Step 1: Open your VirtualBox then click on Start or Run the macOS Sierra VM. And run your Virtual Machine new macOS Sierra in your VirtualBox on your Windows 10 computer. Step 2: Again you’ll see another black screen with all geeky code on it. Don’t worry, it’s just doing its thing.
VMware Unlocker is a program that allows you to install Mac OS X onto any computer using VMWare or VirtualBox to create a Hackintosh. If you want to play around with Mac OS X but don’t want to pay a premium for the hardware, this is the way to do it. You can install and use Mac OS X on many Intel-based computers and experiment to your heart’s content. This tutorial will walk you through how to run Mac OS X in Windows 10 with VMware Unlocker.
A Hackintosh is the popular term for installing Mac OS X onto a non-Apple device such as a normal PC. The OS will work much the same as on an Apple but within a virtual machine. As long as you follow these instructions exactly, you should notice no difference in terms of usability and utility between a genuine Mac and a Hackintosh.
You will need an Intel-based computer running Windows 10. You will need virtualization enabled in your UEFI/BIOS, a copy of VMware Unlocker, 7-Zip and Mac OS X for VMware. There are lots of sources of Mac OS X and I only link to one. If you want to use another, as long as it’s compatible with VMware and Hackintosh setups you’re all good. This version of Mac OS X is Yosemite and comes with VMware OS X files for use with VMware Unlocker.
Setting everything up
If you have an Intel PC and have downloaded the files above, we can get started. The Mac OS X download is around 6GB so if you haven’t gotten it already, you might want to start the download ahead of time.
Once you’re ready, it’s time to get going.
- Reboot your computer and load into the UEFI/BIOS. Hit Delete when your keyboard lights up to access this.
- Navigate to wherever Virtualization is within your BIOS and enable it. Different manufacturers put it in different places so explore to find yours.
- Boot into Windows once enabled.
- Install VMware Workstation from here.
- Install 7-Zip or other free archiving tool if you don’t already have it.
- Download VMware Unlocker, extract it somewhere and install it. It will patch VMware Workstation so it will load Mac OS X.
- Open your Mac OS X folder and run both win-install.cmd and win-update-tools.cmd as an administrator.
- Open VMware Workstation and select Open a Virtual Machine.
- Select the Mac OS X VMX file you downloaded and open it.
- Select Edit virtual machine settings within VMware Workstation.
- Select Options and Version and set it to Mac OS X 10.7.
- Change any other options you see fit such as memory, disk space and so on.
- Select Power and Start Up Guest when you’re ready.
- Follow the Mac OS X installation wizard that will appear. It takes a few minutes but is very good.
- Go back to VMware Workstation and select Settings.
- Navigate to CD/DVD and browse to the darwin.iso file from within the Mac OS X folder you downloaded.
- Check the box next to Connected at the top.
- Go back to Mac OS X and you should see a popup for VMware Tools. If you don’t, reboot the VM.
- Install VMware Tools when prompted and reboot again.
- Go back to VMware Workstation and select Settings.
- Navigate to CD/DVD and browse to the BeamOff.iso file from within the Mac OS X folder.
- In Mac OS X navigate to System Preferences and Users and Groups.
- Select your account and then Login Items.
- Select the small ‘+’ icon in the left and select BeamOff.
- Reboot if prompted.
Your Hackintosh should now be fully functional. Depending on what file has been uploaded as the Mac OS X source, you may be running Yosemite or El Capitan. If this article has been published for a while, it may be something else completely. If you are prompted by OS X to perform updates, it is safe to do so. When I installed Mac OS X using this method I was prompted to upgrade to El Capitan. It took a little while but it installed and worked without any problems.
BeamOff is optional and works mainly to improve website performance. If you’re running a high spec PC, you may not need to install it but if you notice slowdowns in your Hackintosh performance, install it and see if it makes a difference.
This method isn’t exactly legal so you have to use your own judgment as to whether or not to build your own Hackintosh. TechJunkie isn’t recommending or condoning it but knowledge is free to all and if you’re going to do it, you may as well do it right.
That’s all there is to running Mac OS X in Windows 10 with VMware Unlocker. Have you tried it? Had any issues? Tell us about your experience below.
Whether you want to occasionally test a website in Safari, or try out a little bit of software in the Mac environment, having access to the latest version of macOS in a virtual machine is useful. Unfortunately, you’re not really supposed to do this—so getting macOS running in VirtualBox is, to say the least, tricky.
It’s not impossible, however. Some of the folks at the InsanelyMac forums have figured out a process that works. The only thing not working is sound, which for some reason is highly distorted or nonexistent. Other than that, though, this is macOS High Sierra, running smoothly in VirtualBox.
