Hidden underneath “Open With” are all of the programs that your Mac thinks you can use with the selected file, and if you pick one, it’ll attempt to launch the application and open the file. To open a file on your Mac using a different program, navigate to the file you wish to open and right-click on it to see the file menu as shown below. When the file menu opens, click on the Open. Choosing the best antivirus software for a Windows or Mac computer can be tough. With these tips from Consumer Reports testers, it's a whole lot easier. Open Source software are free of cost and as good as many commercial applications. 10 Open Source Software For Mac Here is a List of the Top 10 Open Source Software for Mac. Windows makes it easy for you to open up these files by setting up default programs for each file type -- images files, for example, will open by default in the Windows 10 Photos app.
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Apple offers a variety of apps that can be quite alluring to Windows PC users, and you don’t have to buy a brand new machine to try them. Using a program called VirtualBox, you can run Apple’s OS X on your Intel-based PC. This will be a complete version of OS X, allowing you to run Apple-specific software like Mac apps and programs.
Initial Installations and Downloads1.
Download and install VirtualBox and the VirtualBox Extension Pack (link available in Resources).
2.
Download the Hackboot 1 and Hackboot 2 ISO files (link available in Resources). These ISOs will be used to start the OS X installer and the operating system itself, respectively.
4.
Name the new virtual machine and set the Operating System box to Mac OS X and the Version box to “Mac OS X Server (64 bit).”
5.
Use the slider to allocate RAM to your virtual machine; at least 4GB of RAM is a recommended.
6.
Click “Next” and select “Create New Disk.” The program will return to its main menu.
7.
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Right-click the named OS X virtual machine and click “Settings.”
8.
Uncheck the box next to 'Enable EFI' in the System tab. EFI is an alternative to BIOS but Windows machines are unable to use EFI to boot in VirtualBox as of August 2013.
9.
Navigate to the Storage tab and click on the CD icon called Empty. Select “Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file” and select the Hackboot 1 ISO. This sets your virtual machine to boot from Hackboot 1 the first time it starts up.
Installing OS X1.
Select your OS X virtual machine in the VirtualBox main menu.
2.
Click “Start” in the toolbar and then click the CD icon at the bottom of your screen.
3.
Click “Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file” and select the ISO disc image of the Mountain Lion version of OS X.
4.
Click on the main screen and press “F5” to refresh the program. An icon in the middle of your screen will now be labeled as “OS X Install DVD.”
5.
Press the “Enter” key on your keyboard to bring up the OS X Installation screen.
6.
Select your language and agree to the operating system’s terms. You will be taken to an installation page that gives you no hard drive installation option.
7.
Click “Utilities” and then click “Disk Utility…” in the VirtualBox toolbar labeled OS X Installer.
8.
Click on the VirtualBox hard drive, navigate to the Erase tab and click “Erase” to clean the virtual hard drive and allow OS X to be installed. None of your data will be lost by erasing the drive.
9.
Close the Disk Utility window and click on the hard drive icon now in the middle of your screen.
10.
Follow the on-screen steps to finish the OS X installation.
11.
Click the CD icon at the bottom of your screen when the installation finishes and you see a black screen with white text. Select the Hackboot 2 ISO so your virtual machine will properly boot when you restart it.
13.
Select the Apple icon and press “Enter” on your keyboard.
14.
Follow the final on-screen instructions to setup Mac OS X. You can now use this virtual operating system to run any Mac programs on your Windows PC.
Things Needed
Tip
Warning
References (3)Resources (2)About the Author
Geoff Whiting is a writer and copy editor who has specialized in business technology, consumer electronics and research reports since 2007. He has written for national magazines like 'American Shipper' and 'BIC Magazine,' has written daily news articles for FierceMarkets, and has crafted research reports for Rider Research, Intel and Spotify.
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Choose Citation Style
Whiting, Geoff. 'How to Run Mac Programs on a Windows PC.' Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/run-mac-programs-windows-pc-72291.html. Accessed 07 September 2019.
Whiting, Geoff. (n.d.). How to Run Mac Programs on a Windows PC. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/run-mac-programs-windows-pc-72291.html
Whiting, Geoff. 'How to Run Mac Programs on a Windows PC' accessed September 07, 2019. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/run-mac-programs-windows-pc-72291.html
Note: Depending on which text editor you're pasting into, you might have to add the italics to the site name.
Click to viewMac guy and PC guy can fight for supremacy until the end of time, but there's one simple fact that anyone who's worked on both Mac and Windows knows: Some applications are better on the Mac, others are better on Windows. With the latest version of the Windows-on-Mac virtualization tool Parallels, you can set default applications across platforms, meaning that if there's an application that you prefer on Windows, you can set files on your Mac to always open with the the Windows application (and vice versa). With Parallels, you can create the ultimate hybrid operating system.
