it at the default setting and click Continue.
File Location and Size
Leave it at the default setting and click Create.
Done!
Your new virtual machine has been created. It appears in the left pane of the VirtualBox home screen.
This is where you launch your virtual machine from whenever you need to use Windows.
Download and Install Windows
Download the Windows Disk Image
Go to the Windows download page and select the latest version of Windows. Follow the prompts to download the ISO file to your Mac.
Alternatively, go to the Microsoft Evaluation Center and download a free evaluation trial. This is the option I used in this tutorial. This tutorial uses the Windows 10 Enterprise Evaluation edition (which is free to use for 90 days).
Download the file to your VirtualBox VMs folder (e.g. /Users/Dave/VirtualBox VMs/) or move it there once downloaded.
Start the Installation
Double-click on the virtual machine that you created previously.
Select the Windows Disk Image
Use the interface to browse to, and select, the Windows ISO file that you downloaded.
Click Start.
Select Language, etc
Select your language and other preferences, then click Next.
License Agreement
Select I accept the license terms and click Next.
Installation Type
Select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).
Select the Drive
Here, the 50 GB drive (that you created when you created your virtual machine previously) should already be selected. If not, select it.
Click Next.
Select Keyboard Layout
Select your preferred keyboard layout and click Yes.
Add Another Keyboard?
Click Skip (unless you want to add another keyboard, in which case click Add layout and follow the prompts).
Join Domain
Microsoft wants you to sign in but for the purposes of this tutorial, we won't be doing that.
For this tutorial, click Domain join instead.
If you have an account with Office 365 or other business services, then feel free to sign in using that account instead.
Add Name
Add your name (or pseudonym) and click Next.
Confirm Password
Enter your password again to confirm and click Next.
Cortana?
Click either Yes or No depending on whether you want to use the Cortana personal assistant. (In this case I chose No.)
Privacy Settings
Disable any privacy settings you want to, then click Accept.
Finally... Done!
Windows is now installed. The Windows desktop is displayed, and you can now go ahead and start using Windows on your Mac!
Windows, macOS – which one do you want to use today? On a traditional setup, you’re stuck with one or the other. But with virtual box, you actually have macOS on a Windows PC.
It’s the freedom that computer users have enjoyed with Linux and other operating systems.
But Apple has made it difficult to install their operating system on anything other than their own hardware. All of that is changing, and Virtual Box is responsible for it and the rise of the Hackintosh.
New to hackintosh? Learn more about it in our what is hackintosh? overview.
Note: A lot of people will be able to get a mac virtual machine one Windows running smoothly, but sound doesn’t seem to work well. That’s really not an issue because you’ll still be able to access all of your apps and software.
I also recommend that you have access to a real Mac. You might be able to find some distributions of the High Sierra ISO online, but there is always a risk when downloading from an unofficial source. Instead, borrow a Mac from a friend, or use your own and download the High Sierra OS from the App Store.
Check out our high sierra installation guide for hackintosh
Everything You Need to Get Started with Installing macOS on VirtualBox
Before we go through the steps on how to install macOS on Virtual Box, let’s get everything together that you’ll need to get started.
- Open up your Mac
- Go to the App Store
- Type in “High Sierra”
You’ll want to search for your desired operating system (we’ll be using High Sierra), and Download it.
Note: You’ll need a decent computer to be able to run Virtual Box. Your computer will need to meet these minimum requirements:
- Dual core processor
- 4GB Ram or higher
- 64-bit
If your computer doesn’t meet these requirements, you won’t be able to run macOS properly. You’ll be able to download VirtualBox from the official website. I’m not going to go through the installation process, as the website will have all of the information you need to be able to install VirtualBox.
I do recommend that you read all of the documentation and ask any questions that you have in the community section of the website.
VirtualBox 6.0 was just released, so it’s definitely a great time to get started with your own macOS.
Extract macOS Sierra
Make sure you’ve downloaded High Sierra, and then you’ll want to run a few commands from your terminal . You’ll be able to open the terminal at: Applications > Utilities > Terminal. Once inside of the terminal, you’ll want to run the following commands:
Go to your desktop and rename the file, removing the “.cdr” extension. You need this extension to read “.iso” for it to work properly.
Installing Virtualbox On Mac
You’ve successfully created your own ISO file so that you can bootup your macOS.
The next step is to copy the file over to your Windows machine (using a large USB drive seems to work best). This file will be mounted in your virtual machine later on in the article, so it’s very important that this step is completed successfully.
Creating a mac Virtual Machine on Windows
You’ll want to create a virtual machine, and this is really easy. You’ll open up VirtualBox and click New. You’ll want to have the following parameters selected or entered before clicking Next.
- Name: High Sierra
- Type: Mac OS X
- Version: Mac OS X (64-bit)
Pay attention when selecting the version because you may find that High Sierra is offered as a version when you go to install it. But if it’s not, you can just choose the settings I listed above and they should work fine.
You’ll then be proceeding through all of the settings.
When you come up to the RAM setting, you’ll want to be generous. VirtualBox requires a minimum of 4GB or RAM to run, but the more the better.
