How to Run OSX on a PC Laptop
Since Apple transitioned to the use of Intel processors in their machines, and with the dramatic improvement in virtual machine emulation, the cross-compatibility between Macs and PCs has improved a great deal. It is now relatively straightforward to run OSX on a PC, or Windows on a Mac. Here we'll focus on virtual machine emulation in Windows, enabling you to run Apple's OSX on your PC laptop.
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Instructions
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Create a virtual machine emulator on your laptop using an emulator program that will support OSX. You will be asked to define the amount of memory and storage -- really you'll be assigning a portion of your laptop's hardware to the emulator, to act as the virtual hardware, for the virtual machine.
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Divide the hardware resources according to how you plan to use the virtual machine. If you plan to start Windows, then launch the emulator and use OSX, you can feel free to assign a large portion of your system resources to the emulator. The settings menu will include recommended maximum figures. Alternatively, if you plan to run applications in Windows and OSX at the same time, it is better to split the resources down the middle, allowing plenty of headroom for each operating system.
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Insert your OSX install disk and allow the setup utility to run. This should be much like installing an operating system on a regular PC. There will be a few decisions to make regarding the configuration of your new machine, such as where you would like certain software libraries to be installed and which features you would like pre-installed, but for the most part, it will be a matter of sitting back and watching the progress bar grow.
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Hit the play button in your emulator once progress reaches 100 percent, and you're ready to go. A window should open to display your new machine as as it boots. You can resize this window or make it full screen. Many virtualization packages include a screen organizer, allowing you to seamlessly switch between multiple operating systems running at once.
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Tips & Warnings
Always use a legitimate, purchased version of the OSX. Since we can only virtualize older versions of OSX, these are available at very affordable prices.
Older versions of Mac OSX can be run on any PC using the x86 processor architecture. But the newest incarnation, codenamed "Snow Leopard" is optimized for the use of Intel's newest processors, and designed to run on Apple hardware only. As a result, Snow Leopard would require modification to run on a PC, which is in violation of the software's end user license agreement.
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- Photo Credit apple image by red2000 from Fotolia.com
