macOS, the operating system previously known as Mac OS X, is beautiful, stable, and typically attached to a $1000+ MacBook / iMac. If we want to run macOS on a Windows PC, without the very particular hardware required for Hackintosh, a Mac OS X virtual machine is the next best thing. And, best of all, it won't cost a dime. Here's how to install the latest macOS High Sierra on a VMware or Virtualbox virtual machine.
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Why run a Mac OS X virtual machine?
There are a few circumstances when a Windows user might need access to a Mac OS X installation.
One example is programmers who need to use the Apple-exclusive XCode to develop and test iOS or macOS apps.
The same goes with iMovie and Final Cut Pro for moviemakers and editors, GarageBand and Apple Logic Pro for creators and sound engineers, and more professional applications with no Windows version.
Then again, we might just be curious about Apple's operating system and want to see what the fuss is all about.
Whatever the reason, a Mac OS X virtual machine is the cheapest way to try out the latest OS from Cupertino. Cheapest as in "free." Sure beats buying a four-figure MacBook Pro.
In case you are not familiar with virtual machines, it's a way to emulate an entirely different computer system within our PC. For more information, you can check out our guide:
We have also covered how to create a Windows Virtual Machine, both in Windows and Linux operating systems.
How To Create a Windows Virtual Machine in Linux and Windows
Creating a Windows virtual machine is exceedingly simple. It is arguably easier than installing Windows on our PC.
However, creating a Mac OS X virtual machine is not officially supported by Apple. The company only wants to see macOS running on the Mac hardware because this is what they are selling.
Hence, we will have to run through a couple of hoops to get the VM up and running. Nothing too complicated, though. In this guide, we will cover the creation of the virtual machine both with VMware Player and VirtualBox, for Intel and AMD processors.
Hardware requirements for a Mac OS X virtual machine
It goes without saying that running any kind virtual machine demands a relatively powerful PC for a smooth experience. After all, the hardware needs to run two operating systems simultaneously.
With a powerful enough system, we can even run virtual machines one inside the other, like Russian nesting dolls.
To begin with, we must have at least 4GB of RAM, ideally 8GB or more. The speed of RAM is not of much consequence; we are just looking for lots of it.
A multi-core CPU is also important. We should have a processor with at least four cores, 3rd gen Core i5 or equivalent. The Mac OS X virtual machine might work on a two-core CPU, but the experience will probably be less than smooth.
Of course, it's a given that our CPU must support IOMMU virtualization: VT-x for Intel and AMD-V for AMD. This is not a problem for most modern CPUs, but it doesn't hurt to check. The quickest way is to run the freeware Securable app.
Another important thing is to have virtualization activated on the BIOS/UEFI. Even with a virtualization-capable CPU, if the function is not enabled, it won't do much good. The Mac OS X virtual machine will probably not start at all, with an error message.
Check out this guide to make sure you have virtualization enabled in your BIOS/UEFI.
Finally, if our VM creator of choice is VMware Workstation Player, we will also need a 64bit version of Windows 7, 8, or 10. That is because VMware has deprecated the 32bit edition of the player since a few versions back.
After all, a 32bit operating system will only recognize 4GB of RAM, which isn't the best case scenario to run a VM.
In conclusion, we need at minimum:
- 4GB of RAM (ideally 8GB or more)
- Four-core CPU with virtualization capability
- Virtualization enabled in the BIOS/UEFI
- 64bit Windows
Newest macOS version: High Sierra 10.13
On September 25th, 2017, Apple released the latest version of macOS with the code name "High Sierra," which replaced the older Sierra 10.12.
However, it was not a massive upgrade from the previous version. On the contrary, mac OS High Sierra is more like a simple update, with some added features.
The company focused on video streaming, a smoother gaming experience, and data management. Furthermore, with High Sierra 10.13, the OS is more stable and responsive.
Intel CPUs
Having an Intel CPU is the easiest way to run a Mac OS X virtual machine. That is because Mac computers and laptops use Intel CPUs exclusively, and therefore the virtualization is straightforward, from a technical point of view.
Download the macOS High Sierra image
So, we have to download the Intel version of the Mac OS X virtual machine. We can find the Intel version here, courtesy of the excellent fellows at Techsviewer.
Because of the size of the file, which is 5.8GB, we might hit the Google Drive bandwidth limit for the hosting account.
We can easily bypass this restriction by signing into our Google Drive account.
In case you have never used Google Drive, it's the same account you probably have for Gmail, YouTube, or any other Google service. Or you can just create a new one.
Having signed into our account, we right-click the file and select "Make a copy."
Then we navigate to "My Drive," right-click and download the copy.
Google will throw a warning that it can't scan the file for viruses. We just download anyway. Since it is a large file, this can take a while, depending on our internet connection speed.
After a successful download, it's a good idea to remove the copy from your Google Drive. If we don't, it will take up a large part of the free 15GBs of space.
