Mac Mini M1 Virtualbox



Windows, macOS – which one do you want to use today? On a traditional setup, you’re stuck with one or the other. But with virtual box, you actually have macOS on a Windows PC.

It doesn't yet support M1 Macs - unlike Parallels and VMware, Oracle has made no commitment as yet to getting the software running on an M1 Mac. VirtualBox still throws a lot of jargon at you. Why the M1 Chip Is a Problem For Windows Software. Apple’s M1 chip is the first Apple Silicon chip.

It’s the freedom that computer users have enjoyed with Linux and other operating systems.

But Apple has made it difficult to install their operating system on anything other than their own hardware. All of that is changing, and Virtual Box is responsible for it and the rise of the Hackintosh.

New to hackintosh? Learn more about it in our what is hackintosh? overview.

Note: A lot of people will be able to get a mac virtual machine one Windows running smoothly, but sound doesn’t seem to work well. That’s really not an issue because you’ll still be able to access all of your apps and software.

I also recommend that you have access to a real Mac. You might be able to find some distributions of the High Sierra ISO online, but there is always a risk when downloading from an unofficial source. Instead, borrow a Mac from a friend, or use your own and download the High Sierra OS from the App Store.

Check out our high sierra installation guide for hackintosh

Everything You Need to Get Started with Installing macOS on VirtualBox

Before we go through the steps on how to install macOS on Virtual Box, let’s get everything together that you’ll need to get started.

  1. Open up your Mac
  2. Go to the App Store
  3. Type in “High Sierra”

You’ll want to search for your desired operating system (we’ll be using High Sierra), and Download it.

Note: You’ll need a decent computer to be able to run Virtual Box. Your computer will need to meet these minimum requirements:

  • Dual core processor
  • 4GB Ram or higher
  • 64-bit

If your computer doesn’t meet these requirements, you won’t be able to run macOS properly. You’ll be able to download VirtualBox from the official website. I’m not going to go through the installation process, as the website will have all of the information you need to be able to install VirtualBox.

I do recommend that you read all of the documentation and ask any questions that you have in the community section of the website.

VirtualBox 6.0 was just released, so it’s definitely a great time to get started with your own macOS.

Extract macOS Sierra

Make sure you’ve downloaded High Sierra, and then you’ll want to run a few commands from your terminal . You’ll be able to open the terminal at: Applications > Utilities > Terminal. Once inside of the terminal, you’ll want to run the following commands:

Go to your desktop and rename the file, removing the “.cdr” extension. You need this extension to read “.iso” for it to work properly.

Mac

You’ve successfully created your own ISO file so that you can bootup your macOS.

The next step is to copy the file over to your Windows machine (using a large USB drive seems to work best). This file will be mounted in your virtual machine later on in the article, so it’s very important that this step is completed successfully.

Creating a mac Virtual Machine on Windows

You’ll want to create a virtual machine, and this is really easy. You’ll open up VirtualBox and click New. You’ll want to have the following parameters selected or entered before clicking Next.

  • Name: High Sierra
  • Type: Mac OS X
  • Version: Mac OS X (64-bit)

Pay attention when selecting the version because you may find that High Sierra is offered as a version when you go to install it. But if it’s not, you can just choose the settings I listed above and they should work fine.

You’ll then be proceeding through all of the settings.

When you come up to the RAM setting, you’ll want to be generous. VirtualBox requires a minimum of 4GB or RAM to run, but the more the better.

Why?

You’ll want to provide at least 4GB to your macOS, or 4096MB to be precise. A general rule of thumb is that if you can spare it, supply more RAM to your virtual machine. RAM will allow the operating system to put more information into memory and retrieve it faster.

For better overall performance, supply as much RAM as you can.

The next steps are also important, and they’ll include:

  • Hard Disk: Choose the “Create a virtual hard disk now” setting.
    • Choose VDI when choosing the hard disk type.
    • Choose Fixed Size instead of Dynamic for added speed.
    • Set the size of the drive to at least 25GB.

You’ll now have your virtual machine using the RAM and disk space properly, and you’ll have to work your way through a few screen prompts before having everything setup properly.

Configuring Your VirtualBox to Run macOS High Sierra

We’ve made a lot of progress so far, and now it’s time to configure your virtual machine properly. You’ll see in the main window of VirtualBox that “High Sierra” is listed. Click on this and then click on the “Settings” button.

You’ll want to go to “System” and make sure that the following are unchecked on the Motherboard tab:

  • Floppy
  • Network

Click on the Processor tab and make sure that you have 2 or more CPUs set for your virtual machine.

The next few settings are rather simple:

  • Display: Video Memory with a minimum of 128MB
  • Storage: Click “Empty” and then click on the CD at the top right. Choose your High Sierra ISO file

Now you’ll need to click “Ok,” and save all of the changes you’ve made. Close out your VirtualBox now.

