You should remember that running an emulator will not cause any problems with your Mac however, it will slow down as the emulator will eat up more CPU and RAM.Software & Apps How to Run Windows 11 for Free on an M1 or M2 Macįor many years, Apple made it easy to run Windows on your Mac. You can also try Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion if Boot Camp is not to your liking. If you want to run high-end Windows games, Boot Camp is a good choice. Now that you know which are the top emulators and virtualization tools, you can make an informed decision. This is a paid tool, and it supports various Windows games and apps. You can run your favorite Windows apps without rebooting your system and they can work simultaneously with other Mac apps. It does not emulate the Windows experience and you do not need an additional Windows license to run this tool. Wine stands for ‘Wine is not an emulator.’ This is because this tool only runs apps and does not emulate Windows.ĬrossOver is also similar to Wine. It however, doesn’t come with any additional support and you will have to run it with the help of online tools.

This is an open-source tool, meaning it is free. For those running newer MacOS versions, there are unofficial versions of this tool. It doesn’t run a complete Windows OS on your Mac, as other tools do.

This tool is beneficial if you only want to run one or two Windows apps. If you’re using an old MacOS version (before Catalina), Wine is an excellent free tool to use. The emulator provides good hardware support and connected printers and cameras work well with it. If you want to use Windows for business purposes, you will need a paid version that comes with better features and tech support. Although not that easy to install, it is ideal for personal or educational use. This is a free emulator and offers better support for Windows apps, games and 3D graphics. Just like Parallels Desktop, VirtualBox allows you to create a virtual environment on Mac and run Windows on it. It’s easy to install and requires an annual subscription. Parallels Desktop allows you to run Windows OS within your MacOS without the need for a reboot. This allows you to run Windows apps and games in it. This tool allows you to create a virtual machine where you can install Windows OS. The best part of this tool is it gets a yearly update, and it stays compatible with the latest macOS. The latest version of this emulator is also compatible with Apple M1 Macs.

This emulator works similarly to VMWare Fusion however, it comes with better support.

Run windows apps on mac free