It’s a little pricey at $74, but it couldn’t be any easier to use. Even as a computer science major and amateur programmer, I couldn’t get it to run after an hour or so of installing and troubleshooting.Ĭrossover turns Wine into an easy-to-use commercial product, for better or worse. Wine is a free and open-source project, but it’s awfully finicky to set up. Wine acts as a translation layer, running (some) Windows programs on your Mac, without the rest of Windows. Maybe you don’t need a full Windows installation - like if there are just two or three programs you need to run that aren’t made for macOS.

Wine and Crossover: Best for a few essential Windows apps Yes, I may have played a few rounds in the middle of writing this article. (If this doesn’t appear for you, download it manually here.)Ĭheck out this page on Apple Support if you need more information. When your Mac reboots into Windows, Boot Camp will need to finish installing some things in Windows. Then simply follow the instructions on the screen.Īfter your Mac reboots to the Windows installer, make sure to install Windows on the BOOTCAMP partition. Hit Command-Space and search for it or open Finder > Applications > Utilities. But if you still have an Intel Mac, it’s easy! Just open the Boot Camp Assistant app that’s already on your Mac. Unfortunately, this is not an option for Apple silicon Macs. With it, you can reboot your Mac directly into Windows like it’s a PC. If you still have an Intel Mac, by far the best way to run Windows is to use Boot Camp, Apple’s multi-boot utility. Boot Camp for Intel Macs: Best for running Windows natively Oh, Boot Camp, we miss you. If you want a setup similar to this for occasional personal usage, you may be better off buying a cheap tower PC and using Remote Desktop, as described below. At $41/user/month, you get the cloud computing power of two CPUs, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Individuals can still buy it, but because it’s targeted to organizations, it’s expensive for a rather paltry system. Microsoft markets this service to business and enterprise customers. You don’t need to manage any hardware yourself - and you can access it not just from your Mac, but from any Mac connected to the internet. Windows 365 is a new subscription service offered by Microsoft that gives you a full Windows desktop in the web browser. Windows 365 in your web browser: Best for portability Run it on everything. You can try out Parallels with a 14-day free trial before pulling the trigger on a license. Thus, Windows on Arm will run faster and smoother as it won’t have to emulate x86 code. Standard versions of Windows are compiled for the Intel x86 architecture, whereas Apple silicon uses the Arm architecture. If you have a Mac with Apple silicon (any Mac with an M1- or M2-series processor) this will work best if you install Windows on Arm. Windows 11 adds many complications it may be easier for you to set up a virtual machine with Windows 10 and upgrade down the line. There are free alternatives like UTM, but they are trickier to configure properly. Parallels is the easiest system to get up and running, but it is also costly. It’s not as fast as booting into Windows directly, but it doesn’t seem like Apple and Microsoft are working toward enabling that on Apple silicon Macs.

Virtual machines like Parallels run your copy of Windows on top of macOS. In addition, the software’s Coherence Mode puts your Windows programs side by side with the Mac apps running on your desktop, an advantage exclusive to Parallels. Virtual machine software Parallels is the officially authorized way to run Windows on a Mac. Directly on your Mac in a virtual machine: Best for ease-of-installation An M2 MacBook Air makes a surprisingly good Windows PC. Remote Desktop: Best for remote access at a lower costġ.Wine/Crossover: Best if you just need to use a few essential Windows apps.Boot Camp (Intel Macs only): Best for running Windows natively on a Mac.Virtual machine: Best for ease-of-installation.

Parallels access for ipad