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Can you virtualize macOS on VMware?

Author

Mia Smith

Published Mar 21, 2026

Can you virtualize macOS on VMware?

According to Apple’s licensing policies, VMware only supports the virtualization of Apple Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) client or server, Apple Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) client or server, Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) client or server, Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) client or server, Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) client or server.

Can Mac OS X run Lion?

Apple formally notes that Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” is compatible with “an Intel-based Mac with a Core 2 Duo, i3, i5, i7 or Xeon processor and [at least] 2 GB of RAM.” It needs to be running Mac OS X 10.6. 6 (or higher, 10.6. 8 is recommended) “Snow Leopard” as well.

How do I virtualize on Mac OS X?

How to Create a macOS Big Sur Virtual Machine With VirtualBox

  1. Create the macOS Big Sur Virtual Machine. Open VirtualBox.
  2. Edit the macOS Big Sur Virtual Machine Settings.
  3. Use the Command Prompt to Add Custom Code to VirtualBox.
  4. Boot Your macOS Big Sur Virtual Machine.

Is it legal to virtualize macOS?

Answer: A: It is only legal to run OS X in a virtual machine if the host computer is a Mac. Therefore yes it would be legal to run OS X in VirtualBox if VirtualBox is running on a Mac. The same would apply to VMware Fusion and Parallels.

Does VMware support macOS?

VMware Pages You can install Mac OS X, OS X, or macOS in a virtual machine. Fusion creates the virtual machine, opens the operating system installation assistant, and installs VMware Tools. VMware Tools loads the drivers required to optimize a virtual machine’s performance.

Why VMware does not support macOS?

You are not legally allowed to run macOS on Workstation because of Apple’s restrictions. Therefore, there is no such option in Workstation.

Can I install Mountain Lion on my Mac?

Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is available for older systems that are not compatible with the latest version of macOS and requires the following: 8, Lion 10.7, or Mountain Lion 10.8 already installed. 2 GB of memory. 8 GB of available space.

Is macOS ISO legal?

It’s totally legal to get the macOS ISO from App Store and install it as long as you use it not for commercial purposes and on your own mac machine. …

Is running Mac on Windows illegal?

Far from being ‘illegal’, Apple actively encourage users to run Windows on their machines as well as OSX. They’ve even created software called Bootcamp to make it easier to do so. So running Windows (or linux or whatever) on your Apple hardware is not illegal, it’s not even a breach of the EULA.

Can I run VMware workstation on Mac?

1 Answer. It’s not possible to install it on Mac OS X. You can install Windows on the Mac though, but that kind of defeats the purpose. VMware Fusion has similar (or the same) guest OS support, including the Linuxes.