Decompress the image
Now that we have it on our computer, we notice that it is a .rar compressed file, which Windows can't open and decompress with the integrated utility.
So, we will need a third-party app. Two excellent freeware apps are 7-zip and Peazip. For this guide, we used 7-zip.
With 7-zip installed, we just need to right-click at the file, and navigate the context menu to 7-Zip -> Extract Here.
This will produce a folder with all the necessary files.
The next step is to install either the VMware Workstation Player or VirtualBox. Both apps have free versions for personal use, and both are equally capable of handling the Mac OS X virtual machine.
Which one you select is a matter of personal preference. We will present the procedure for both.
VMware Workstation Player
VMware is one of the leading companies in virtualization. Their vSphere ESXi Hypervisor is an industry standard for server virtualization.
But the company also serves the needs of the regular users, with VMware Workstation Pro and the free VMware Workstation Player.
Download and install VMware Workstation Player
At the time of this writing, the latest version of VMware Workstation Player 12 is 12.5.7, available for 64-bit Windows and Linux operating systems.
There is also a later VMware Workstation Player version 14. However, as of this writing, an essential patch to allow VMware to support the Mac OS X virtual machine is not available for v.14.
Thus, we have to stick to 12 for the time being. There is no version 13, probably VMware considered it bad luck, or was afraid its customers would do so.
Installation is easy, and it won't try to install third-party software. It's essential, though, to install VMware Workstation Player at the default path C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player.
If we change the installation folder, the patch we mentioned earlier won't work.
Optionally, we can uncheck the "Help improve VMware Workstation 12 Player".
The first time we run the VMware Workstation Player, it will ask us whether we have a bought license key for professional use.
To use the program for free, we just enter an email address. It doesn't even need to be valid; VMware won't request any confirmation.
Unlock VMware Player for the Mac OS X virtual machine
By default, VMware player cannot run a Mac OS X virtual machine on Windows. We need to patch the player to unlock this capability manually.
For that end, we will use the unlocker that the splendid fellows at InsanelyMac have created.
We will have to download the following file.
Versions of VMware player later than 12 will probably require a newer unlocker.
You will find the latest available here. You need to sign up to the InsanelyMac forum to download it.
After downloading the "unlocker208.zip" file (or whichever newer version exists when you are reading this guide), make sure to open your "Local Disk (C:)" drive...
...and extract the contents of the .zip file inside.
If you did it correctly, you will have an unlocker208 (or whichever newer version) folder in your C: drive, which will contain the patch files.
This is vital for the correct application of the patch. A few readers in the comments section had a problem running the unlocker from their D: drive, or from a path that contained spaces, e.g. "C:\My Downloads\unlocker."
Having a single-named folder at the root of the primary local disk C: offers the highest possible compatibility.
Next, we need to make sure VMware Workstation Player is not running.
Finally, we right-click on the "win-install" Windows command script inside the unlocker208 folder, and select "Run as administrator."
After we confirm this action, a command line window will come up and execute a series of commands to patch VMware Workstation Player to run a Mac OS X virtual machine.
Pay close attention to these commands, which will only be onscreen for a couple of seconds.
If you see any "File not found" and "the system cannot find the file specified" messages, it means that the patcher has failed. The reason probably is that you didn't install VMware Workstation Player in the default folder "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player."
Success or fail, the command-line window will automatically close at the end of the process.
Create the MacOS High Sierra virtual machine
With the patch finished, we can open the VMware Workstation Player again. We proceed to create a new virtual machine.
On the first screen, we select "I will install the operating system later."
On the next screen, we select "Apple Mac OS X," and "macOS 10.12" as the version. As of this writing and with the current 2.0.8 patch, there is no 10.13 option.
We choose a name for the virtual machine, and optionally change the location, in case our C: drive doesn't have enough storage capacity for the Mac OS X virtual machine.
Whether we leave the default location or select a different folder, it is imperative that we remember or write down the path. We will need to change the contents of a file there later on.
Finally, we leave the maximum disk size as is, and select "Store virtual disk as a single file."
On the last window, we will review our choices. If everything is in order, we click on "Finish."
Edit the virtual machine's settings
Back on the VMware Workstation Player interface, we select "Edit virtual machine settings."
First order of business, and if our system has at least 8GB RAM, we increase the VM's ram to 4GB (4096MB). This will help the Mac OS X virtual machine to run a lot smoother.
If our PC only has 4GB of total RAM, we can't give it all to the virtual machine. We must leave the default 2GB.
If we have a four-core i5, we must also leave the processors at "2". With an i7, we can increase them to "4".
Should we overdo it with the cores and assign more than our CPU has, we will get an error message.
Next, we select the 40GB Hard Disk (SATA) we created earlier, straight-up remove it, and then click on "Add."
We leave the first item selected, "Hard Disk" and click "Next."
Leave the SATA (Recommended). Next.
On the third page of the wizard, we choose "Use an existing virtual disk." Next.
On the "Select an Existing Disk" window, we click on "Browse."