MacMac Mini M1 Virtualbox

Apple is very strict on the system that their operating system runs on, so it’s very important that you do your best to configure your virtual machine in such a way that it tricks the installer to thinking you’re on a retail machine.

We’ll now be going into the Windowscommand prompt.

You’ll do this by:

  • Clicking the Start Menu
  • Typing “Command Prompt”
  • Right-clicking on the Command Prompt desktop app
  • Choosing Run as administrator

It’s very important to follow all of the following command prompts exactly. Your goal is to run each command, one by one, hitting the Enter button and waiting for the command to complete successfully.

Remember that VirtualBox needs to be closed before running these commands, or it won’t work properly.

You have to make sure that the virtual machine is properly named “High Sierra” for this method to work. If not, you’ll be able to go back and make changes to the name to get everything to work properly.

Once all of the commands are completed, and there are no errors, you’ll then be able to open up your VirtualBox and get macOS High Sierra installed properly on VirtualBox.

It’s a long process, but we’re almost done with your installation.

Running VirtualBox and the macOS Installer

You’ve almost learned how to install macOS on VirtualBox entirely, and we’re on the home stretch. You’ll want to open up your VirtualBox and then click on your virtual machine that you set up earlier.

Now, click “Start.”

There will be a lot of information displayed on the screen as everything starts running. I recommend stepping away from the machine and letting it run for a few minutes before coming back. Some errors can hang for 5 minutes or longer.

If you’ve done everything properly, you can be confident that the installer will boot properly.

Mini

You’ll eventually be presented with the option to pick a Language. If you’ve reached this point, you’re doing very well and are almost ready to run your macOS.

The next steps can be followed:

  • Choose your desired language, and click
  • Click “Disk Utility” and then
  • Click “View” and then “Show All Devices.”
  • Click on your empty virtual drive that has been setup and click “Erase.”
  • Choose the following settings:
    • Name: Macintosh HD
    • Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
    • Scheme: GUID Partition Map
  • Click “Erase” and close Disk Utility when the process is complete.
  • Click “Reinstall macOS.”
  • Click “Continue.”

You’ll come up to one point where you’ll be asked to choose a hard drive, and you’ll want to select the Macintosh HD partition that you just created with the Disk Utility.

We’ve successfully copied all of the files on the virtual machine, but we’re not done just yet.

Exit your virtual machine and then go back to your virtual machine’s settings. You’ll need to change up your Storage settings. Click on your ISO for High Sierra in the “Storage Tree.” You’ll click that CD icon just like we did earlier and then choose “Remove Disk from Virtual Disk.”

You need to do this to unlink the ISO from your virtual machine.

Start up your virtual machine and you should come across a black screen with the EFI Internal Shell. You’ll want to look for FS1. If this is listed in yellow, click on the virtual machine and then type fs1: and hit the Enter button.

You should be in the fs1 directory.

Type in the following commands:

  1. cd “macOS Install Data”
  2. cd “Locked Files”
  3. cd “Boot Files”

Now we’ll run the installer by running: boot.efi and hitting enter.

If everything goes well, you’ll come across a graphical installer and will just have to work through the prompts. The virtual machine will reboot eventually and then you’ll need to go through the settings and the rest of the setup process.

Soon enough, you’ll be right inside of macOS, where you’ll be able to start using your mac virtual machine on Windows.

Having a virtualbox mac OS is the easiest method of using mac as and when you need it. In addition, using virtualbox is far less complicated than the dual boot hackintosh method we have looked at previously.

Can you run or install Windows OS on new M1 Mac Computers? M1 Mac users can use Windows OS and other software with the help of Parallels Desktop 16 software; But how can this software be used to run or install Windows 10 OS on the new M1 Mac?

Parallels software company optimizes Parallels Desktop 16 software for Macs equipped with M1 processor; This means that new M1 Mac computers can run or install Windows OS based on ARM and software on the Mac OS. If you’ve been following the news, you know that Apple recently unveiled M1-based Macs based on the architecture and instructions of the ARM.

Related: How to Install or Use iPhone and iPad Apps on Your New M1 Mac?

The beating heart of the new Mac computers brings unparalleled efficiency and power; But due to the change in architecture from x86 to ARM64, a lot of software has not been optimized for the new architecture, and with Microsoft’s decision, Windows on Arm has not been made available to Mac users yet. The good news is that applications are rapidly updating to support native new processors, while software such as Parallels will make up for some of the lack of Windows.

Parallels software company recently released a technical demo of the Parallels 16, which is compatible with Mac computers running the M1 processor and performs surprisingly well. In fact, the “Apple Silicon of Parallels” version is designed for ARM-based operating systems; Therefore, it does not support the x86 version of Windows 10, and an ARM-based version of Windows is required to run it.

