You recently bought a new Mac and you couldn’t be happier with it: the features of Apple’s desktop operating system fully satisfy you, and by now you can master the features offered by the new computer without any effort. Just a few days ago, however, you discovered that you must necessarily use a program designed for Windows: as a rule, this type of application has the extension .exe , and is not natively compatible with the operating system at your disposal.
You just can’t do without that program, so you are desperately looking for a method that allows you to open it on macOS, in order to avoid buying a new computer on which to work with Windows. Well, know that you are in the right guide: below, in fact, I will teach you how to open exe files on Mac by showing you all the steps necessary to perform them.
By following the instructions that I am about to give you, you will learn how to manage Windows executable files through some programs suitable for the purpose, creating an “intermediate level” that allows you to use them also on Mac; in addition, I will point out some practical applications that allow you to virtualize Windows on Mac , running a complete copy of the Microsoft operating system. Do not be afraid, I can guarantee you that it is much easier to do than to say!
Index
- Open exe file on Mac: program
- Parallels Desktop
- VirtualBox
- CrossOver
- Other programs to open exe files on Mac
- How to open exe files on Mac online
Open exe file on Mac: program
There are many ways in which a file with the .exe extension can be run on a Mac. I will shortly explain in detail how some of the most valid programs work that allow you to run Windows on a Mac with a virtual machine , so that you can use both at the same time. operating systems, without having to partition the hard drive.
Parallels Desktop
Parallels Desktop is an extremely powerful software, able to simplify the creation of virtual machines with Windows, Linux or with the same macOS, providing performance unmatched by the competition. If you have a powerful enough Mac, you can also use it for demanding tasks like gaming. It also offers a very convenient wizard that takes care of downloading, installing and creating a VM with Windows 11 .
At the time of writing, Parallels Desktop is the only virtualization software for Mac that in its stable version offers full compatibility with Macs with Apple Silicon chips (eg M1 or M2 ). Attention, however, although it is possible to install Windows and open exe files on Mac M1 and M2, Parallels – due to technical obligations due to the type of processor mounted on Macs with Apple Silicon – only allows you to run Windows versions for ARM processors, which in turn allow you to virtualize the classic software designed for Intel / AMD processors: this double step, however, makes the general performance of VMs with Windows lower than those obtained on Intel Macs, and in some cases they experience errors / problems in the installation of some software, which despite the internal Windows emulation cannot run correctly on Macs with M1, M2 and similar chips.
As easily understood, Parallels Desktop is a paid program, but with a free trial period of 14 days : at the end of the trial the cost will be 99.99 euros / year , for the purchase of a new home license, or 69 , 99 euros / year to update an expired license. The Parallels Desktop Pro Edition version, suitable for developers and expert users, instead has a price of 119.99 euros / year , with the possibility of purchasing the Business Edition at 149.99 euros / year for use in work environments. .
To activate the free trial, connect to the Parallels Desktop home page and click on Download the free trial version , then enter your email address and confirm. Then open the email you received and press the Download Now button contained therein, to download the Parallels trial. Once this is done, you just have to open the dmg file and start the executable contained therein.
Your Mac will warn you with a popup that it is an application downloaded from the Internet: click on Open and then OK , finally Accept the license agreement. Once this is done, the Parallels Desktop installation will start automatically and will ask you to enter your administrator password , then press OK and wait for the program to finish initializing.
At this point in the new screen click Next , then OK three times, to allow the software to access the Desktop , Documents and Downloads folders of your Mac computer, and finally click Finish .
In the next window, click on Install Windows , to proceed now with the installation of the Microsoft operating system on the virtual machine. First, Parallels Desktop will proceed to download your copy of Windows 11: you can see the progress of the download directly from the program window, at the end of which the actual installation procedure will begin.
At this stage, click OK on the two pop-ups that open, which will allow Windows 11 access to your Mac’s microphone and webcam , and wait for the process to finish. When a new window opens where you are asked to register and access Parallels Desktop: you can also skip the registration and log in with your Apple , FaceboOK or Google credentials , then press Next and finally I accept the privacy policy of the data.
