Windows 10: How to Install MacOS on Windows 10 in a Virtual Machine

The only catch with Apple PCs and laptops is that they have their own operating system, and that’s macOS. It functions in the same way as Windows, with the difference that Windows can operate on any computer and laptop without difficulties, unlike macOs. However, recently, there are tricks on how you can install macOS on Windows 10. So, stay here to learn the tricks.



What programs are necessary for the installation of a macOS Virtual Machine on Windows 10


Installing macOs on Windows 10 isn't a complicated action, but rather an action carried out in more steps, i.e. it takes time to complete the installation. This is because macOS is made to work only on Apple laptops and computers. That’s why you need to install some tools that will make macOS work on your computer or laptop with Windows 10 operating system.

In order to create a macOS virtual machine you need to download and install Oracle VirtualBox Manager or with VMware Workstation Player, including a copy of macOS, as well. The latest stable MacOS is Monterey, but MacOS Ventura will be soon available. Download and install procedures are easy, but we’ll guide you throughout all steps.

Installation of a macOS Monterey Virtual Machine with VirtualBox


When you’re done with installation of VirtualBox, you can proceed with the installation of macOS Monterey Virtual Machine. These steps are for intel-based computers and laptops. It’s a lot easier to install macOS on Windows 10 with an Intel hardware device, because Apple also uses Intel hardware for macOS.

Downloading and Installing VirtualBox


You won’t be able to install macOS virtual machines without having VirtualBox on your device. To download VirtualBox, you just need to type in into your browser ‘’Oracle VirtualBox Manager for Windows Download’’ and click on the original VirtualBox site.



This is the screenshot of the site which you’ll see if you open the right site. To download the VirtualBox, click on the ‘’All supported platforms’’ to download it, and then double-click for installation.

You should limit the amount of RAM for the VM to half of what your system has. Otherwise, your operating system may work poorly. The minimum should be 4GB. The more RAM you can give to the VM, the better, but leave some for the host system. For example, if you have 32 GB, you can usually give 24GB without any issues.

Creating macOS Monterey Virtual Machine


Take a look at our screenshot, and follow the steps. Here they are:

• Open VirtualBox
• Select ‘’New’’ and type ‘’macOS’’. (VirtualBox automatically detects the OS)
• Name the machine as you like it, and remember the name, you’ll need it later
• Select the amount of RAM you want - consider the above-mentioned advice
• Select ‘’Create a hard disk now’’ and click on ‘’Create’’ - it will open a new screen
• Select ‘’Virtual Hard Disk’’ and set the disk size (minimum 50GB - macOS requires at least 35 GB of storage)

Editing the macOS Monterey Virtual Machine Settings


After creating the macOS Monterey VM, you need to edit its settings before starting it. To do that, you need to right-click on the macOS VM and click on ‘’Settings’’. Here are the steps:

• Click on ‘’Settings’’
• Under the settings menu, choose ‘’system’’ and remove ‘’Floppy’’ from the boot order
• Make sure that the Chipset is set to ICH9
• Choose the ‘’Processor tab and assign two processors - having a CPU with a lot of power to spare enables you to assign more processes, but that’s not so crucial
• Then check-mark the ‘’Enable PAE/NX box
• Under ‘’Display’’, set ‘’Video Memory’’ to 128MB.
• Under ‘’Storage’’ select the empty disc under ‘’Storage Devices’’
• Select the disk icon in ‘’Optical Drives’’ and browse until you find the macOS disk Monterey disk image and choose it
• Then’ click on the ‘’USB’’ tab and click on ‘’USB 3.0’’
• Press ‘’OK’’ button

Add Custom Code to Virtual Box


Even after this long procedure, your VM isn’t ready yet. Be patient. You need to patch VirtualBox before the macOS VM will function at all. For that, you need to enter a code using the Command Prompt. Here are the steps:

• Close VirtualBox
• Press the Windows key + X
• When the menu is opened, select Command Prompt (Admin)
• If you see only ‘’PowerShell or Windows Terminal, type ‘’command’’ into the Start menu search bar, right-click the ‘’best match’’, and choose ‘’Run as Administrator'’
• Use the following command to locate the Oracle VB directory:
  

• Enter the following commands, one by one, but adjust the name of the OS you gave it. For example, we name it macOS Monterey, but if you name it after yourself, let’s say you replace ‘’macOS Monterey’’ in the code with your name.
  

• If you need to take a short break, because you must check the inserted commands before closing the Command Prompt.

