Running Windows applications on Mac OS X without Windows.

For people who have to live in both PC and Mac world or who migrated to a Mac after several years with a PC – this article can help you.

Although it’s “cool” to have a PC and a Mac on your desk but it’s not practical unless you just want to boot both the machines but work on one and keep the other running to show how sophisticated you are.

There are several ways of running Windows applications on Mac OS X. Let’s focus on them one at a time:

1. Boot Camp

Mac OS X (flavor: Leopard) lets you run Windows if there’s a PC application you need to use. After Mac shifted to Intel platform, this was bound to happen. Leopard features Boot Camp out of the box and all you need is Windows OS. Launch Boot Camp, follow the on screen instructions and you’ll have Windows on your Mac pretty quick. After you’ve installed Windows using Boot Camp, you can start up your Mac using either operating system. When you power up, press and hold the Option key and you’ll get a dual boot menu. You can also make Windows the default OS.

Pros:

- Boot Camp comes with Mac OS X Leopard. No extra cost.
- Runs Windows at native speed.
- You can pretty much run anything on Windows that Windows can support.

Cons:

- Need Windows OS. Extra cost if you don’t already have it.
- You can run one OS at a time.
- Windows will eat your disk space. It may not be a huge concern but with a full Windows installation and everything you install on it, you are looking at more than a few gigs of disk space.

2. Parallels Desktop for Mac OS X

Parallels lets you run Windows on Max OS X as a virtual machine. This means that you can run Windows from within Mac OS X. Technically, a virtual machine is a part of your primary operating system with pseudo-dedicated resources for its operation. From a user stand point, Parallels is a software that you can install on Mac OS X. Launch Parallels, run through the on screen instructions, install Windows and you are done.

Parallels lets you configure how much disk space and memory (RAM) you want to allocate your virtual machine i.e Windows OS in this case. If your Mac has 2 GB of RAM, you can dedicate 1 GB to Windows and keep 1 GB for Mac OS X. For disk space, either you can dedicate a fixed amount or keep it floating. With a floating option, you specify a minimum amount of disk space that the virtual machine will use and allow it to grow on the fly if it runs out.

Pros:

1. You can runs Windows and Mac OS X at the same. Share files between the two operating systems on the fly, drag and drop files, run applications simultaneously and so on.
2. No need to reboot to get into Windows and vice-versa.
3. You don’t have to run Windows at all. It’s optional, launch Parallels when you want to run windows else keep working away on your Mac OS X. When you are not running Windows, all your system resources save the disk space are used by Mac OS X. As we discussed above, if you give Windows 1 GB out of 2 GB of system RAM, then Windows will only get hold of that 1 GB if the virtual machine is running. If you have not started Windows (from within Mac OS X), then Max OS X can gleefully keep using all 2 GB of RAM.

Cons:

1. Need Windows OS if you don’t already have it.
2. Parallels is a 3rd party software that needs to be bought.
3. Virtual machine does not run applications at native speed i.e. if you run Windows by itself and run Windows as a virtual machine, the performance is not the same.
4. To open a Windows application or a file associated with a Windows application, Windows needs to be running as a virtual machine.

3. CrossOver for Mac OS X

The final solution that we’ll discuss today is CrossOver for Mac OS X. This is a third party software that lets you run Windows applications on Mac OS X but without the need to install Windows.

CrossOver is based on Wine. Hang on, not the red or white wine in your kitchen cabinet. Wine is an implementation of Windows API on Unix and is covered by LGPL license. It’s an open source effort and comprises of Wine Loader (to run Windows binaries) and WineLib (to compile Windows source).

The company that develops CrossOver has extended Wine or lets say customized Wine to make it a little more user friendly and a commercial offering. More information about the actual Wine program (free and open source) can be found here: http://www.winehq.org.

CrossOver lets you create Bottles (a CrossOver term), which is defined as a portable Windows virtual machine. The beauty of this is that you don’t need actual Windows OS to be installed. Bottle is a very light weight virtual machine that runs Windows applications.

Install CrossOver. Launch CrossOver, create a Bottle (Windows 2000, Windows Xp or Windows Vista) and start installing applications in the Bottle. You can create and manage multiple Bottles i.e. you can run multiple versions of Windows or same version of Windows multiple times as different Bottles.

Please note that you still need licenses for all the Windows commercial applications (like MS Office etc.) you plan to install. Of course, you need a license if you plan to install that application. If you only install freewares and open source apps, then don’t have to worry about licenses.

Pros:

- Run Windows OS without a license for Windows.
- Run applications at native speed
- If you insert a CD/DVD containing a Windows application, then CrossOver will automatically recognize that and launch itself.
- Create and manage multiple Bottles. You can choose to install applications in the same Bottle as well.
- Seamless flow of information between Windows and Mac OS X.
- Launch Windows application directly from your Mac OS X desktop. For ex: if you have installed MS Word 2007 and you have a .docx document sitting on your desktop; simply double click the document name and CrossOver will automatically start and open that document in MS Word for you.
- Uses minimal disk space. Uses minimal RAM. Of course, Windows applications themselves can take RAM they need to execute.

Cons:

- Third party software; not free.
- Can NOT run all Windows applications.
- A slight lag when running Windows applications. Although it’s seamless for the most part, but sometimes you can feel that uneasiness when running Windows in a non-native environment.

That sums up our discussion for Running Windows applications on Mac OS X. We discussed options when you have Windows and don’t have Windows. Enjoy.

—-
Abhi Garg

[The author is a Software Consultant and helps clients with Custom Software Development, Systems Integration, Web Design & Development and Search Engine Optimization.]