said that the software ecosystem of macOS is very rich now, we will still encounter scenarios where Windows software is needed-the "Only Windows" of the major domestic online banking U-Shields is still stubborn, and some industrial control software is only available in Windows, of course. There are a large number of Windows version games in major game stores. And if your desktop device only has macOS, then running Windows software on a Mac must be a problem you have thought about.
There are generally three ways to run Windows software on Mac:
is the most direct way to install dual system on Mac -use Bootcamp tool to divide specific storage space on Mac, and then install Windows in dual system form. The advantages are self-evident: the Windows system can fully utilize the performance of the Mac hardware; of course, the disadvantages are also prominent. When you need to run software on Windows, you must restart the device to switch the system, and you need to check the device before installing the Windows system. Divide fixed partitions, which makes the storage space available for macOS smaller.
The second method is application virtualization , such as setting up a virtual running middle layer running Windows program software on the Mac, so that Windows software can be run directly in this "middle layer". The more mature ones are currently used. It is based on Wine's application container technology. The advantage of this method is that you can run Windows applications directly without installing the Windows operating system. The disadvantage is that the compatibility is not good, and the container operating environment configuration process is very complicated, and the commercial solution based on Wine is also expensive.
The third method is to use desktop virtualization technology to install the Windows operating system through virtual machine software on the Mac, so as to realize the installation and operation of Windows software in the virtual machine. The advantage is that it takes up less system resources and is compatible. It is strong and easy to operate, but the disadvantage is that it has higher requirements for the performance of the equipment.
Why choose a virtual machine to run Windows applications on a Mac
Therefore, the most mature way to run Windows applications is through virtualization software. Compared with the other two solutions, the virtual machine setup is the simplest, and you can install it with just a few mouse clicks. Windows virtual machine; in terms of security, due to the use of virtualization technology, the operations on Windows are "strictly isolated" and will not affect the original macOS of the system, while taking into account the interoperability of dual systems. The hardware of the virtual machine system adopts virtualization technology, so to a certain extent, it can achieve excellent device hardware compatibility (no need to consider issues such as installing hardware drivers on Windows). What virtual machine software is available on
Mac?
Compared with Windows or Linux, there are a lot of virtualization software or platforms. There are not many virtualization softwares available on macOS. There are currently three virtualization softwares on the market:
Oracle VirtualBox
Open source virtualization software developed by Oracle , You can install multiple operating systems on multiple system platforms. Oracle VirtualBox supports hardware virtualization, but the use of virtual systems is relatively old-fashioned. For example, virtual systems can only be run through windows, and applications in virtual machines must also be in this window, and cannot achieve cross-operations like other virtualization software. System interoperability; in addition, Oracle VirtualBox is not effective in 3D support, and it is almost impossible to run 3D software on Windows normally.
Parallels Desktop
The most prestigious virtual machine software on Mac, which can achieve interoperability across operating systems (use the software on the Windows virtual machine to open the MacYou don’t need to open the virtual machine system window first), and has excellent 3D performance (supports DirectX and OpenGL 3), so you can directly run some large Windows 3D applications and games.
The only disadvantage of Parallels Desktop is the unreasonable charging system. Although it is updated almost a year and closely follows the latest version of macOS, each major version update and upgrade will cost another 358 yuan, and the new license costs 498 yuan, so if the frequency of use is not high, the cost performance is relatively low.
VMware Fusion
, a major virtualization technology manufacturer VMware, has launched virtualization software on the Mac, which can do very well in the 3D performance of virtual machines (slightly inferior to Parallels Desktop). Starting from VMware Fusion 12 released this fall, is available The free VMware Fusion Player license for individual users. In other words, if you just use it to run games, then the free VMware Fusion is very cost-effective!
VMware Fusion Player: Perhaps the most cost-effective virtualization solution on Mac
Although in my opinion VMware Fusion Player is the most cost-effective choice for virtual Windows on Mac, how does VMware Fusion Player compare to the full-featured version of VMware Fusion Pro? What features are missing?
According to the comparison chart on the official website, VMware Fusion Player can only run a single virtual machine, and does not support encrypted virtual machines, snapshots, advanced network links, virtual machine clones, shared virtual machines and other advanced services compared to the commercial licensed version. But it should be noted that the core virtual functions of are exactly the same as the commercial subscription version of , so VMware Fusion Player 12 is sufficient to meet the needs of our individual users.