Boosting your macOS VM


This is the last step you have to do. Here are the steps:

• Reopen VirtualBox
• Double-click on the macOS VM to start it.
• After a long stream of text is done, select your language of choice
• Press ‘’Continue’’
• Choose ‘’Disk Utility’’ - clean drive for the macOS to install to
• In the Disk Utility, choose ‘’VBOX HARDDISK MEDIA’’ , under the Internal drive column
• Then choose ‘’Erase’’ option, placed at the top of the Utility
• Name your drive as you wish
• Click on ‘’Format’’ to set it to ‘’Mac OS Extended/Journaled’’
• Then set ‘’Scheme’’ to GUID Partition Map
• Choose ‘’Erase’’
• Close ‘’Disk Utility’’
• Select ‘’Install macOS Monterey’’
• Choose the drive you created in the Disk Utility
• Press ‘’Continue’’
• Wait until the installation is done

One important note - installation can last even for two or three hours, not 15 minutes as it’s written on the screen.

Take a Snapshot of the installed macOS VM


After the installation is over, the last thing is to take a snapshot within VirtualBox. This is done just as a backup precaution. Here are the steps:

• Click on Machine in the toolbar
• Select ‘’Take a Snapshot'’
• Name it
• Wait for its completion

Using VMware Workstation Player to create a macOS Monterey VM


This is another option which serves for installation of a macOS Monterey VM on your Windows 10 OS. It works the same as VirtualBox, and it’s just a matter of preference. We’ll provide you with detailed steps for using VMware Workstation Player.

Download VMware Workstation Player


First, you need to download VMware Player Patch Tool if you don’t have it installed on your device. To download it, just write VMware Player Patch Tool for Windows 10 Download, and follow the installation procedure.This installation procedure will include extracting the downloaded content.

Patch VMware Player Patch Tool


To patch it, do the following:

• Close VMware
• In the Unlocker folder, right-click on the win-install command script
• Choose ‘’Run as Administrator’’ - this will open a Command Prompt window
• Pay attention to the patch running and watch out for any ‘’File not Found’’ messages - it means that VMWare is installed in a different location that the default folder
• When the patch is done, open VMware

Creating the macOS Monterey VM with VMware


Here are the steps:

• Open VMware
• Click on ‘’Create a New Virtual Machine’’
• Choose ‘’I will install the operating system later’’.
• Choose ‘’Apple Mac OS X
• Change the Version to macOS 12
• Name the VM as you wish, but remember the name, better write it down
• Set a disk size of at least 50GB
• Select ‘’Store virtual disk as a single file’’
• Complete the virtual disk creation wizard
• Don’t start the VM yet

Edit the settings of the macOS Monterey VM


Before booting the VM, you need to edit the hardware specifications. Do the followings:

• Open VMware main screen
• Select the macOS Monterey VM and do the right-click to open its menu, then select ‘’Settings’’
• Choose as much RAM as possible, at least 4GB. It’s the same as with VirtualBox
• Under ‘’Processors’’ edit the number to 2(or more, if available)
• Select ‘’New CD/DVD (SATA)> Use ISO image file
• Browse until you find the macOS Monterey ISO file and select it
• Close the hardware window
• Select ‘’Finish’’
• Don’t run your VM yet

Edit the macOS Monterey VMX File for Intel Hardware


Before doing this, you need to know that it is for the Intel users. This activity refers to the final set of actions you need to do before turning on your VM. Here are the steps:

• Close VMware
• Go to the location you stored the macOS VM. The default location is:
  

• Browse until you find macOS Monterey.vmx, do the right click and choose ‘’Open with> Notepad (or your preferred text editor)
• Scroll all to the bottom of the configuration file
• Then add the following lines:
  

• Click on ‘’Save’’
• Then ‘’Exit’’
• Open VMware
• Select your macOS Monterey VM

Configuration of the macOS Monterey VM


After launching your macOS Monterey VM, you need to configure the storage drive before installation. To do that, do the following:

• Select ‘’Disk Utility’’
• Create a new drive for macOS Monterey to install to
• After you selected the drive, go to the ‘’Erase’’ option, placed at the top of the utility
• Name your drive as you wish, set its ‘’Format’’ to ‘’APFS’’, and the ‘’Scheme’’ to ‘’GUID Partition Map’’
• Choose ‘’Erase’’
• When the action is done, exit the DIsk Utility
• Go back to the Monterey recovery screen
• Select ‘’Install macOS Monterey’’
• Select the drive you created in the Disk Utility
• Press ‘’Continue’’
• Installation will start soon, but it takes a while to be done
• When you load it, you can configure the OS

Installation of VMware Tools to the macOS Monterey VM


The last part of the installation is to install VMware tools. These tools are actually extensions and utilities that improve mouse handling, video performance, and many more. Here are the steps:

• Open the macOS VM
• Go to ‘’Player’’ section
• Click on ‘’Manage’’
• Click on ‘’Install VMware Tools’’
• Follow the installation instructions
• After it’s done, restart your device

VMware Workstation Player Troubleshooting


As it’s the case with any installation, you might encounter some issues while installing the macOS virtual machine with VMware Workstation Player. Here are the solutions for the possible problems.

