How to extract & run macOS on a Windows PC

Updated over a week ago

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Apple's macOS Developer Preview comes in an Apple DMG archive which cannot readily be accessed on Windows PCs, without DMG Extractor to extract the files from the DMG archive.

If you're a Windows user and you want to run macOS Developer Preview, you'll need DMG Extractor to extract the Developer Preview.app or the InstallESD.dmg file in the same way that you'd open any DMG file on Windows.

macOS / OS X Developer Preview is available on Apple's website for registered developers, and it's possible to run it on a Windows PC under certain conditions.

DMG Extractor opening a macOS beta DMG archive

How to run OS X on a Windows Hackintosh

Installing Mac OS on a non-Mac PC is a tricky task, even for technical users. MacBreaker has a complete myHack guide which may be helpful. More helpful instructions and tutorials on Hackintosh site.

How to run macOS on Windows with VMware

Sysprobs has an instructive guide to making OS X 10.9 bootable in VMware with a VMDK image, and describes how to boot Mavericks with Windows 7 or Windows 8. Check the guide here.

How to run macOS on Windows with a Parallels Desktop virtual machine

Installing OS X 10.9 Mavericks Developer Preview in a blank virtual machine is not supported at this time.

Parallels offers a complete KB article on how to upgrade an OS X Virtual Machine to OS X Mavericks Developer Preview by simply creating a snapshot of an existing virtual machine and installing Mavericks on that.

Have you used different virtual machines to boot Mac OS X on Windows? If you have any tips and tricks on how you can easily get the OS X 10.9 Mavericks Developer Preview on a virtual machine please share them below.