Table of Contents

Details to keep in mind

Apart from relatively good performance, the software has weaknesses and shortcomings from Parallels’ perspective and Microsoft’s. In other words, it certainly can not be considered a complete replacement for the native version or boot camp of Windows 10 based on x86, for example, 32-bit programs will be completely unusable during startup, and evidence shows that the suspension and resumption of the virtual machine (VM) ) Will not be possible. In addition, when using the virtual machine, it is not possible to use the close button and instead the virtual machine must be turned off completely.

Latter in this article, we are going to teach you اow to run or install Windows 10 for ARM on M1 Macs using Parallels 16 Technical Preview, including MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro and Mac mini equipped with M1 processor.

RELATED:How to Fix the ‘DNS Server Not Responding’ Error (Windows & Mac)

As soon as the software is installed, Parallels uses technical previews to show users more details about running an ARM-based virtual machine. Here are the steps you should take to download and run this software:

  • Download and install a technical preview of Parallels Desktop 16 software for M1 Mac PCs via the company’s website. After this process, Parallels will send an activation code to the user below the download link.
  • In order to receive ARM-based Windows, you must register for the Windows Insider Program and download the Windows 10 Client ARM64 Insider Preview version there. Note that you must download this version; Because Microsoft has recently introduced a 64-bit program emulator in this version of Windows.
  • Open the Parallels software and drag the Windows10_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us file to the Mac OS installation assistant and drop it to the Create section.
  • The Parallels 16 software creates Windows 10 based on a new ARM virtual machine instance, and in this step you have to login to the Parallels system using an account and apply the activation code issued in the first step.
  • Once logged in and activated, Parallels 16 configures the Windows 10 Virtual Machine and installs the required widgets and tools, and finally completes the Windows 10 ARM-based installation and setup.

Disable Time Sync

RELATED:How to Install Mac OS Mojave in VMware on Windows PC?

Mac Mini M1 Virtualbox

In the initial launch of Parallels for Mac computers running the M1 processor, the important point is that you must disable the Time Sync option; Otherwise, the Windows Virtual Machine may not work properly or you’ll run the risk of having an unresponsive Windows VM.. To disable Time Sync, click on the “Actions” section in the Parallels menu bar and select “Config”. In the next step, click on the Options tab and select More Options, and in the drop-down box next to Time Sync, select the Do Not Sync option to disable this feature, and finally exit the opened windows.

How to Enable x64 Emulation Support

  • In the Windows search bar, search for “Insider” and click on Windows Insider Program settings.
  • Click on the link to go to Diagnostics & Feedback settings and activate optional diagnostic data.
  • Click on the link associated with your Windows Insider account and sign in to your Windows account.
  • Once logged in, it is recommended that you click the Beta Channel option in the Internal Settings section and enable the Dev Channel option to access the latest updates.
  • Click the Home button to return to the main Windows settings page, and finally, click on the Update & Security section to check for the latest updates.
  • After completing the fifth step, you will have to wait for the latest preview of the developer version called Windows 10 Insider Preview to appear. To install the latest developer version, click the Download and Install button below the build description. Remember, it will take some time to complete the download and installation of Windows; So be patient and after installing all the updates and restarting the device, the Parallels tool will be reinstalled; So you have to start it again.

For more information on adding a 64-bit program simulator to Windows 10 based on the ARM, you can refer to the Microsoft blog post at this link.

Suggestions for better performance


For best performance, it is recommended that you change the application’s default processing cores to four cores. Because all Mac computers running the M1 processor have an eight-core CPU, the Mac OS retains access to the remaining four cores. To increase core allocation, turn off the Windows, click the Action section in the menu bar, and select Config. In the Hardware section, select “CPU and Memory” and use the slider box next to the processors to upgrade it from two to four cores. Finally close the config window and restart the virtual machine.

Related:How to Restart or Force Shutdown any Frozen Mac?

Once in desktop mode, you can emulate programs based on arm64 instructions and x86 and x64 programs; Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, 32-bit ARM programs, including Skype and the Windows App Store, still do not work, and launching these programs will cause them to crash. On the other hand, programs such as Microsoft Edge and other native arm64 programs run relatively well.

Virtualbox Apple M1

9to5Mac

The following is an opinion from a member of the 9to5Mac website about using Parallels software:

I downloaded the Steam app and tested the Rocket League game to gauge its performance. The gaming experience was not perfect and certainly did not run at 60 frames per second; But at least it was playable. I can also use this software to watch 4K videos and content through the Microsoft Edge browser on YouTube, and use the Affinity Photo software to edit photos and much more.

In general, I was impressed by the consistency and smoothness of the animations and the performance of this software in the initial run of the game. Given that I had dedicated four processing cores to the virtual machine and was working with half of the system resources, the geek benchmark scores were relatively impressive.

Related:‘Control+Alt+Delete’ on a Mac to Force Quit Frozen Apps

Running or installing Windows on Parallels software on Apple Silicon processors will by no means be perfect; But the results show that it is much better than previously thought and may improve with subsequent updates. If there is a specific program in Windows that you want to run, you may be surprised by the results in the software.

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Mac Mini M1 Virtualbox Download

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