We must now make a choice, where we want to have the Mac OS X virtual disk permanently saved. Because once we connect the disk to the virtual machine, if we move it we will have to go again through this whole process of removing and adding a drive.
Feel free to move it anywhere on the disk, even on a secondary drive.
After we move it to the desired location, we go back to VMware and choose the .vdmk file.
Finally, we press "Finish."
Last, but not least, we navigate to CD/DVD (SATA) and uncheck the "Connect at power on" option.
There is only one final step before we start our Mac OS X virtual machine.
Edit the VMX file
Remember when we advised you to write down the path where we created the Mac OS X virtual machine? This is where we are going to need it.
The default path is in our Documents -> Virtual Machines, in a folder named like the virtual machine.
Inside we will find a VMware virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file, again with the name of the virtual machine. If you gave the VM a risqué name, you are probably regretting it by now.
We right-click the file and select "Open with...".
We click on "More apps"...
...select Notepad and click OK.
At the bottom of the file, we paste the following line:
smc.version = "0"
We save and close the file.
Starting the Mac OS X virtual machine on VMware
We are now ready to start the virtual machine, from the "Play virtual machine" button.
We will get a couple of messages from the application, as we would on any first-run virtual machine.
Had everything gone well, we will soon see the familiar logo.
It might seem stuck near the end, but just give it a couple of minutes, and soon the set-up screen for macOS High Sierra will emerge.
Fun fact: we wrote this guide on Ubuntu Linux, running a Windows 10 virtual machine, running the Mac OS X virtual machine. A turducken of operating systems, if you will.
Later on the guide, we will see the full procedure to set up macOS High Sierra on our Mac OS X virtual machine, as well as how to install the VMware tools.
VirtualBox
The creator of VirtualBox was the German corporation Innotek GmbH, back in 2007. In 2008, Sun Microsystems acquired Innotek. In 2010 Oracle Corporation bought Sun Microsystems, and re-branded VirtualBox as "Oracle VM VirtualBox."
Even though it changed many hands, VirtualBox has always been a popular virtualization application, with numerous features. All in all, a worthy opponent to VMware's free solution.
So, if you are already using VirtualBox and prefer it instead of VMware Workstation Player, here's how to install a Mac OS X virtual machine when you have an Intel CPU.
Download and install VirtualBox
We will find the latest VirtualBox version here. As of this writing, the current version is 5.1.30.
The installation is dead simple, and won't try to force upon us any unwanted third-party applications. Just click on "Next-next-next."
Create the MacOS High Sierra virtual machine on VirtualBox
After the installation, we open the program and select "New."
On the pop-up window, we choose a name for the virtual machine. Just to make things easier, we went for "macOS." On "Type" we choose "Mac OS X, " and as for the version, we have to select "macOS 10.13 High Sierra (64-bit)."
On the next screen, if we have the RAM to spare, we allocate at least 4096MB RAM.
Finally, on the last screen, we choose the last option, to use an existing hard disk drive. We then click on the folder icon and navigate to where we extracted the Virtual Machine Disk Format (.vmdk) file, and open it.
With the right virtual disk selected, we click on "Create."
Edit virtual machine settings
With our new Mac OS X virtual machine selected, we click on "Settings."
At the "System" section, we uncheck the Floppy drive from the boot order and make sure the Chipset is IHC9.
On the "Processor" tab, we allocate two Processors, or more if we have a Core i7 CPU with threads to spare.
At the "Display" section, we set the maximum Video Memory of 128MB.
On the "Network" section, we make sure the options are as follows:
Finally, we go back to "General" and write down the exact name we gave to the virtual machine because we are going to need it.
We save the changes with OK and close VirtualBox completely. It is vital that Virtualbox isn't running for the next part of the guide.
Adding some code
Up until now, the procedure for the Mac OS X virtual machine on VirtualBox was more or less the same as with any other type of virtual machine.
Alas, for the Mac OS X virtual machine to work, we need to add some code, which might scare people who don't have much experience with that.
Not to worry, though. The task is simple. First, we open a Windows command line, with administrator privileges. In any version of Windows, the way to do that is to search for CMD, right-click "Command Prompt" and select "Run as Administrator."
Then, we just copy the following code, paste it into the command prompt, and press Enter.
cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\"
We do the same with the following lines of code, one by one. Every command is in a single line.
If you gave a name different than macOS to your virtual machine on the "General" section, you must also replace it on each of the following commands.
VBoxManage.exe modifyvm "macOS" --cpuidset 00000001 000106e5 00100800 0098e3fd bfebfbff
VBoxManage setextradata "macOS" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct" "iMac11,3"
VBoxManage setextradata "macOS" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemVersion" "1.0"
VBoxManage setextradata "macOS" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiBoardProduct" "Iloveapple"
VBoxManage setextradata "macOS" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/DeviceKey" "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc"
After we have successfully entered all the commands, without any errors, we can close the command line, open VirtualBox and start the Mac OS X virtual machine.