You are now in the main program window, where you can see what the free trial expiration date is. To use Parallels Desktop on trial, click Continue the evaluation period at the bottom right, and then click Accept the Windows license agreement. At this point Windows 11 is correctly installed and open on your Mac, but you have one last thing to do to make full use of the Microsoft operating system.
In the pop-up window that opened in the center of the screen, click on Open System Preferences and you will be returned to the macOS operating system: click on the lock in the lower left corner, enter the administrator password and press Unlock , then check the box next to Parallels Desktop in the list and close System Preferences .
The installation and configuration procedure of the operating system is finished and, from now on, you can access it at any time by double clicking on the Windows 11 icon located on the desktop of your Mac: once started you can open the exe files and install programs just like you would on your PC.
When you are using Windows 11 with Parallels Desktop you can return to the macOS operating system instantly by simply pressing the Windows symbol in the bottom bar and then Stop the program .
Another thing to underline is that Parallels offers a high level of integration of VMs with macOS (which can be disabled): this means that, if you want, you can open the .exe files directly from macOS with a double click and these, automatically, will be opened in the virtual machine with Windows. Convenient, right?
VirtualBox
Another valid and free (as well as open source) tool to open exe files on Mac is VirtualBox , only the current version is not compatible with Macs with Apple Silicon chips .
That said, to proceed with the software download, connect to its official page and click on the OS X hosts link . Then open the dmg file obtained, launch the pkg file contained therein and follow the on-screen instructions to finish the setup (just click on next and enter the Mac password when prompted).
You then need to get a Windows ISO , to use to install the operating system in your virtual machine: you can find out how to do it by reading my tutorials on how to download Windows 11 and how to download Windows 10 .
Once you have the Windows ISO, open VirtualBox and get ready to create your virtual machine: I will show you how to install Windows 11, which requires a few more steps than Windows 10. In the welcome screen of the software, click on the bar under top on New and, in the window that opens, give the name you want to your virtual machine, then under Version select the most suitable option from the drop-down menu (eg Windows 11 64 bit ), then press Continue .
In the new window you have to choose how much RAM you want Windows to use, moving the cursor on the bar in the center of the screen and making sure to never place it on the red part or you will compromise the performance of macOS, allocating too much memory to Windows; continue by pressing Continue again .
Now make sure that the option Create a virtual hard disk now is selected and click Create , then select VDI (Virtual Box Disk Image) and press Continue . Now, select Dynamically allocated , so that the size of the new hard drive changes automatically as needed, and click Continue again .
You have come to the time to set the maximum size of the hard disk, that is to decide how much of the disk of your Mac can use Windows: you can do this by moving the cursor on the bar you see on the screen, but if you are not practical leave the default settings and simply hit Create .
The hard drive has been created and we must now install Windows 11 that we previously downloaded: first click on Settings in the VirtualBox home screen and in the new popup press Storage at the top .
On the left of the screen, in the Storage Devices section , select Blank and then on the right, in the Attributes section , click on the disc image and from the new drop-down menu select Choose / Create a virtual optical disc . A new window will open where you have to press Add at the top and select the Windows ISO file , which you downloaded earlier, from the path of your Mac , then click on Open and finally on Choose , so you will return to the settings screen where you can press OK .
You are back in the main VirtualBox screen, where you have to click at the top right on the button with the green arrow, Start : the classic Windows installation window will open.
If you are installing Windows 11 , do not press Next or you will see an error message telling you that ” this PC cannot run Windows 11 because it does not meet the requirements “. Otherwise, if you are trying to install Windows 10, you can proceed to Next and complete the installation with the help of my tutorial dedicated to installing this operating system .
From the Windows 11 installation screen , then, press Shift + F10 on the keyboard and in the DOS screen that opens, type all lowercase regedit , then press Enter , to access the Registry Editor.