To make things a little easier for people, we’ve combined methods from a few different forum threads into a single, step-by-step tutorial, complete with screenshots. Let’s dive in.
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NOTE: In order to get this working, you will need access to a real Mac in order to download High Sierra. You could, we suppose, obtain a High Sierra ISO by other means, but we don’t recommend it. Borrow a friend’s Mac for an hour if you don’t have one, and you should be fine—everything beyond step one of this tutorial can be done on your Windows PC.
If you’re on a Mac and want a macOS virtual machine for use on that Mac, we recommend checking out out Parallels Desktop Lite instead, because it can create macOS virtual machines for free and is a lot easier to work with.
Ready to get started? Let’s jump in!
Step One: Create a macOS High Sierra ISO File
To start, we’ll need to create an ISO file of macOS High Sierra’s installer, so we can load it in VirtualBox on our Windows machine. Grab your borrowed Mac, head to the Mac App Store, search for Sierra, and click “Download.”
When the process is done, the installer will launch—that’s okay, just close it with Command+Q. We don’t want to upgrade your friend’s Mac; we just need the downloaded files.
To convert those files to an ISO, we’ll need to use the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities.
First, run the following command to create a blank disk image:
Next, mount your blank image:
Now you’re going to restore BaseSystem.dmg from the installer over to the newly mounted image:
Note that, after doing this, the name of our destination mount point has changed to “OS X Base System/System.” You’re almost done! Unmount the image:
And, finally, convert the image you created into an ISO file:
Move the ISO to the desktop:
And you’ve got a bootable High Sierra ISO file!
Copy it to your Windows machine using a large flash drive, an external hard drive, or over your local network.
Step Two: Create Your Virtual Machine in VirtualBox
Next, head to your Windows machine, and install VirtualBox if you haven’t already, making sure you have the latest version (seriously, older versions may not work.)
Open it up and click the “New” button. Name your Virtual Machine “High Sierra,” and choose “Mac OS X” for the operating system and “Mac OS X (64-bit)” for the version (as of this writing, “macOS High Sierra” is not offered, but that’s fine.)
Continue through the process. For memory, we recommend you use at least 4096MB, though you can opt for more if you have enough RAM to spare on your Windows machine.
Next, you’ll be asked about your hard drive. Choose “Create a Virtual Hard Disk Now” and click Create.
Choose VDI for hard disk type and click Next. You’ll be asked if you want a dynamically sized drive or fixed. We recommend Fixed Size, since it’s a bit faster, though it’ll take up a bit more hard drive space on your Windows machine.
Click Next. You’ll be asked how big a drive you want; we recommend at least 25GB, which is big enough for the OS and a few applications. Depending on your storage situation, you could offer more, but we don’t think you can really use much less than that.
Click through the prompts, and you’ve created an entry for your virtual machine! Now it’s time to do a little configuration.
Step Three: Configure Your Virtual Machine in VirtualBox
You should see your virtual machine in VirtualBox’s main window.
Select it, then click the big yellow “Settings” button. First, head to “System” in the left sidebar. On the Motherboard tab, make sure that “Floppy” is unchecked.
Next head to the “Processor” tab, and make sure you have at least two CPUs allocated to the virtual machine.
Next, click “Display” in the left sidebar, and make sure Video Memory is set to at least 128MB.
Next, click “Storage” in the left sidebar, then click the “Empty” CD drive. Click the CD icon at the top right, then browse to the High Sierra ISO file you created earlier.
Be sure to click “OK” to finalize all the changes you’ve made, then close VirtualBox. No, seriously: close VirtualBox now, or the next steps won’t work.
Step Four: Configure Your Virtual Machine From The Command Prompt
We’ve made a few tweaks, but we need to make a few more more in order to convince the operating system it’s running on a real Mac. Sadly, there are no options for this from VirtualBox’s interface, so you’ll need to open the Command Prompt.
Open the Start Menu, search for “Command Prompt,” then right-click it and select “Run as administrator.”
You need to run a number commands, in order. Paste the following commands, pressing Enter after each one and waiting for it to complete:
That’s it! If everything worked, you shouldn’t see any feedback; the commands will simply run. If the command did not work, make sure your virtual machine is named “High Sierra” exactly; if it isn’t, edit the commands above putting your machine’s name in the quotes. Go ahead and close the Command Prompt. We’re heading back to VirtualBox now.
