So if your copy of Windows running in a virtual machine becomes corrupted or damaged in some way, you can simply reinstall it in the virtual machine with no effect on your Mac.

This is because one of the advantages of a virtual machine is that any viruses, bugs, or problems are isolated to the virtual machine itself instead of your Mac due to the way they “sandbox” the operating system on your Mac. Virtual machines are also popular with programmers and developers that need to test software in a certain operating system. Games that require DirectX 12 or use anti-cheat software do not work in virtual machines. Virtual machines can also be used to play Windows only games on a Mac although this doesn’t work for all games. The most common reason to use a virtual machine on a Mac is in order to use Windows only applications or games.Įxamples include Microsoft Visio, Publisher and Access all of which aren’t available for Mac.

In our extensive research, we found that Parallels is the best virtual machine for Mac making it easy to install Windows 11 on a Mac including M1/M2 Macs and switch between macOS and Windows seamlessly. However, there are various Virtual Machines on the market and they all perform differently so we’ve taken a look at which VMs work best on a Mac in 2023. You can simply switch to Windows in macOS for example like you would with any other application on your Mac and start using it. Most commonly they are used to run Windows on a Mac but they can also be used to run Linux and older versions of macOS too.Īlthough there are various ways to run Windows on a Mac, Virtual Machines are the most convenient because you don’t have to shut down your Mac to use them. Virtual Machines, also known as virtualization machines, virtual environments, hypervisors or simply VMs, allow you to run another operating system in macOS.

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