At first, it will show some code...
...then a gray screen for a few seconds, and finally the macOS High Sierra installation.
Later on the guide, we will see the full procedure to set up macOS High Sierra on our Mac OS X virtual machine.
AMD CPUs
As we mentioned, the fact that Apple computers exclusively use Intel CPUs makes it harder to run a Mac OS X virtual machine on an AMD CPU.
Harder, but not impossible. Although there is no High Sierra version yet, we managed to find a macOS Sierra machine on AMD-OSX.com that will work on AMD and tried it with an FX 6300 CPU.
The same method is supposed to work on the latest Ryzen CPUs, but we didn't have a sample machine to try it. As for older processors, it will only work on AMD CPUs that support SSE 4.1 or SSE 4.2 instructions.
We can check this on CPU-World, by inputting our CPU model in the search box.
On the results, we just need to check the Features. If we find SSE 4.1 or SSE 4.2, we 're golden.
To download the Sierra machine, visit this link. At the bottom of the first message, you will find a zip file and a Dropbox link. The compressed file contains a torrent, to download the machine.
Since the file is quite large (almost 7GB), we chose the torrent method, but you can pick whichever fits you best.
Once we download it, we have to decompress it in our desired location and move onto the next step.
VMware Workstation Player
This time we won't need to apply any patches to VMware Workstation Player, opposed to Intel's method we described above.
Thus, we can use VMware version 14, which is the latest. We can find it here.
If you already have version 12, you can still follow the steps below; there is no need to upgrade VMware.
Create a new virtual machine
We will start by creating a new virtual machine.
Choose "I will install the operating system later" and press Next.
On the next screen, tick "Other" and pick "Other 64-bit" respectively.
Here, we can give our machine the desired name and choose a location. Hit Next once again.
Store virtual disk as a single file...
...and click on "Customize Hardware."
We advise you to use at least 50-65% of your available RAM and two CPU cores. For example, if you have 8GB RAM as we do, go for 4GB on the virtual machine.
In the end, we press Finish.
Add the hard drive
Now it's time to add our virtual drive. Click on "Edit virtual machine settings."
Remove the Hard Disk (IDE) and add a new drive.
Choose "Hard Disk > SATA > Use an existing virtual disk."
Next, hit Browse and locate the file you downloaded from amd-osx.com. You should move the file to your desired location before you pick it. If you decide to move it afterward, you'll have to add it again on the virtual machine.
Then, press Finish.
If we have VMware 14, the program will ask to convert the image to the newest format. We press Convert, except if we want it to be compatible with older versions of VMware.
Finally, we press OK.
We can now start the engine. We will be greeted by a black screen, where we need to press any button to continue.
On the next screen, we hit Enter.
We'll see another black screen with some running code for a few minutes.
No matter how long it takes, we wait patiently. Even if it appears to be stuck, give it at least 10 minutes before you try to restart the machine.
At the end of this process, macOS Sierra will eventually show up. We can now move on to the first time set up.
Setting up macOS High Sierra
The hard part is long gone. At this point, no matter which way we chose to create the Mac OS X virtual machine, we should be on the Welcome screen.
We select our country and click on "Continue." If we can't find our country, we can check the "Show All" checkbox.
We can also choose a different keyboard layout, or leave the default US.
Given that we went through all this trouble to create a Mac OS X virtual machine, it's a safe guess that we don't have another Mac device to transfer information.
We can sign in with our Apple ID if we have one and feel like it, but we can always skip this step and continue.
After reading the Software License Agreement, in its entirety of course, if we agree, we proceed.
We select a name and an account name. If we didn't use our Apple ID, we need to create a password as well.
We choose our time zone...
...and continue with the express set up.
We can optionally choose the Customize Settings, to tweak the location and diagnostic options. We might want to uncheck the options to send information to Apple. After all, working on a Mac OS X virtual machine, we are far from the typical macOS user.
That's it. Our Mac OS X virtual machine with macOS is ready.
Install VMware tools for Mac OS X
Everything seems perfect on the Mac OS X virtual machine, but even on a powerful computer, the mouse pointer might seem "heavy" to drag. This is easy to fix, by installing VMware tools.
First, we must download this file as a ZIP, and extract its contents.
From the VMware Workstation Player menu we select Player > Removable Devices > CD/DVD (SATA) > Settings...
On the next window, we choose "Use ISO image file" and click on Browse.
We navigate to All Tool (new) folder that we downloaded, pick the VM Tool.iso and click Open.
Check the "Connected" box.
Now, double click on VMware Tools disk on the upper right corner.
Double-click on Install VMware Tools.
Press Continue...
...and Install.
The installation will ask for our account's password.
We confirm our request.
Finally, the VMware Tools installation is over, and we need to restart our PC.
Now, the Mac OS X Virtual machine will run much smoother.
Troubleshooting
Running a Mac OS X virtual machine is not free of problems, and we may encounter one or more of the following.
