Open exe files in Mac

[bakaraimu]

A question from a friend of mine who wanted to ask if you can install exe files (eg. Games) in Mac.

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Memory: 8 GB
Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2
HD Space: 500 GB | Free space: 437.63 GB

If possible, please include the steps so she can follow. Thanks.

[Ryan]

Google

Simple google search says not possible, unless you use Crossover. You could give the utility a shot.

[masterchef341]

there is no way of doing this perfectly... you can try the method below, but most applications will either work not at all, or very slowly. Of those that work, many will have bugs and glitches.

there is a project called WINE (WineHQ - Run Windows applications on Linux, BSD, Solaris and Mac OS X) which has the goal of doing what you described above for linux. There are a few implementations of wine for the mac.

I would highly recommend either trying to find the game(s) on steampowered.com, which has a lot of mac games, or the mac app store, or install windows on the mac using bootcamp if you can't find what you are looking for from the previous sources.

If you think wine is what you're looking for, you can try any of these (3 different programs which help you use WINE):

http://wiki.winehq.org/MacOSX/Installing
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/
http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/

[bakaraimu]

Ah okay. I tell her about that. Because she tried to find it via google but half of them she can't get them right. I used to use wine before but quite buggy. Maybe I ask her to install windows on her mac using bootcamp. Thanks for the help

[masterchef341]

Depending on the game, there is a good chance that is your only choice anyway.

[doh123]

For gaming, you only have a few options.

1. Bootcamp. This is a utility that lets you set up a dual boot, so you boot into Windows like any other PC, or you choose to boot into Mac OS X. When your booted into Windows, its exactly like any other PC, and you have to take care of the whole Windows install, but it runs all Windows software. For ease and compatibility, this is usually the best way to go for gaming for most people... if you really want to turn your Mac into a PC. Cost is buying Windows 7.

2. Parallels 7. There are other Virtual Machines like this one, but this is currently the only one worth thinking about if you want to use it for games. It is basically making a virtual computer running as a software program on top of Mac OS X. This lets you install a real copy of Windows and run it on top of Mac OS X so you have both at the same time. This needs much more ram in your machine than you'd normally need, and you'll have a big performance hit in games performance. This is better for non-gaming, but is capable of DX9 gaming. Cost is buying Windows 7 and Parallels 7.

3. Something Wine based. You can use normal Wine, but its all compile yourself and run command line... not really recommended by me. It implements the Windows APIs so that Windows software runs directly without having to have Windows at all. The next 2 are Wine based solutions...

3a. Wineskin. Used to port your Windows program into a Mac app... can be very easy to extremely difficult... may or may not work with a specific game. May give you minor to major performance hit, also depending on the game and how well its currently working with Wine. If your a developer and/or hack Wine code, it can be much easier, and you can get more things to work since you can compile your own builds. Doesn't cost anything...

3b. Crossover. Run programs through the Crossover Application. Can be easy to difficult, but they strive for user friendly. Like anything with Wine, it cannot run 100% of everything and is always a constant work in progress. Costs the price of just buying Crossover itself.

There are some other Wine based options, but I don't care for them personally. I may be a bit biased since Wineskin is my project, but I only started it because all the other solutions weren't good enough for me. A lot of people will mention WineBottler, but I seriously recommend against it. Its very dated and has apparently been abandon by its creator

[privatejarhead]

The only practical way to run .exe files on a Mac is to dual-boot (BootCamp) with Windows. Virtual machines (Parallels, etc.) are meant more for work applications and not video-intense applications such as games. You could try the Wine route (especially due to its lack of cost), though be aware that it will be somewhat buggy as others have pointed out.