Step Five: Boot and Run The Installer
Re-open VirtualBox, click your Sierra machine, then click “Start.” Your machine will start to boot. You will see a lot of superfluous information as this happens—and I mean a lot—but don’t worry about it. It’s normal, even some of the things that look like errors.
You should only worry if a specific error hangs for five minutes or more. Just walk away and let it run for a bit. If you’ve done everything right, it’ll boot.
Eventually, you’ll see the installer asking you to pick a language:
Pick “English,” or whatever language you prefer, then click “Next.” Before you do anything else, however, click “Disk Utility” then “Continue.”
You won’t see the drive: don’t panic, High Sierra hides blank drives by default. In the menu bar, click “View” followed by “Show All Devices.”
You should now see your empty virtual drive in the sidebar. Click it, then click the “Erase” option.
Name the drive “Macintosh HD,” and leave the other two settings as-is: “Mac OS Extended Journaled” and “GUID Partition Map”. Do not create an AFS partition, because it will not work and you’ll have to start over with a new virtual hard drive. Click “Erase,” then close Disk Utility when the process is complete. You’ll be brought back to the main window.
Select “Reinstall macOS” then click “Continue.” You’ll be asked to agree with the terms.
Agree and you’ll eventually be asked to choose a hard drive; select the partition you just made.
The installation will begin! This might take a while, so be patient. Eventually your virtual machine will restart and take you…back to the installer. Don’t panic: this is to be expected.
Step Six: Boot Installer Stage Two From the Virtual Hard Drive
At this point the installer has copied files onto the virtual hard drive, and expects to boot from there. For whatever reason this does not work on the virtual machine, which is why you’re seeing the installer again.
Turn off your virtual machine and open its settings. Head to Storage, click “HighSierra.iso” in the “Storage Tree” panel, then click the CD icon at top-right and click “Remove Disk from Virtual Drive.” This will completely disconnect our installation ISO.
Now start up the virtual machine and you’ll see this lovely screen.
This is the EFI Internal Shell, and as long as you see “FS1” listed in yellow, you can use it to launch the rest of the installer. Click the virtual machine and allow it to capture you mouse and keyboard, then type fs1: and hit Enter. This will switch directories to FS1, where the rest of the installer is located.
Next we’re going to run a few commands in order to switch to the directory we need:
Now we can run the installer itself with the following command:
The installer will pick up where it left off. First you’ll see a series of text, like before, but eventually you’ll see the GUI installer come back. (Don’t worry, you only have to go through this process once.)
We’re getting there, just need a little bit more patience.
Step Eight: Log Into macOS High Sierra
Eventually the virtual machine will reboot again, this time into macOS High Sierra. If that doesn’t happen, try ejecting the ISO from the Virtual Machine. When High Sierra does boot, you’ll need to go through choosing your country, setting up a user, and the rest of the initial setup process.
Eventually, you’ll make it to the Mac desktop. Yay!
You can now try out any Mac software, though some functions, like FaceTime and Messages, won’t work because Apple won’t recognize your computer as a real Mac. But a lot of the basic stuff should work. Have fun!
Step Eight (Optional): Change Your Resolution
By default, your virtual machine will have a resolution of 1024×768, which is not a lot of room to work with. If you try to change the resolution from within macOS, however, you will see no option to do so. Instead, you need to enter a few commands.
Shut down your Virtual Machine by shutting down macOS: click the Apple in the menu bar, then click “Shut Down.” Next, close VirtualBox entirely (seriously, this step will not work if VirtualBox is still open!) and head back to Windows’ Command Prompt as an admin. You need to run the following two commands:
In the second command, you need to replace the N with a number from one to five, depending on what resolution you want:
- 1 gives you a resolution of 800×600
- 2 gives you a resolution of 1024×768
- 3 gives you a resolution of 1280×1024
- 4 gives you a resolution of 1440×900
- 5 gives you a resolution of 1920×1200
Start up VirtualBox, load up your virtual machine, and it should boot to your preferred resolution!
RELATED:10 VirtualBox Tricks and Advanced Features You Should Know About
From now on, you can open VirtualBox for any Mac-related testing you want to do. Again, you’ll see a lot of errors pop up during boot, but they’re fine; ignore them. Also, remember that audio won’t work, nor will things like FaceTime or iMessage, which require a real Mac. This isn’t going to be perfect, which is to be expected from an entirely unsupported setup. But it’s macOS, in a virtual machine, and that’s not bad! Be sure to check out our guide to VirtualBox’s advanced features to get the most out of your machine, too.
One more thing: a huge shout-out to Chad S. Samuels, without whom I could not have updated this guide for High Sierra. Thank you so much!
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