Mac OS X option missing in VMware
If we can't find the "Apple Mac OS X" option when creating a virtual machine...
...it means that we didn't install the patch correctly. We need to rerun the patcher, always as an administrator, and pay attention for any error messages.
Error message: Mac OS X is not supported with binary translation
If when starting the Mac OS X virtual machine we get the message "Mac OS X is not supported with binary translation"...
...we need to activate the virtualization in our BIOS/UEFI.
Unrecoverable error on VMware
If we get a "VMware Player unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0)" error...
...then we didn't edit the VMX file correctly, adding...
smc.version = "0"
...at the bottom of it, or we failed to save the file after adding the line.
Endless code lines on VirtualBox
If VirtualBox doesn't seem to move on the first boot, then we might have failed to enter the commands correctly.
Repeat the command line part of the guide and try again.
Did you like the Mac OS X virtual machine?
A virtual machine might not be the real thing - it is, after all, an operating system running on top of our operating system. But, on a powerful computer, it can be pretty close.
Did you like your new Mac OS X virtual machine? Did it work well on your PC and were you able to run the Mac OS X exclusive software you always wanted? Leave us a comment.
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does it wok on amd systems?..did anyone try it?
You will need an extra bootloading disk for AMD
https://youtu.be/CrpOjgBFMF0?t=349
i just follow the video step by step and now its working..thanks
Hi,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added a dedicated section for AMD, in case you need to recreate the Mac OS X virtual machine.
Will this allow the use of iMessage and the use of Xamarin and/or Xcode? I had just purchased a mac mini to learn to develop iOS apps, but want to be able to develop and test on the go. I understand that I more than likely can't push to the store or a device from the VM.
You shouldn't have a problem with either iMessage or Xamarin / Xcode. And since I guess your Apple ID is used to push to the store, there is a good chance that would work too.
The only thing I am not sure of is if you can push to a device, by attaching it though the VM. Although since the USB is completely passed through, so I wouldn't be surprised if that worked too.
Thanks! I did try it after my initial post. I was able to compile and run the iOS Simulator under Xamarin. I wasn't too concerned on pushing to a USB device quite yet, but I have my mac mini for that. I just don't want a MacBook and Surface Pro 3. I can share my Code across VM and Mac Mini with OneDrive. Thanks a bunch for this instruction and post. This will make my life much easier!
Great, good to know it works for your particular needs.
If you want to see a specific guide on PCsteps, we are always open to suggestions.
Angelos - great write up. Thanks. I got it working on Windows 10 Build 10130 running VMWare Workstation 11.1.0. I had to perform a few extra steps:
1. Open the .vmx file:
* change vmci0.present from TRUE to FALSE: vmci0.present = "FALSE"
* add this line to the bottom: smc.version = "0"
2. To enable higher resolution, I had to install an additional video driver. I uploaded it here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3155577/VMsvga2_v1.2.5_OS_10.9.pkg
3. After installing #2, change the VMWare Display settings. I have mine set to 2560 x 1600.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sign in with my Apple ID to iMessage or FaceTime. Apple rejects the authentication. iTunes and App Store work fine with AppleID, just not iMessage or FaceTime. It's a long time problem with OS X in a VM. I hope there's a solution at some point that's less than the 100 step procedures I've found in the past.
Thanks again!
Hey Brett. Thanks for your input.
Indeed, iMessage and FaceTime are still problematic. I searched a bit for a solution, but I haven't had time to try anything yet. I will probably make a new guide when I find something.
Did you find any way to get iMessage and FaceTime Working?
Haven't tried.
I got the res working with a boot.plist fix. It's stuck at the resolution, but a few characters changed, a reboot, and bam!
Angelos, thank you for this post! It was very clear and concise, and very helpful. I was able to get my Mac VM up and running with a minimum of fuss, and it runs very well (much better than a similar virtual machine that I had built in VirtualBox).
I am puzzling over how to increase the size of my VM disk. I have increased the size in the settings of VMWare Player, however, when I try to increase the size of the VM within OS X, either with Disk Utility or using Terminal, I am unable to increase the size. Anybody have any suggestions? I have also tried to enter the disk utility from the recovery partition during start up, but have been unable to stop startup and get into disk utility.
Hi Eric, glad you liked the post.
It's weird that you have trouble with the expansion of the partition. I tried it now and it just worked.
Did you select the disk and then the Partition tab on the Disk Utility?
http://i.imgur.com/elC72db.png
Did you get any error message?
The url for the vmware image?
It's a magnet link. Have you tried copying it and pasting it on a torrent client, like the example with qBittorrent?
How do I install vmware tools I am unable to use the scrolling on my mouse so Im guessing the vmware tools didnt work properly?
Hi Ivan,
Do you have a different mouse to try? It seems like a hardware incompatibility that I don't think will be fixed with VMware tools.
I use VMware Play 12 and unlocker206, every thing is OK, thank you very much!
Glad to hear it, heavenchou.
