Listed on this page are Macintosh emulators: some of them emulate a 68k Macintosh (such as what you get inthe Macintosh Quadra, Performa, Classic, etc), others emulate a PowerPC Macintosh. Note that if you are usinga 68k Mac emulator and wish to run Mac OS (such as System 7.5.5, etc), you will need to havea real Mac around somewhere since such systems require you to have a Mac ROM. (the various emulators usually provide you with instructionson how you can make a copy of the ROM from your real Mac).
At present, I know of no software emulator that can emulate an Intel x86 Macintosh or to run OS X in a virtual machine on a PC.
For a quick start, Download a standard variation, to emulate a Macintosh Plus on OS X, Windows, Linux, and many others. Summary: The Mini vMac emulator collection allows modern computers to run software made for early Macintosh computers, the computers that Apple sold from 1984 to 1996 based upon Motorola's 680x0 microprocessors. Download os9exec - os9 emulator for free. OS9exec - execution environment for OS-9/68k user-mode programs on MacOS9 / MacOSX / Windows and Linux host OS. (OS-9 is an RTOS of Microware/Radisys).
Note: if you are looking for an emulator or virtual machine that runs on a Mac and allows you to emulate a PC, running operating systems like Windows,you should try the Free x86 PC Emulators and Virtual Machines page instead.If you prefer the features, speed and completeness of support of a commercial software, try looking atParallels Desktop for MacandVMWare Fusion
Skip directly to[ Power PC Mac Emulators ] |[ 68k Mac Emulators ]
Related Pages
- Free x86 PC Emulators and Virtual Machines - emulate a PC to run multiple OSes
Free PowerPC (PPC) Mac Emulators
QEMU supports the emulation of x86 processors, ARM, SPARC and PowerPC. Host CPUs (processors that can run the QEMUemulator) include x86, PowerPC, Alpha, Sparc32, ARM, S390, Sparc64, ia64, and m68k (some of these are still indevelopment). When emulating a PC (x86), supported guest operating systems include MSDOS, FreeDOS, Windows 3.11,Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Linux, SkyOS, ReactOS, NetBSD, Minix, etc. When emulating a PowerPC, currently tested guest OSesinclude Debian Linux.
SoftPear is a compatibility layer that allows you to run Mac OS X on PC (x86) hardware. It works by dynamicallyrecompiling Mac programs (including Mac OS X) into x86 binary code that runs on your PC, and adding a layer thattranslates things like endianness.
Mac Os 9 Emulator Windows
This is essential a virtual machine that allows you to run Mac OS as well as Mac OS X on top of a Linux host system that runs on a PowerPC computer.Supported host CPUs include the PowerPC 603, 604, G3 and G4. It also allows the use of AltiVec in the Guest OS if the CPU supports it. At the timethis was written, only PCI devices (hard disks, USB drives, CDROM and DVD drives, etc) that do not use DMA are natively supported.
SheepShaver allows you to run classic MacOS applications on BeOS and Linux. It includes a PowerPC emulator which isused if you are using a non-PPC system. It supports MacOS 7.5.2 to 8.6 as the guest operating system, a colour display,internet and LAN networking via Ethernet, serial drivers, SCSI Manager emulation, file exchange with the host OS,access to floppy disks, CD-ROMs, HFS(+) partitions on hard disks, sound, etc.
PearPC emulates a PPC (PowerPC) Macintosh, allowing you to run Darwin PPC, Mac OS X and Linux in the emulated machine.Supported hosts include Windows and Linux (and possibly other Unix-type systems).
Free 680x0 (68K) Macintosh Emulators
The Advanced Mac Substitute is able to run 68K Mac applications without an Apple ROM or MacOS. It does this byreimplementing the API (that is, the programming interface) of the classic MacOS. The emulator runs onMac OS X and Linux. The program is released as source code, so you will actually compile it intobinary (ie, executable) form before you can run it.
PCE/macplus is an open source emulator for theMacintosh 128K, Macintosh 512k, Macintosh 512ke, Macintosh Plus, Macintosh SE and Macintosh Classic.It emulates the MC68000 microprocessor with RAM configurations from 128 KB to 4 MB. Precompiledversions of the emulator, including the ROM image and operating system software, that runs on Windows,are available. The C source code is released under the GNU General Public License. This is the Mac emulatorcurrently used by the Internet Archive for theirMacOS System 7.1 Compilation.
Mini vMac is an emulator for the Macintosh Plus and Macintosh SE. There are versions for Windows,Mac OS X, Mac OS 9 (PowerPC), Linux (x86), Pocket PC, and Macintosh 680x0. The source code is releasedunder the GNU GPL.
Basilisk II/JIT is an adaptation of the original Basilisk II Macintosh emulator (see elsewhere onthis page) to includea just-in-time (JIT) compiler (presumably speeding up the emulated machine). Host platforms include Linux/i386,FreeBSD/i386 and Windows. Guest OSes include the 68k Mac OS. Basilisk II/JIT is open source.
The Basilisk II Mac emulator allows you to emulate a 68k Macintosh on a variety of platforms, including BeOS (PowerPCand x86), Unix with X11 (including Linux, Solaris 2.5, FreeBSD and IRIX), AmigaOS 3.x, and Windows. The emulator isable to emulate a Mac Classic or Mac II depending on the Mac ROM you use (not included). Your emulated Mac has a colourdisplay, CD quality sound output, floppy disk drive, HFS partitions and files, CDROM drive, etc. You can easily movefiles between your host system and the emulated machine. Basilisk II is open source.
