Following the close of the transaction, VMware will be positioned to deliver the most comprehensive enterprise-grade Kubernetes-based portfolio for modern applications. Learn the drivers behind VMware's rapid growth and how our strategic focus on management can enable lower TCO across our entire. Parallels Desktop for Mac is a hardware emulation virtualization software, using hypervisor technology that works by mapping the host computer's hardware resources directly to the virtual machine's resources. Each virtual machine thus operates identically to a standalone computer.
Virtualization is not the buzziest tech term, but that's probably because most people don't really understand what it means. Virtualization software does for your computer what picture-in-picture does for your high-end TV, but a lot more powerfully. Virtualization utilities let you run a complete Windows system on a Mac or Linux machine, or one version of Windows inside another version. The virtual machine created by the software acts like a real desktop or laptop computer for the guest operating system to run on, except that it doesn't require extra hardware. Everything in the virtual machine—the CPU, video card, RAM, hard disk, network adapter, and everything else—exists only as bits and bytes. The Windows, Mac, Linux, or other system running in the virtual machine acts exactly as if it were running on real hardware. So you can run a Windows app on a Mac running macOS. Or that old Windows XP-only app that you need for your business can run in a window in your new Windows 10 machine. Or you can run multiple versions of OS X on your Mac.
Virtualization Use Cases
For large organizations such as corporations and schools, virtualization makes it easy to run identical copies of a virtual machine on a hundred different desktop machines and, at the end of the day, restore every copy to its original pristine state, without any of the malware or clutter accumulated over the course of use. Or you can configure a virtual machine so that it's isolated from the Internet and the rest of the network and then use that virtual machine to test any software that you suspect might be dangerous.
When I'm working at a Mac, I use virtualization software to run Windows productivity software that doesn't have any OS X counterparts, or when I prefer to use the keyboard-friendly Windows version of Microsoft Office instead of the mouse-friendly OS X version. Under Windows, I use virtualization software to run old apps that have served me well for years but that don't run under modern Windows versions. One limitation of these apps: You can't run a guest OS X system on a Linux or Windows machine, because OS X is licensed to run only on Mac hardware, and virtualization apps won't launch an OS X guest under Windows. Hackers have found ways around this system, but they're as unstable as they are illegal, and we don't recommend them.
You can install multiple virtualization apps on the same machine and use different apps for different purposes. For example, you might choose Wineskin Winery to run an old PC game on a Mac, but use Parallels Desktop to run the latest version of Office 2016 on the same machine. Keep in mind that there are two kinds of virtualization software out there. On the one hand, you can choose full-scale apps that work by running a complete operating system such as Windows or Linux. The full-scale apps include Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, and Oracle VirtualBox. On the other hand, you can choose Wineskin Winery or other software based on the WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) project. WINE doesn't run a complete copy of Windows or anything else, but instead provides a minimal environment that lets a single Windows app run in OS X or Linux.
Virtualization Requirements and Features
Before you get started, think about the amount of RAM and disk space you have on your machine. Virtualization software tends to hog memory and CPU cycles, and every virtual guest system that you create is likely to need 10GB to 30GB of disk space, and probably more as you continue to use it. The new Veertu Mac virtualization app outclasses older full-scale apps by using the built-in virtualization resources of OS X to reduce its own footprint. Wineskin Winery (like other WINE-based software) doesn't need to install a full Windows system, and uses far fewer resources than apps like Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, or Oracle VirtualBox, which always run a full Windows system even if only a single app is visible.
Also consider the depth of integration that you want between the virtual guest system and the actual host system. All virtualization apps offer varying degrees of cross-system integration. The champ in the integration sweepstakes is Parallels Desktop, which can optionally make all the files and folders that you have on your actual Mac desktop also appear on a virtual Windows desktop running under Parallels. You may or may not want this level of integration—I always turn it off because it adds to clutter and distraction—but you'll almost certainly want the ability to drag and drop files between the host and guest system and to copy text in the host and paste it in the guest, or the reverse. All the full-scale virtualization apps offer these features. WINE-based software like Wineskin Winery lets you share text via the clipboard, and lets you share folders between the OS X or Linux host and the guest Windows app. But setup can be tricky, and it uses an interface that looks like something out of Windows 95.
The full-scale commercial apps, VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop, offer further integration features like an option to add shortcuts in OS X that open specific Windows apps so you don't have to start Windows and then manually launch the Windows app you want. They also let you set up the host and guest system so that (for example) an email link in the guest Windows system opens the Mail app in OS X—or the reverse, with a mail link in OS X opening Outlook in Windows. You can also set up menus of Windows apps that can open in OS X.