In the new window, select the following folder path in the left column: first HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE , then click on System and here right-click on the Setup folder , selecting from the menu New> Key . Now rename the new key with the name LabConfig and click on it.
In the largest column on the right, click on a white point on the screen with the right mouse button and select New from the drop-down menu and then 32bit DWORD Value : rename the created file calling it BypassTPMCheck .
You need to create three more DWORD keys, so repeat the operation three times, pressing the right mouse button each time in the white part of the screen, selecting New and then 32bit DWORD Value : the first file must be called BypassRAMCheck , the second BypassSecureBoot and the third BypassCPUCheck . Once this is done click twice on each of the four DWORD keys you have created and in the window that opens write, each time, 1 in correspondence with the value data and press OK .
Now close both the registry editor and DOS by clicking on the cross symbol at the top right to return to the Windows 11 installation screen, here you can now press Next and Install and you will no longer see any error messages. Finally, if you have already purchased a Windows license, paste the code and press Next , but you can still buy it later (following this tutorial ) and continue the installation by clicking on I don’t have a product key .
At this point, select the version of Windows 11 you want to install from the list, for example Home or Pro , and proceed with the classic installation of the Microsoft operating system, also in this case I have prepared a detailed guide for installing and configuring Windows 11 .
After the installation of Windows 11, every time you want to change the operating system on your Mac, all you have to do is start the VirtualBox program, select the virtual machine on the left and press the green arrow Start : a screen will open where you can safely work on Windows , then open and install exe files on your Mac.
CrossOver
Another program, very useful for running files with the .exe extension on Mac, is CrossOver , which natively supports Apple Silicon chips. applications that are installed in it. It is paid, but it grants a free 15-day trial (after which the license cost is 74 euros / year or 484 euros / lifetime ).
CrossOver does not require any full installation of the Microsoft operating system, but is still capable of opening 64-bit Windows 10 compatible exe files and applications. To activate the free trial just connect to the home page of the program and click on Free Trial , here insert your name and email address and click on Download Trial Now to download the file.
After doing this, simply start the program by double clicking on the downloaded file, press Open and then Move to applications folder ; in the small pop-up window that opens, click Try Now to start CrossOver.
To open a Windows application previously downloaded on the Mac, click on the Start screen of CrossOver on Install an application not listed and then on the Edit button – .. in correspondence with the writing You will need to provide the installation file or disk – then select the exe file to open and go to Choose Installer .
Where you read It will be necessary to select a bottle , always press the corresponding Edit button , choose a name of your choice and click on Done , then on the blue button at the top right Install . At this point CrossOver will run the installation screen of the chosen software, once the procedure is finished, the application will always be executable from the menu on the left in the home screen of the virtual machine, with a simple double click .
Other programs to open exe files on Mac
In addition to the programs I have just described to you in detail, there are other solutions you can use to open an exe file on Mac and run Windows. Therefore, I would like to point out other useful and equally valid software for this purpose.
- Boot Camp– this is an integrated solution on Macs with Intel chips that allows, through a wizard, to divide the hard drive into two partitions and install on one Windows and on the other macOS. However, this option has been eliminated on computers equipped with an Apple Silicon processor, which necessarily require the use of a virtual machine. More info here .
- VMware Fusion Player– great free virtualization software for Mac. At the time of writing, it does not support Apple Silicon chips, but in the beta of the paid version support has been introduced, so it should only be a matter of time.
- WineBottler– a free and very easy to use software that can run many files with .exe extension, without the need to install the entire Windows operating system.
How to open exe files on Mac online
If you are looking for a tutorial that teaches you how to open exe files on Mac online , you should know that unfortunately there are no online virtual machines with reasonable prices on the consumer side; however, if you have a PC with Windows you can control it from your Mac, even remotely, using remote desktop solutions such as the famous TeamViewer , which I told you about in the tutorial just linked.
If, on the other hand, you have “suspicious” exe files and you want to check their integrity from your Mac because you have to transfer them to a Windows PC, you can run an online virus scan with solutions such as VirusTotal , which I told you about in the guide just linked.