Run macOS on Windows using VMware

The following are the steps on running macOS on Windows using VMware:

  1. Download the macOS VMWare image and unzip it. The following are the download links of some macOS different versions:

  2. Download and install VMWare Player (it is free). The following are the download links VMWare Player including its earlier versions:

    If your OS is 32-bit, the latest VMWare Player version that you can install is version 6. Later than that version VMWare Player requires a 64-bit OS. So if your OS is 32-bit, you might want to download the VMWare Player version 6 and earlier or upgrade your OS to 64-bit system.

    In VMware Player version 14 and later, requires your system running on CPU launched in 2011 or later except (click here for the list of exceptions). You can seach and check here the details of your Intel CPU including its launched year. You will get the following error if your CPU does not fall in the System Requirements and you'd try to run VMWare image on version 14 player.

    This host does not support "Intel EPT" hardware assisted MMU virtualization.

  3. Make sure that Intel VT-x or AMD-V is enabled in your BIOS, VMware requires it if you run a 64-bit Guest OS (which is macOS). This make the hardware assisted virtualization possible. You will get the following error if it is not enabled or your CPU does not support Virtualization technology.

    This host doesn't support VT

    If happens your CPU does not support Virtualization technology, there is a VMware Hardware Virtualization Bypasser patch. Download it at:

    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ttv-l9YJ7fGExoDxr0vMMSMM09t9lScX

    7-zip password: vmware

    Extract and run the vmware-vmx-patch.exe

    However, the patch only works on the following VMWare Workstation/Player versions:

    • VMWare Workstation 7.1.3 build 324285 or VMWare Player 3.1.3 build-324285

    • VMWare Workstation 7.1.4 build 385536 or VMWare Player 3.1.4 build 385536

    • VMWare Workstation 8.0.0 build 471780 or VMWare Player 4.0.0 build 471780

    • VMWare Workstation 8.0.1 build 528992 or VMWare Player 4.0.1 build 528992

    • VMWare Workstation 8.0.2 build 591240 or VMWare Player 4.0.2 build 591240

    • VMWare Workstation 8.0.3 build 703057 or VMWare Player 4.0.3 build 703057

  4. macOS as Guest OS is not available by default in VMWare for Windows and Linux. We need to download and run the VMware macOS Guest Unlocker patch. It can be downloaded at:

    https://github.com/DrDonk/unlocker

  5. Run your VMWare, browse the .vmx file and open it. Edit the virtual machine settings according to your likings and hardware resources available in your system.

  6. Lets download the VMware Tools for OS X (darwin.iso) to improve the performance of our macOS Guest OS. It can be downloaded at:

    http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/files/file/31-vmware-tools-for-os-x-darwiniso

    You will need to register an account on that website in order to have access to download it. Anyway, its free. Then extract it after the download is completed.

  7. Run the macOS Guest OS. Once the macOS setup and booted up, click the "VM" at the VMWare menu, go to "Removable Devices", then CD/DVD, click the "Settings..." option, check the "Connected" checkbox, select the "Use ISO image file", browse the darwin.iso VMware Tools that we downloaded and click the button "OK" (this will mount the VMware Tools on macOS). Install the VMware Tools.

  8. To improve further the VM performance download the application "BeamOff" and extract it inside your macOS Guest OS. This application tool disables beam synchronization which turns out to improve the macOS Guest OS performance. In your macOS Guest OS go to System Preferences, Users & Groups, click on your User account, select "Login Items", then click the "+", browse and select the extracted "BeamOff" application. This known to work best on macOS 10.10 Yosemite.

  9. If you encounter the following error:

    The CPU has been disabled by the guest operating system

    Append the following line at your .vmx file:

    cpuid.1.eax = "0000:0000:0000:0001:0000:0110:1010:0101"

    The line above masks the CPU ID (it is a CPUID mask of Xeon E5520 Quad Core processor). This fix known to work on macOS 10.7 Lion.

    If after applying the fix and got the following error message spit out by macOS:

    Thread 0 crashed

    Mac OS version: not yet set

    CPU with Hyper-Threading Technology upgrade is needed to run properly the macOS version 10.12 and later.

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