How to Run Windows Software on Apple Mac

Apple Mac OSX computers are now powered by Intel processors and thus you can run most software programs on a Mac that were written for a Windows PC because the Mac hardware is now the same as a PC.

Boot Camp Tutorial: Install Windows XP on Mac

With Apple Boot Camp, you can partition the Mac hard drive and install Windows on a new partition alongside OSX. The two operating systems then co-exist on your hard disk, allowing you to dual boot but you still need to reboot your Mac to switch from one to the other.

If that sounds limiting, PCW has listed some Bootcamp alternatives:

Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion and Sun Virtualbox (free) all allow you to create virtual machines (VMs) on your Mac hard disk, onto which you can install a complete operating system, such as Windows or even Linux (Linux is not officially supported by Boot Camp).

Also see: VMWare Fusion vs Parallels Desktop vs Apple Boot Camp

The VM then runs within a window on the main Mac desktop, just like any ordinary Mac application, except that it’s running an entire operating system rather than a single application. This means you can see the standard Windows desktop running within a window on the Mac desktop, and can launch any Windows program within that VM.

Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal

Google Developer Expert, Google Cloud Champion

Amit Agarwal is a Google Developer Expert in Google Workspace and Google Apps Script. He holds an engineering degree in Computer Science (I.I.T.) and is the first professional blogger in India.

Amit has developed several popular Google add-ons including Mail Merge for Gmail and Document Studio. Read more on Lifehacker and YourStory

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Awards & Titles

Digital Inspiration has won several awards since it's launch in 2004.

Google Developer Expert

Google Developer Expert

Google awarded us the Google Developer Expert award recogizing our work in Google Workspace.

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

ProductHunt Golden Kitty

Our Gmail tool won the Lifehack of the Year award at ProductHunt Golden Kitty Awards in 2017.

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft MVP Alumni

Microsoft awarded us the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for 5 years in a row.

Google Cloud Champion

Google Cloud Champion

Google awarded us the Champion Innovator title recognizing our technical skill and expertise.

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