If you are a macOS user, you have probably already encountered this on some occasions. the problem of needing to open .exe files on Mac. Probably as a last option not finding any version of the program or executable compatible or developed for macOS. Currently, with Windows being the computer platform par excellence, this case can occur frequently. More especially when we talk about computer games.
In today's article we will see the possibilities we have from our Mac computer to solve this compatibility problem. We already told you that There is no easy path and you will have to prepare, in one way or another, your team to jump over this wall when you come across it. Let's see how to do it.
First of all, let's understand the big difference between a Windows operating system and one with macOS. To give us an idea of the internal difference there is, Only the file system used by Windows cannot be handled 100% by a Mac computer. It can only read its content, but never write to it. In fact, the option to be able to read it is a compatibility method.
If this already means a problem in what would be something like the foundations of the operating system At the level of managing files, imagine how really complex it can be for an .exe file that is not designed for the operating system to read, write and know where to direct these files, temporary or not. A real madness.
Our first big solution will be use a Windows instance, virtual or not, to run said executable directly on a Windows platform. This may have different limitations depending on how we do it. Lastly, we have an additional option which would be install an emulator program that can run .exe files on Mac although with many more limitations. We will see them point by point.
Open .exe files on Mac from a Windows instance
As we discussed earlier, We will have two ways to carry out this step. We can either run a virtual Windows on our Mac, or have a partition with Windows on our Mac for this type of need. Let's look at both cases in a little more detail.
Run a virtual Windows on the Mac
To carry out this work We will need to install software on our computer that is capable of running a virtual Windows about our macOS operating system. We have a few options, but the most notable are the following:
Parallels
This application is one of the most popular among Mac users. Even though it is paid, It is capable of opening a virtual Windows on our macOS. In this virtual operating system we can open the .exe file without any problem, as if we had Windows on our computer.
The main disadvantage, apart from the high price, is that since one operating system is running on top of another, Windows operating system performance will be limited. So, for example, if the .exe files that we want to open are made with very heavy applications or games, performance will be significantly reduced by this dual operating system.
Its advantage, on the other hand, will be simplicity and simplicity in terms of configuration for a user who does not have much computer knowledge.
VirtualBox
This other program is virtual machine emulation software. In it we can set up a virtual computer executable from our Mac that will run on Windows or any other operating system that we want to install.
Its main disadvantage will be the requirement on the part of the user to have some additional knowledge for the correct configuration of the virtual machine or subsequent installation of the operating system on it.
Its advantage, on the contrary, will be that In exchange we will have better performance of the virtual operating system and a more obvious separation of the virtual and native Mac operating systems.
Open .exe files on Mac from a Windows partition
At this other point, the solution is install a complete Windows operating system on a separate partition of our macOS. This way we can start our Mac with a Windows operating system directly.
The main disadvantage in this case is the discomfort of having to completely shut down one operating system and turn the other back on. This change between platforms with a Mac shutdown in between can be really uncomfortable.
On the other hand we have the great advantage, and the one that It will give us viable possibilities to run very heavy applications or even games. The fact of directly running a Windows operating system will mean that we do not have two operating systems running simultaneously and we will have all the power of the Mac available for whatever we want.
For the two possibilities that we have seen previously, since they require previous steps such as setting up a virtual machine or installing a Windows operating system on a new partition on the Mac, We provide you with a link to another article so you can learn how to do it. This way you can prepare your Mac to deal with the problem of opening .exe files in future cases.
Open .exe files on Mac with a third-party app
Finally we have one last possibility. We will can use an emulator to open the .exe files directly on our Mac.
If you have used a Linux operating system at any time Maybe you know the very popular utility of Wine. This is capable of opening .exe files in the Linux operating system itself. Now, this type of emulations opens a fairly limited version of the program in question, so It will only be useful for simple programs that do not entail a high workload for the team.
Well, Wine also has a version for Mac. Many users of the bitten apple platform are unaware of this possibility. It works exactly the same as in this case that we mentioned about Linux. Once the application is installed we will be able to open .exe files on the Mac.
The opening method will be simple, We will only have to select the Wine application as the default application for files with .exe extension. We can do it from settings, or with the typical right click and open with another application.
The difficult thing in this case will be its installation since lacks a conventional installation file like the one we can find in most applications. Your installation is must be done through the Mac Terminal. Luckily on the official Wine website we can find a step by step to install it.
See the official Wine for Mac website
Finally, tell you that, although you can find more options similar to Wine, even some with a conventional installer, Our recommendation is still to use Wine, because the other applications do not give good results or have not been supported for years.