Why?
You’ll want to provide at least 4GB to your macOS, or 4096MB to be precise. A general rule of thumb is that if you can spare it, supply more RAM to your virtual machine. RAM will allow the operating system to put more information into memory and retrieve it faster.
For better overall performance, supply as much RAM as you can.
The next steps are also important, and they’ll include:
- Hard Disk: Choose the “Create a virtual hard disk now” setting.
- Choose VDI when choosing the hard disk type.
- Choose Fixed Size instead of Dynamic for added speed.
- Set the size of the drive to at least 25GB.
Virtualbox Mac Os On Windows
You’ll now have your virtual machine using the RAM and disk space properly, and you’ll have to work your way through a few screen prompts before having everything setup properly.
Configuring Your VirtualBox to Run macOS High Sierra
We’ve made a lot of progress so far, and now it’s time to configure your virtual machine properly. You’ll see in the main window of VirtualBox that “High Sierra” is listed. Click on this and then click on the “Settings” button.
You’ll want to go to “System” and make sure that the following are unchecked on the Motherboard tab:
- Floppy
- Network
Click on the Processor tab and make sure that you have 2 or more CPUs set for your virtual machine.
The next few settings are rather simple:
- Display: Video Memory with a minimum of 128MB
- Storage: Click “Empty” and then click on the CD at the top right. Choose your High Sierra ISO file
Now you’ll need to click “Ok,” and save all of the changes you’ve made. Close out your VirtualBox now.
Apple is very strict on the system that their operating system runs on, so it’s very important that you do your best to configure your virtual machine in such a way that it tricks the installer to thinking you’re on a retail machine.
We’ll now be going into the Windowscommand prompt.
You’ll do this by:
- Clicking the Start Menu
- Typing “Command Prompt”
- Right-clicking on the Command Prompt desktop app
- Choosing Run as administrator
It’s very important to follow all of the following command prompts exactly. Your goal is to run each command, one by one, hitting the Enter button and waiting for the command to complete successfully.
Remember that VirtualBox needs to be closed before running these commands, or it won’t work properly.
You have to make sure that the virtual machine is properly named “High Sierra” for this method to work. If not, you’ll be able to go back and make changes to the name to get everything to work properly.
Once all of the commands are completed, and there are no errors, you’ll then be able to open up your VirtualBox and get macOS High Sierra installed properly on VirtualBox.
It’s a long process, but we’re almost done with your installation.
Running VirtualBox and the macOS Installer
You’ve almost learned how to install macOS on VirtualBox entirely, and we’re on the home stretch. You’ll want to open up your VirtualBox and then click on your virtual machine that you set up earlier.
Now, click “Start.”
There will be a lot of information displayed on the screen as everything starts running. I recommend stepping away from the machine and letting it run for a few minutes before coming back. Some errors can hang for 5 minutes or longer.
If you’ve done everything properly, you can be confident that the installer will boot properly.
You’ll eventually be presented with the option to pick a Language. If you’ve reached this point, you’re doing very well and are almost ready to run your macOS.
How To Run Mac Os On Windows 10 Virtualbox
The next steps can be followed:
Mac Os Virtualbox Image To Run On Windows
- Choose your desired language, and click
- Click “Disk Utility” and then
- Click “View” and then “Show All Devices.”
- Click on your empty virtual drive that has been setup and click “Erase.”
- Choose the following settings:
- Name: Macintosh HD
- Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
- Scheme: GUID Partition Map
- Click “Erase” and close Disk Utility when the process is complete.
- Click “Reinstall macOS.”
- Click “Continue.”
You’ll come up to one point where you’ll be asked to choose a hard drive, and you’ll want to select the Macintosh HD partition that you just created with the Disk Utility.
We’ve successfully copied all of the files on the virtual machine, but we’re not done just yet.
Exit your virtual machine and then go back to your virtual machine’s settings. You’ll need to change up your Storage settings. Click on your ISO for High Sierra in the “Storage Tree.” You’ll click that CD icon just like we did earlier and then choose “Remove Disk from Virtual Disk.”
You need to do this to unlink the ISO from your virtual machine.
Start up your virtual machine and you should come across a black screen with the EFI Internal Shell. You’ll want to look for FS1. If this is listed in yellow, click on the virtual machine and then type fs1: and hit the Enter button.
You should be in the fs1 directory.
Type in the following commands:
- cd “macOS Install Data”
- cd “Locked Files”
- cd “Boot Files”
Virtualbox Run Mac On Windows 10
Now we’ll run the installer by running: boot.efi and hitting enter.
If everything goes well, you’ll come across a graphical installer and will just have to work through the prompts. The virtual machine will reboot eventually and then you’ll need to go through the settings and the rest of the setup process.
Using Virtualbox To Run Mac On Windows
Soon enough, you’ll be right inside of macOS, where you’ll be able to start using your mac virtual machine on Windows.
Virtualbox Mac On Windows 10
Having a virtualbox mac OS is the easiest method of using mac as and when you need it. In addition, using virtualbox is far less complicated than the dual boot hackintosh method we have looked at previously.