Thank you for the great instruction, but in my case VMware Player stops with this message: "Mac OS X is not supported with binary translation. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Player supports Intel VT-x or AMD-V." :-(
Hi Sergey,
You need to activate the virtualization on your BIOS.
Check out our latest guide https://www.pcsteps.com/207-windows-virtual-machine-linux-windows/ , it describes how to find the virtualization settings.
Thank you, but I've found my Intel chip doesn't support VT-x:-(
I will try on another PC.
Thanks for the guide. I installed it about a week ago, when I suddenly felt the need for an OSX based machine. Sadly, Yosemite is very slow, which makes the VM only usable on very fast computers. I have an i7 (3rd gen) with 16GB RAM and it is still laggy.
But today I succesfully updated the VM to El Capitan. I did nothing special, just download and run the Installer app. It took pretty long to complete, but it worked right away. And the VM is much faster and more smooth now. I can recommend the upgrade to everyone who's using this VM!
Thank you very much for the information that the VM can be upgraded to El Capitan. I thought that it wouldn't be possible.
So did I. So before trying the upgrade, I made a copy of the VM. But to
my surprise, it wasn't even necessary to change SIP settings, everything
worked right out of the box.
I had to change the
smc.version = "0"
To get a clean-install to work. but the downloaded image worked right out of the box. Beautifully. :)
I fixed the "speed" issue by changing the VRAM amount in the .vmx file. The default setting is 125MB, which is very little for OS X. I changed it to 2GB (2048MB), and everything sped up! Also, try BeamOff, which disables Beam sync, and renders everything a lot faster.
Thanks, I will check that.
HI I am successfully running Yosemite 10.10.5 on this setup. Now can I upgrade to El Capitan over this virtual machine?
Hi Hossain,
I haven't attempted the upgrade yet, but @Squirrel61:disqus here on the comments did, and it worked perfectly for them. It's worth a try.
OSX in a windows / Unity?
Sorry, it went a little fast...
Question: is it possible to use the "unity" functionality of VMware, i.e. have each OSX window appear as a Windows window?
When I try, it tells me to install VMware Tools, but I have already installed them according to the explanations above. I cannot find out how to install the "official" version.
I use VMware Player 7.1.2.
Since the installation of OS X is unofficial on VMware, the Unity functionality won't work correctly.
In the next few days I will update the guide for the latest version of OS X, El Capitan, and see if I can get the unity work for that one.
do you have any updates on the unity mode?
Thank you for the guide. Is there a way to make the guest OS use more than 128mb of video memory? Windows 10 with El Capitan running here.
On VMware Workstation that I am using, on the virtual machine settings -> Display I can choose up to 2GB of VRAM
Soon I will update this guide for the El Capitan version, and check out if VMware Player has the same setting.
Hi , i am unable to install the OS in the VMplayer , more than two hours screen like this,
Kindly help on this
Hi Sengu,
Did you download the latest patch for VMware Player? Without the patch it gets stuck on this particular screen.
HI, Installed the latest version of Vm player which you shared in the URL.
If thats wrong can you send me the link for installing the patches
Hi Sengu,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Hi, there so far it works really well! The only problems seems to be imessage and facetime which fail when logging in with an apple iD
see my reply above... I got it working
There is indeed an issue with these two apps on virtual machines. I haven't found a solution yet.
You can try upgrading to El Capitan, to see if they work there. Soon I will update this guide for an El Capitan installation, and check out if these apps will work.
I am currently trying to follow the instructions...unfortunately i get an error code this time. Will you post here when you update your guide?
http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/292170-how-to-spoof-real-mac-in-vmware/page-3 all the information on how to get your iMessage and Facetime working are in that thread.
Here's what I did:
1.in post 1, the unique identifiers I made up random numbers close to the numbers in his post.
2. edited the vmx with a slightly different version of what he put in there for board.id etc...
3. searched the MAC address table for apple stuff and picked one out. Where this differs from the guide (in workstation 12 that I'm using) is you do not edit the VMX for a generated MAC address, you use the virtual network editor and make your MAC address what you want it to be in there.
4. on page 3 of that forum on post 50 it says to add those values to the vmx file. I added slightly varying ones with the vm powered off then on reboot with an apple MAC address for the ethernet physical address, the unique identifiers from post 1 and the values from post 50 it allowed me to use imessage and facetime both @PCsteps:disqus I wonder if you can repeat this and make it into a guide
Thanks for the info, @kitten_soup:disqus, I will try it when I update the guide for El Capitan.
Mac OS X is not supported with binary translation. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Player supports Intel VT-x or AMD-V.
Go to your BIOS and enable Virtualization. I had the same problem and this fixed it.
Hi M.Fasi,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Thank you for providing clear-cut instructions, never found one as simple as this.
Thank you for a great install instruction and a pure osx iso.
I have a question, what is the su password i can't find it.