In case you don’t see the ‘’Apple Mac OS X’’ option during the virtual machine creation wizard, it means that you need to do the patch process over again. It’s possible that you did something wrong.

Message ‘’Mac OS X is not supported with binary translation’’ when starting the VM means that you need to do virtualization in BIOS/UEFI configuration. While message ‘’VMware Player unrecoverable errorvcpu-O) when starting the VM means that you need to go back to the macOS Monterey.vmx configuration file to be sure that you added the extra line, saved the edit.

If you’re running AMD hardware, and get stuck with the Apple logo, you need to power off the VM, then go to the Settings menu, click on ‘’Options’’ and choose ‘’General’’. Under the ‘’Guest operating system‘’, choose Microsoft Windows’’, and choose the Windows 10x64 Version. Press ‘’OK’’, and start the VM again. When the Apple logo disappears, power down the VM, and change back the OS to the Apple Mac OS X, choosing the correct version.

Oracle VirtualBox Manager Versus VMware Workstation Player


There are two programs we can use to install macOs on Windows 10 in a virtual machine. They are Oracle VirtualBox Manager and VMware Workstation Player. Which one you will use is a matter of preference. What’s more important is to be sure that you studied and understand these steps of installation. Missing just one step leads to unsuccessful installation.

The installation takes time because of all the steps you need to do, and for that reason, you should perform it only when you have plenty of time and patience. Otherwise, contact IT experts or people you’re sure that can do this for you.

Even though these steps are for Intel-users, some actions can be done by AMD users. To be honest, to run macOS on the AMD devices is more complicated, and usually leads to failure. The Reason for that is because AMD hardware is not being used on macOS, but rather on Intel hardware.

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post How to Install MacOS on Windows 10 in a Virtual Machine appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

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Installing a Virtual Machine in Windows 10

Step #1 is to decide which virtual machine software you wish to install.

The three most popular choices are:

• VirtualBox (from Oracle)
• VMWare Workstation Player (from VMWare); and
• Hyper-V (from Microsoft)

Once you've made your choice you can find detailed, illustrated instructions for installing each one on the internet.

As a personal suggestion: You might find it easier to use either VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation Player. Hyper-V is more complicated to setup.

Between VirtualBox and VMWare, I think you'll find VirtualBox more user-friendly, and it has the advantage of allowing you to create checkpoints - backups of your virtual machine - whereas to do that in VMWare you'll need to upgrade to their (expensive!)
paid version.

 

Clean install of W10 not possible in Virtual Machine.


Please get a cup of coffee, lean back and think an answer for these two questions. Take your time, then check the answers below the questions:

Questions:

1. If you do a clean install of let's say Windows 10 Insider Build 10525 on a totally new computer which has never had an activated Windows 10 on it, does it activate?
2. If you do a clean install of Windows 10 Insider Build on a computer where the underlying Windows 10, upgraded from a qualifying old operating system has already been activated, does it activate?

Answers:

1. No, of course not.
2. Yes, of course.

Why do you think that a virtual machine would make any difference? You have tried to install Windows 10 on a totally new machine which has never had an activated Windows 10 installed, therefore the Microsoft activation servers block the activation due invalid machine ID. In the highlighted part in below quote you admit your mistake yourself, plain and simple, yet you when doing this wrong draw conclusion that even if done correctly it would not work:

What you have tried is essentially the same as if you took a brand new real physical PC without any operating system, which has never had any operating system, and then installed Windows 10 Insider Preview wondering why it does not activate! Virtual Machines behave exactly the same way; if you want to clean install Windows 10 Insider Preview and get it activated you must do it on an existing virtual machine, one which has already had an upgraded Windows 10 activated. This "computer", the virtual machine, its machine ID is marked on activation servers as valid and activated and it will of course activate.

Be it a virtual machine or a physical computer, you cannot activate a clean installed Windows 10 Insider Preview on a totally new machine. How difficult can this be to understand?

When clean installing Windows 10 Insider Preview on a computer which has already had a previous Windows 10 Insider activated, you do not use the product key! It will be asked twice, once before the installation starts and once after the last reboot to OOBE phase. In both cases you skip the product key and your Windows will be automatically activated.

 

Install Linux in a Windows 10 Virtual Machine?

What is a good virtual machine software I can use to setup a Linux environment? I am having too much trouble dual booting Mint with my Windows 10. Is there a quick way to setup up VM for Linux?