Apple’s decision to ditch Intel processors and move the entire Mac range to using its home-grown Apple Silicon processors certainly seems to have paid off. Its M-series processors, including the latest M3 and M4 chips, provide impressive performance and battery life – and even mean that Macs have the graphical horsepower to play some decent games at last.
But, of course, there are still lots of Windows apps and games that don’t run on Macs at all, and this is one area where old Macs that used Intel processors did have an advantage as they made it easy to run Windows and Windows software in addition to all your normal Mac apps. The Windows operating system was written specifically to run on Intel processors, and the fact that Macs adopted Intel processors back in 2005-2006 meant that they were also able to run Windows, as well as the macOS itself. That was a real boon for many Mac users, as there are many professional-level apps in fields such as graphics and design that are only available for Windows PCs – not to mention all those Windows games that never get released on the Mac. So having the ability to run Windows apps and games on Intel-based Macs gave Mac users the best of both worlds.
And, of course, lots of people are still using Macs that have Intel processors – I intend to cling on to my 27-inch Intel iMac for as long as humanly possible (although the possibility of a new Mac Mini coming soon with an M4 processor is rather tempting). So, for all my fellow diehard Intel-Mac users, here are the options for installing Windows on your Mac, along with all the Windows apps, games and other software that you might need to use.
If you want to run Windows on a new M-series Mac read our separate article that explains how to run the ARM version of Windows on an Apple SIlicon Mac.
Boot Camp
Intel Macs had – and do still have – two options for running Windows, using either Apple’s own Boot Camp software or third-party virtualization tools such as the popular Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion.
Boot Camp is a piece of software developed by Apple, which allows you to install the Windows operating system on your Mac, alongside the macOS, so that you can switch between the macOS and Windows whenever you need to. Boot Camp is still supported by Apple today, even though it no longer sells any Macs that use Intel processors, and you can read detailed installation instructions on Apple’s website.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that Boot Camp hasn’t been updated much since the launch of new-generation Macs with Apple Silicon, and it still seems to be focused on the older Windows 10, rather than the current Windows 11. However, there are still millions of people around the world happily using Windows 10, so that’s not necessarily a problem if you simply want to run a few Windows apps or games on your Intel Mac.
The Boot Camp software allows you to partition the internal hard drive or solid-state drive (SSD) of an Intel Mac, splitting it into two separate sections (known as partitions). One partition continues to store the macOS and all your normal Mac apps, but Boot Camp also allows you to install the Windows operating system onto the second partition, along with any Windows apps and software that you want to use. Once that’s done you can use a simple keyboard shortcut to dual-boot your Mac, switching between the macOS or Windows as required.
The only disadvantage of using Boot Camp is that you have to choose – either you start up (or boot) your Mac into the macOS or you boot into Windows. The two operating systems remain entirely separate, so you can’t run Mac apps and Windows apps at the same time. If you wanted to run the Mac version of Photoshop while you’re at work, but maybe switch to Windows for a quick spot of Diablo 4 action at lunchtime, then you’d have to keep rebooting your Mac to switch back and forth between the macOS and Windows.
There is another way of installing Windows onto your Mac, though – called virtualization – which allows you to run Windows and Windows apps right alongside all your normal apps, without having to switch between the two operating systems.
Virtual Machines
See our round-up of the best virtual machine software for Mac.
Programs such as Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion use virtualization – sometimes also called emulation – to install Windows on your Mac, and they will work both with Intel Macs and the current generation of Macs with Apple Silicon. These are both conventional Mac programs that can be installed on your Mac like any other program, and they allow you to create a virtual machine (or VM), which is a piece of software that emulates the workings of a physical PC.
When you create a virtual machine on your Mac you assign a certain amount of your Mac’s memory and storage to the virtual machine, and this allows you to install Windows onto the virtual machine. You can even specify the number of processor cores that you devote to running the virtual machine. You can then install other Windows apps onto the virtual machine as well, and run those Windows apps within the virtual machine. The virtual machine runs on your Mac just like any other Mac app, so you can run your Windows apps right alongside all your normal Mac apps. This is more convenient than using Boot Camp, as you no longer need to keep switching back and forth between the macOS and Windows.
The disadvantage of virtualization is that your Mac is effectively running two operating systems at the same time –the macOS and Windows on your virtual machine – so you need a pretty powerful Mac with plenty of memory and storage to run a Windows virtual machine effectively. Even with the most powerful Intel Macs – which, after all, are a few years old now – it’s hard to get good enough performance using virtualization to play the latest Windows games that need high-speed 3D graphics. If you need top performance for gaming, or for professional-level graphics work, then it’s better to use Boot Camp to run Windows on an Intel Mac, as that will provide the best possible performance. However, a virtual machine running Windows can still give you good enough performance to run many Windows apps, such as Microsoft Office, or even some 3D graphics apps that may not be available for the Mac, so it’s still a worthwhile option for many Mac users.
There are other options too, although they do have their own drawbacks. Microsoft has a streaming service, called Windows 365, which runs Windows on a special cloud server, and then allows you to stream Windows to your Mac – or other devices – via the Internet. This can be a useful option if you have a fast enough broadband connection, but it does require a monthly subscription fee and the service is primarily designed for business users. However, there’s a one-month free trial available and you can also read our article How to use Windows 365 to run Windows on a Mac for more information.
Finally, there are translation programs, such as CrossOver and Whisky, which actually allow you to run Windows software without even needing to install a copy of Windows first. These are a bit more specialized, though, so we cover them in more detail in a separate article.