Thanx a lot.
in terminal type sudo passwd root and key in user password after that put new password for root (su) twice, I know this is not recommend way but just give a try.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Angelos! It worked perfectly and is EXACTLY what I need.
Hi there Iam get a message saying (Mac OS X is not supported with binary translation. To run Mac OS X you need a host wich VMware player supports Intel VT-x 0r AMD-V) i have went into my BIOS mode and the option is not there but i do no it is active also Iam running Windows 10 PRO edition.
Hi David,
Which is the make and model of your CPU and motherboard?
Hi David,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Mine doesn't load just the apple icon just shows and it showed "CPU disabled and that i need to reset the virtual machine"
Hi Dein,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Why do not pass it?
Hey.
Why do not pass it ?
Hey just had the same issue. I resolved it by reinstalling the unlocker. I think I tried using the command like in the guide but what you have to do is run the 'win-install' file using administrator mode
Hi Telmo,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Thanks for such awesome and detailed post!!
First off, thank you very much. I have an issue though, even with beamoff and vmtools.. i5 cpu and 8gbs of ram on a 64 bit windows 8.1 it's hanging up and freezing alot. Is it just the cpu or could there be something else going on? When it's running, nothing else is.
Thank again.
I upgraded it to El captain as well.
I am getting this error: The CPU has been disabled by the guest operating system. Power off or reset the virtual machine. Once I try to run the Virtual Machine . Please Help
Have you turned on virtualization in your BIOS?
I'm having the same problem, but this error only appears once. After this error, the next attempt results in "the firmware encountered an unhandled exception, VM cannot boot". I checked the BIOS settings and Virtualization support is enabled. If I power off and on the host machine, the same error sequence occurs. This happens regardless of which Processors and/or Virtualization engine settings are chosen in VMWare. I have unlocked using the latest 2.08 version of the unlocker.
I have an HP Pavilion p6537c with an AMD Phenom II X4 830 and 8mb RAM (Win10 host OS). I remember reading somewhere else that AMD is normally not supported, but if you can enter a boot flat of /amd, /amd64, or something like that, it may allow it to boot. I don't know how to allow a 'boot flag' to be entered.
To my knowledge, the standard Apple boot loader does not allow flags beyond -x, -s, and -v to be entered. Instead of a VM, maybe try a hackintosh, which installs to a drive, not to a VM. At least the boot loader can enter many more flags.
Hi BobH,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added a section dedicated for AMD. Check out if it works for you now.
Hi Ricky,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Hi,
I tried installing OS X , however the VMware seems to be struck at the Apple logo. Please help.
You need to unlock VMware. Try downloading the latest version of the unlocker.
Hi Dennis,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Hi all, i am trying to install os x on vmware but evertime i cant see the MAC OS option, I already tried many unlockers to go through but all efforts in vain. Please help me out so that i can install mac os on vmware.
Go into your bios and make sure to enable V-TD or virtualization...good luck!
Hi Imran
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Simple! Thanks for making it seem so easy.. I was stuck for days with the Hackintosh installation. This is what I needed & works perfectly fine.
A BiG THANK YOU, again! :-)
Google tonymacx86
Worked for me...running the VM on a skylake so I can download el capitan...anyway, thanx and have a GOOD DAY!
worked for me perfectly!!
Can i upgrade to El Capitan? and if yes how?
worked perfect for me! can i upgrade to El Capitan and if yes, how can i do that?
Hi Savvas,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra. But you can also upgrade from the VM you already have, through the Apple store, a couple of readers did just that and were able to upgrade up to macOS Sierra.
This is awesome. Thank you!
Hey thanks for the awesome guide, i have an issue with unlocker though. when i install unlocker on CMD as admin, i get the following (attached)
it wont copy some files over as some of the comands are not recognised, soi get stuck at the apple logo.
Nevermind i sorted it, for all those stuck on the loading screen, install unlocker207. even 208 doesnt work with latest VMplayer.
Yes it does actually
Hi Jordan,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
It keeps saying I need a Workststion that supports Intel VT-x or AMD-V on Workststion 11 Pro
Hi Danny,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
It says "Mac OS X is not supported with binary translation. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Player supports Intel VT-x or AMD-V." for mee too. {Please help !!
You need to enable AMD-V in your BIOS menu.
Hi Anupama,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Hey Angelos, if you use VMware Workstation 12 (with unlocker 208), the "Install VMware tools" button works! I had the Darwin.iso put into one of the drives, however, but it started disconnected. Maybe this is a fluke, but this may work!
** warning ** running a vmware image like this you can infect your host PC. Be WARY of these images ** end warning **
@Angelos Kyritsis any way to enable 3D acceleration?
VMwareplayer 12 say: "Mac OSX is not supported with binary translation. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware supports Inte VT-x or AMD-V.".
What I've to do?
i have the same problem. any suggestions?
Hi Manuel,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Successfully did it with VMWare 10.x, But I'm getting error by Network. In mac internet connection is not working
Found the solution
Post it if you remember it. Might help someone else.