VMware Fusion Player and VMware Fusion Pro feature comparison
According to the update content of VMware Fusion 12, in addition to supporting macOS Big Sur released in the second half of the year and using new virtualization APIs to run virtual machines, VMware Fusion 12 also joins Support for the latest 3D technology. Now I will actually experience the operation based on VMware Fusion 12 to see if this "the most cost-effective virtual machine application on the Mac" is really "true".
Install and import Windows virtual machine
Install VMware Fusion according to the steps. The first step is to create or import a virtual machine. VMware Fusion provides quite a few installation methods: installing directly from the CD and image is the most direct and the installation we use the longest. Form; and if you have already installed Windows on Boot Camp, you can also choose to install from there. Of course, in terms of flexibility, it is actually the most straightforward to install directly from the mirror.
Choose to install from the mirror and click Continue, directly select the downloaded Windows 10 installation mirror and click Continue to reach the quick installation section. Here you can select the target Windows version, fill in the account and password for the local login, and enter the key in advance. To realize the automatic operation of installation and activation, it should be noted that the account and password here are not Microsoft network accounts, but local accounts.
choose to continue and enter the "integration" interface. There are two options: one is "more independent" and the other is "more seamless". Among them, "more seamless" refers to the aforementioned host system and Windows virtualOn-machine interoperability, for example, you can directly start Windows software when opening certain files on the Mac; while "more independent" is more like a traditional virtual machine interaction form, a bit similar to Windows remote control operations. Here I chose "more seamless" to experience.
Click Continue to directly generate the configuration summary, and click Finish to create a new Windows virtual machine system. The subsequent virtual hardware configuration can also be set individually.
Immediately after the Windows virtual machine, the system will automatically start to run and install the system. After the installation is complete, it will automatically enter the system desktop under the local account.
Setting up the virtual machine and the latest VMware Fusion new features
entering the virtual machine desktop for the first time will not immediately enter the Fusion "seamless mode", but still the more traditional application window independent mode-Windows virtual machines are in one like other applications Run in the window, and there will be a row of control options on the window, such as snapshots, virtual hardware control, etc., and only after the virtual machine is installed and ready to run, we can control the "virtual "Hardware" to adjust accordingly:
First we close the virtual machine, and then open the settings of the current virtual machine. In the "Processor and Memory" option, you can modify the memory usage and the number of processor cores used, or enable hardware virtualization technology and Management procedures. Especially when the hardware performance of your original Mac is relatively good, adjusting the hardware used by the default virtualization can make the virtual machine run more smoothly (the default is only allocated to the virtual machine's lowest runnable virtual hardware).
Of course, compared to other virtualization software, the most advantageous part of VMware Fusion is its 3D graphics performance: Accelerated 3D graphics is checked by default in "Display", and it supports the newer DIrectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 , Which makes it no longer difficult for the virtual machine to run some 3D games on Windows.
In addition to the latest 3D framework, Fusion has also added support for eGPU, which is suitable for Mac devices using Thunderbolt 3 external graphics docking station; while using R full-resolution display is specifically optimized for the display of Windows 10 virtual machines , Through display adaptation to avoid various display problems such as blurred application windows caused by high-resolution screens. And these new features are new changes that only existed since Fusion 12. You can set some interoperability items in the "Default Application" of another item in the
settings. For example, check the "Run Windows application from the application folder of the Mac" and then go to the "Applications" folder of the Mac. You can see the Windows application icon.
Check the top "Use Windows applications to open Mac files and Web links", you can directly call the software on the virtual machine to open files in the Mac. In fact, in my opinion, this is a concentrated performance of interoperability, not just the simple file system and storage space sharing of traditional virtual machines and hosts.
allows the main system and virtual machine to be integrated. Compared with other traditional virtual machine software, the biggest difference of Fusion is that it can "integrate" the virtual machine and the main system. For this reason, Fusion provides three modes to run the virtual machine:
Traditional mode (independent window)
, as the name suggests, is the most traditional virtual machine operating mode. The virtual machine system and the software installed on this basis will be placed in a Mac application window, so any operation on the virtual machine needs to open the window. The interoperability is mainly the folder sharing and the synchronization of the clipboard, which is somewhat similar to the operation form of Windows remote control. The open source Oracle VirtualBox is this model.
fullThe screen mode
is an extension of the traditional mode, that is, operating the virtual machine in a "window" becomes a full-screen operation, so that the operating experience will be closer to the operation of the real system, which can avoid the interference of the main system. Suitable for running full-screen applications such as Windows games. Of course, the interoperability between the host and the virtual machine in this mode is also the lowest.