One of the most useful features in high-end virtualization apps like Fusion or Parallels is a display mode that lets you hide the guest Windows desktop while displaying only the window for whichever Windows app you're using. The effect is to make a Windows app look as if it's an OS X app, though it will inevitably run slightly slower than a native OS X app. All the apps include varying levels of keyboard customization, so you can (for example) use OS X-standard keystrokes like Cmd-C and Cmd-V to copy and paste in Windows apps running on the Mac, instead of Windows-standard Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V. Some keyboard keys on Windows machines—like Ins or PrtSc—have no matching keys on Mac hardware, so full-scale virtualization apps let you type those keys into a Windows app by choosing them from a menu in the virtualization app. Advanced users may want to experiment with different virtualization apps to find the keyboard controls that best suit their work habits.
All these apps let you run the guest computer full-screen, so that your Mac looks as if it's a Windows machine. When you're running a guest machine in a window, not full-screen, almost all the apps let you drag on a corner of the window to resize it on the fly. (Veertu and Wineskin Winery are exceptions to this.) These features, and all other advanced integration features, are available only if you install in the guest special software called 'guest additions' that run in the background in the guest system to interact with the host system. The kind of integrations that you get with a virtualization app depends on the quality of the guest additions that it provides—and if you're trying to run a little-used OS, you may need to look around to find a virtualization app that offers guest additions for the system you want to run.
If you're testing software, or if you want to restore a system to a pristine state after it's been used, then you'll rely on the Snapshot feature in Parallels, VMware, and VirtualBox. At any time, you can save one or more snapshots that preserve the current state of a guest system, and you can return to any snapshot at any time, removing all traces of anything that occurred on the guest system after you created the snapshot. This lets you repeatedly test software as if it were being installed for the first time, or lets you access a potentially dangerous website from a virtual machine and then remove all traces that the site left on the virtual machine, restoring it to the clean state it started in.
Virtual Gaming
Virtualization apps aren't all work and no play. Many users of Wineskin Winery, for example, use it to play Windows games that never got ported to the Mac. Many users of VMware Fusion or Oracle VirtualBox use those utilities to experiment with ancient operating systems like Nextstep or OS/2. And, in addition to the apps listed in the table below, you can find emulation software that lets you run old MS-DOS software and ancient pre-OS X versions of the Mac operating system. If you want to play old DOS games, you can find versions of the open-source DOSBox for Windows, OS X, and Linux.
If you want to run text-based DOS apps like databases or word processors, the best choice is vDos, by Jos Schaars. You can run apps and games written for twentieth-century Macs with SheepShaver or Basilisk II (abandoned by their original authors, but supported by E-maculation) or with the still-evolving Mini vMac at the Gryphel Project. A promising work in progress is the open-source Qemu project that emulates various hardware platforms and is getting close to providing usable support for early OS X versions.
Virtualization apps make it possible to run almost any app or game ever written on the computer you're now using. For corporate and leading-edge users, these apps make it possible to test and run programs or whole operating systems with minimal expenditure on hardware. If you've tried virtualization software already, you already know how valuable it is. If you haven't tried it, think back to that game you played on some clunky machine 10 or 20 years ago—because a virtualization app will let you play it again.
Mac Os Virtualization
Featured Virtualization Software Reviews:
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Parallels Desktop (for Mac) Review
$79.99 MSRP
Parallels Desktop is the easiest, fastest, and most tightly integrated app for running Windows apps or the Windows desktop in Apple OS X. Read the full review -
VMware Fusion (for Mac) Review
$79.99 MSRP
VMware Fusion 8.5 is a top corporate-level choice for virtual machines on Macs. It's rock-solid, flexible, and can share its virtual machines with Windows and Linux machines running other VMware software. Read the full review -
Urge Software Wineskin Winery (for Mac) Review
$0.00 MSRP
If you need to run a simple Windows app under OS X, try the free and effective open-source tool Wineskin Winery before spending time and money on full-scale virtualization apps like Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. Read the full review -
Oracle VM VirtualBox (for Mac) Review
$0.00 MSRP
VirtualBox is a free, powerful virtualization utility that runs a vast range of Intel-based guest OSes, but it has some rough edges and lacks features offered by the commercial competition. Read the full review -
Veertu (for Mac) Review
$39.99 MSRP
Veertu is a minimalist virtualization app for running Windows, Linux, and a few other operating systems under OS X. It lacks some features offered by the competition, but it's got excellent sandboxed security built in. Read the full review
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Best Virtualization Software For Mac
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