Use connector instead of WIFI. and set default ip for it.
Following these instructions on Windows 10 1607, VMWare Player 12.5, and Unlocker
Worked as advertised, and I was able to update to 12.12 Sierra as well.
So I got everything working, installed fine. I'm using VMware Workstation Pro 12 and the only complaint it I cant get my Webcam to connect. any ideas?
Does your webcam connect to a Windows VM? So we can know if it's a problem with VMware or with OS X.
I only have the OS X. Do I have to create a second VM to verify. If it helps I'm doing all this on my Asus laptop and the camera is embedded. VMware recognizes that there is a camera but when I try to connect it to OS X it says driver error
I get to this screen and can go no further. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb6ef96631b7c70c03b47f5f65413e88e8d5627760ae662a7242455d2b01506f.jpg
Hi Leo,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Great, it worked with me!! :) Just wanted to run Xcode without buying a mac.
I installed everything according to the instructions, even un-installed and re-installed twice. I have VM Player 7.1.4 and I've tried unlocker206, 207, and 208. I'm stuck on the apple icon (no loading bar, just the icon). I've read that there may be an issue with the unlocker (I followed the instructions and installed through CMD as admin). Anyone have any suggestions? Other than this issue, the install has been very easy and straight-forward but I cannot seem to get around this.
Hi,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
Just want to say the steps worked perfectly as someone that's on a Windows 7-x64 OS and using the newer unlock installer (v208). The only addition I had to do was go into the BIOS to turn on Intel Virtualization Technology before running the virtual machine for the first time. Thanks Angelos!
Is this a legal copy of Mac OS from Apple? Can we install Sierra same way?
As far as we can tell, it hasn't been tampered with. However, no Mac OS installed on a non-Apple device is legal, according to the Apple ToS. It's the same with Hackintosh.
We haven't tried macOS Sierra yet, but it should work the same way.
If installing a Mac OS on a non-Apple device in not legal, what is Apple doing about this? And what are the possible consequences?
Hi,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra.
Well following the directions, step by step, including the magnet torrent link, It's now working on my Windows 10 Computer. Pretty cool. OS X 10.10 currently, but right now it's upgrading to MacOS Sierra. So I'll see if it will still boot up after the upgrade. I have had a few times where I wanted to use XCode. Instead of being forced to buy a MAC, I hope this will work. I'd like to play with it some anyway. I want to try running some Linux also. So I'll do that next. I'm waiting now for the OS update to finish in about 7 minutes now so I can just report that here in this message.
Well it took a while to finish the Update to MacOS Sierra. But it's working. So that's cool. Now I can play around with it and see what does and doesn't work. I'll have to show my Dad as he has a Mac Mini and I don't think it can run this newest OS. I'll have to check. If you follow the directions, Step, by Step exacly, it works!!!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81df3aaab42b60db2e3d7be1f256cbfc0d45a3ab47a4f1369caaf546901502e8.png
Hi JBDragon, I am also trying to run a virtual machine for the purpose of installing xcode (I wish to use it to sideload Kodi on my iPad). I have followed the steps on this page and got a working Yosemete VM.
Can you please assist by explaining what the next steps are to follow in order to upgrade to a later version of OS ? The Apple Store will not allow me to download xcode using this version...
Thanks, Lavi
I havn't had a chance to do much since I posted my results. Once it was running, I was able to get my Laser Printer working, and other things, and do a software Update at which time the new OS was offered to download and I did. It downloaded and installed without issue. I'm trying to run it now and I'm getting a error which is strange as it has been working. I need to spend some time and figure out what's going on.
is it normal that the apple logo takes forever to load on the first try?
I keep getting the error : The CPU has been disabled by the guest operating system. Power off or reset the virtual machine but I followed all the steps. What's wrong?
Hi Jack,
We refreshed the guide for the latest version macOS Sierra, and also added some troubleshooting for VMware Workstation Player. Check out if it works for you now.
What are you referring to? I see nothing in this guide that relates to having this CPU issue, which I have on my system with the A10 APU. Can you specifically call out the section you mean?
Hello, the whole thing works for me expect for the last part. It says i can't install VMware tools in this location, it does not allow to be installed here. However i have no other locations as options. What can i do?
I have the same issue
use the version provided with the torrent. it's in VMware unlocker - mac osx guest > vmware 8 9 10+ series > tools
Anyone tried to compile Objective C in this Mac VM?
This worked perfectly, saved my ass on some quick testing needed on Mac in a Windows dev environment.
Thanks for the write-up! I'm running into some trouble trying to get Sierra started up with Virtualbox 5.1.22 on Win10 1704. Booting the machine gets to the point in the screenshot then it just reboots.
Also, in the virtualbox directions, you have the line "On the "Network" section, we make sure the options are as follows" but then there are no network settings listed.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/24056e3f250bdbb0d2465aa64623672d0a9b1ed04f3f1bf79a9957ed1b8170ae.jpg