For example, let's say you've installed Office 2007 on Windows in Parallels but you're waiting around in 2003 on your Mac. Not anymore. With the latest Parallels, you can double-click a Word doc on your Mac and watch as it automagically opens up with Word 07 via Parallels. With a few very simple steps, you can set up the ultimate Windows/Mac hybrid.
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Set up Parallels
As long as you've got a Mac, $80 to buy Parallels, and a copy of Windows, getting up and running with Parallels a cinch. Here's how to install Windows with Parallels. If you want to use your Windows partition in Parallels and Boot Camp, you can do that, too.
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Hack Attack: Side-by-side Windows and Mac OS with Parallels
by Adam Pash
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Here's your hybrid OS, Dr. Frankenstein
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The unholy union of Windows and Mac got especially exciting when Parallels introduced Coherence, a feature that allows Windows and Mac apps to commingle on the same desktop. Weird? Yes. Useful? Of course!
Hack Attack: How to run Windows and Mac apps side-by-side with Parallels
by Adam Pash
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But the latest and greatest new feature in Parallels is called SmartSelect, and it's what lets you hybrid your desktop so that you can set default applications across Windows and Mac. That means you can always use the best tool for the job, regardless of whether it runs on Mac or Windows.
Set the default application by filetype
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Setting up your SmartSelect defaults is as simple as point-and-click. In either Finder or Windows Explorer, right-click (or Ctrl-click) the file you want to open and select Open With. You should see a list of applications, Windows and Mac, associated with that file. If you're doing this in Windows, Mac apps will be named .app (like Firefox.app) and include 'Mac' in parentheses after the title of the program. On your Mac, Windows programs will have the Parallels icon superimposed on the application's icon to indicate that it's a Windows app. To open a file in a different application just once, select the application you want to use to open that file and that's all. Windows or Mac, it should open the file in the program you selected.
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To set an application as the default for that filetype, you just follow the same set of steps you normally would on the respective OS. In Windows, right-click the file and select Open With again, but this time select Choose Program.... Pick the program you want to set as the default and check 'Always use the selected program to open this kind of file.'
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On the Mac, right-click the file and select Get Info. Toward the bottom of the Info window you should see a section labeled Open with. Select your preferred default from the dropdown and click Change All.... Any file on your Mac ending with the same filetype should now always open with the application you've chosen, Windows or Mac.
Changing default browser, email, and FTP client
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The above method should work to change your default application for virtually any filetype, but when it comes to unifying your browsing, email, and FTP clients, you have to take a different but equally simple approach. Just go to the Parallels Desktop preferences and select the General tab. In the section labeled Shared web applications, you can change the default application for web browsing to Open all web pages in Windows, Mac, or in the default for each OS. If you leave it set to Default, you'll end up with different browser windows, for example, running on Windows and Mac. Setting your browser to a specific OS will ensure that all your browsing is unified, a feature I've been dying for from Parallels. The same is true for your preferred email and FTP clients.
Whither and wherefore would I use this?
Like I said above, some applications are just better in one OS than in the other. For me, the short list of such applications goes a little something like this:
Browser: We talk a fair amount about Firefox vs. IE vs. Safari around here, and Firefox normally wins out. But let's get more granular. If I had a choice between Firefox on Windows and Firefox on Mac, I'd take Firefox on Windows hands down. I may be alone on this, but Firefox on my Mac has always been a bit on the buggy and sluggish side compared to Firefox on Windows. Your mileage, as ever, may vary.
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Word Processor: There are a lot of good alternatives, but as much as I hate to say it, there really is only one Microsoft Word (for now, at least), and the latest version of Word is only available for Windows. Well, not anymore.
FTP: If I've got to pick my favorite FTP client, it'd have to be the Mac-only Transmit. Smart favorites, droplets, and excellent Quicksilver integration sway my vote toward Transmit for all of my FTP duties.
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Text editing: There are a lot of very good text editors for Windows, but I still haven't found an editor I like better than the Mac-only TextMate. It's macros and interface are excellent.
App launching/file manipulation: We love Launchy, but there's only one Quicksilver, and it's only on the Mac. One cool thing about Parallels is that you can launch Windows applications with Quicksilver now, so you really wouldn't need Launchy in this setup at all.
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Text replacement: If you're a heavy user of text replacement applications like Windows-only Texter or the Mac-only TextExpander, it's worth noting that these utilities only work with apps running in their respective OS. I (as the biased creator) prefer Texter for some of its more advanced scripting capabilities, but both apps are very good at what they do. Some of my desire to run Firefox and other applications in their Windows variants is influenced by my heavy reliance on Texter in those applications. If you need text replacement in both Windows and Mac apps, you can run both.
Lifehacker Code: Texter (Windows)
Windows only: Text substitution app Texter saves you countless keystrokes by replacing…
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I'm very curious to hear which combination of Windows and Mac applications would make up your ultimate hybrid operating system, so throw in your two cents—and any other thoughts—in the comments.
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Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker to whom OS monogamy is out of the question. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
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