Unity mode
In simple terms, Unity mode is to allow software in the virtual machine system to run directly under the Mac system without first opening the system desktop of the virtual machine, and then opening the application from the so-called "Virtual Machine System Desktop" window.
In the "traditional mode" virtual machine window, click on the rightmost switch window to switch to Unity mode, and then you will see a new Fusion menu icon in the Dock bar, this is the Unity menu. After
enters Unity mode, the system desktop of the original Windows virtual machine will be hidden, and Unity becomes the "start menu" of the virtual machine on the Mac.
is not so much a start menu, but in my opinion, its function may be a combination of start menu + control panel, providing a complete set of interactive work on the Windows desktop. If you open the Mac application in the "default application" After running Windows applications in the program folder, you can even double-click to install the Windows software package in the shared folder without switching to the virtual machine desktop throughout the process. It can be said that the Windows virtual machine system is completely integrated into the main system.
In the Unity menu, you can also map some functional components of Windows to the Mac desktop. For example, by default, the system tray of Windows will be mapped to the status bar of Mac (of course, clicking the software in the system tray will also be in the Dock bar Open in). In fact, the start menu can also be triggered in Unity-after clicking "switch start menu", the Windows start menu will pop up in the lower left corner of the Mac desktop, which is convenient for you to find Windows software in a more traditional way (although it is not in use So convenient).
In the real installation experience, I tried to download and install iTunes from the Microsoft Store in the virtual machine and install it. Through the Unity menu, it can run smoothly under the Mac desktop, and when my iPhone is connected to the virtual machine via USB, it will pop up asking whether to connect it to the Windows virtual machine. Of course, the synchronization and data update operations are also completed smoothly. .
Another "Windows Only" scenario is actually an online banking USB shield. Generally, domestic online banking products only support Windows, so if there is only a Mac around, the virtual machine is undoubtedly the most important requirement to install and run the online banking USB shield.
I use the professional version of China Merchants Bank, so in addition to the software only Windows, you also need to insert a USB KEY to verify your identity. It is indeed easy to run on the virtual machine through VMware Fusion, especially after inserting the USB shield and completing the follow-up operation after successful identification, there is not a single error or crash.
runs 3D software on VMware Fusion.
is mainly traditional 2D software. Obviously, it does not highlight the advantages of VMware Fusion: 3D performance. Then I will try to open 3D games in a virtual machine to experience the smoothness.
Considering that the tested MacBook Pro is a 13-inch version in mid-2015 and does not have a discrete graphics card, so the 3D performance will be lost due to virtualization. I adjusted the resolution to a lower level before testing. In full screen mode, open a remake of "The Rise of the Kingdom" that does not require high performance for testingtest. The mid-range setting is selected on the
screen, you can see that the game can basically run smoothly, and there are fewer frame drops.
Considering that this model does not have a discrete graphics card to achieve higher graphics performance, if it is an external graphics card or a model that uses AMD's discrete graphics card, it can definitely support higher image quality and games. But if you use a nuclear display model like me, it is best to adjust the resolution setting in the Windows virtual machine in "Settings-Display" when running 3D games, and remove "Use Retina full resolution display" if necessary. And adjust the resolution of the virtual machine.
In the end, we can’t help but ran a point to take a look at the running points in the current scene. Because I only have a core display, the running points are still "very touching":
Summary
In general, VMware Fusion Player is provided as a The free virtual machine software for personal use, in terms of performance and functions, is far superior to similar open source virtual machine software, and the 3D performance is basically similar to Parallels Desktop; VMware Fusion Player has also added the "fusion" that is only available on modern commercial desktop virtual machines. Mode", so both the actual experience and the sense of separation between operating different systems are greatly reduced. If you use virtual machines on your Mac and have certain performance requirements, then the free VMware Fusion for individuals is worth a try.