SoftMac is a 68k Macintosh emulator that runs under Windows. Fusion PC emulates a 68k Mac on MSDOS systems. Note thatin spite of what the website and software claims, I have never been able to get sound working on SoftMac (nor have,apparently, anyone else I know). You will need a Mac ROM for the emulator to work.
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Mac OS 9 for Windows
Run classic Mac OS apps in Windows | A similar app that runs System 7 | How to use MacOS9 | What the MacOS9 app contains | Acknowledgments | Support
An easy way to run 'classic' Mac OS applications under Windows
Under Windows, software written for the 'classic' Mac OS (i.e. versions 6 through 9) can only be run through software that emulates Macintosh hardware from 1980s and 1990s. The most advanced of these emulator programs is SheepShaver. SheepShaver is no longer supported by its original author, Gwenolé Beauchesne, but minor updates are available from an active support forum at E-Maculation.
This page provides a fully functional SheepShaver system that runs Mac OS 9.0.4 (US English version). Unlike other SheepShaver-based systems, it makes it relatively easy to exchange files between SheepShaver and Windows, and makes it easy to print from Mac OS applications to Windows printers, or to create PDF files on the Windows desktop. The system runs under Windows 7, 8.x and 10; it may work under earlier Windows versions, but I haven't tested it under earlier versions.
To install this system, download and run the MacOS9AppInstaller. (The file is around 400MB in size; it contains a 4GB hard disk image file.) Then launch the MacOS9.exe Free insanity workout. application, either from its folder or from the desktop shortcut that the installer offers to create.
Note: Updated 19 March 2020 with a new version of SheepShaver. A version posted 18 August 2019 includes a 4GB image file, not 1GB as in earlier versions.
The program comes with an uninstaller. Every file installed or used by the program is inside the program's folder. After uninstalling, any files that may be left over will be in that same folder; those files and the folder itself may be safely deleted.
For a similar system that runs Mac OS 9 under OS X/macOS, see another page.
A similar system that runs System 7.6.1 in BasiliskII
I have created a similar system that runs Mac System 7.6.1 under BasiliskII. You may download its MacSys761Installer here. Run the installer and then launch the MacSys761.exe application, either from its folder or from a desktop shortcut that the installer offers to create.
The System 7 app works mostly in the same way that the MacOS9App works. You may copy files to System 7 desktop by dropping them on to the MacSys761.exe icon. And you may copy files to the Windows desktop by selecting them with the Copy to Host application or dropping them in to Send to Windows folder (both on the System 7 desktop).
Note: Updated 5 September 2020 with a corrected file-transfer system and an updated build of BasiliskII.
How to use the MacOS9 app
I assume that you know something about Mac OS and don't need any advice from me. A few points are worth mentioning:
Depending on your Windows version, a Computer or This PC icon appears on the MacOS9 desktop. This icon leads to the drives on your host computer.
The File Transfer folder on the desktop is a convenience, to remind you that files found in the Computer or This PC folder should be copied into that folder (or any other folder in the MacOS9 disk image) before being used. They should not be copied merely to the desktop, because they almost certainly won't work until they are actually copied into the MacOS9 virtual disk. (When you copy a file from Windows to the MacOS9 desktop, the file itself is not copied to MacOS9 disk image; that is why you must copy it to a folder inside the disk image itself.)
The MacOS9 system includes a startup script named MacOS9StartUp. This script creates the necessary file-transfer folders for printing and exchanging files, and tests whether they are correct if they already exist. Please let it run without interference.
If you are confident that the file-transfer folders are working correctly, you can move the MacOS9StartUp script from the Startup Items folder in the System Folder to the Startup Items (Disabled) folder. Then move BackgroundScript from the Scripts folder in the System Folder to the Startup Items folder; shut down the MacOS9 app and start it again. If the file-transfer folders stop working, move the BackgroundScript out of the Startup Items folder and restore the MacOS9StartUp script to the Startup Items folder.
To transfer a file from Windows to MacOS9, drop it (in Windows) on MacOS9.exe or on the MacOS9 desktop shortcut. After a long pause, perhaps even longer than 30 seconds, a copy of the file should appear on the desktop of the MacOS9 disk. The original file remains in your Windows system.
To transfer a file to Windows from MacOS9, drop it on the 'Send to Windows' applet on the MacOS9 desktop. The file should be copied almost immediately to the Windows desktop. Or you may double-click on the 'Sent to Windows' applet and select a file to send to the Windows desktop.
To print from MacOS9 to your default Windows printer, simply use the File/Print menu in your MacOS9 application, and print with the default desktop printer, 'Print to Windows.' After a pause, the document should print to your default Windows printer.
Mac Os 9 Emulator Websites
To print from MacOS9 and select a Windows printer for the current print job, use the File/Print menu in your MacOS9 application, choose the desktop printer named 'Select Windows Printer', and print. After a pause, a popup list of Windows printers should appear; choose the one you want.
To create a PDF file in Windows when printing from MacOS9, use the File/Print menu in your MacOS9 application, choose the desktop printer named 'PDF to Windows Desktop', and print. The resulting PDF file on the Windows desktop will have an arbitrary name based on the current date and time.
To create a PDF file on the OS 9 desktop, use the File/Print menu in your MacOS9 application, choose the desktop printer named 'PDF to OS9 Desktop', and print. You will be prompted to enter a filename for the resulting PDF; an arbitrary filename will be offered based on the current date and time, but you can type over it to change it.
To print 'raw' PostScript data from MacOS9 to a PostScript-compatible Windows default printer, follow the printing instructions above, but choose the desktop printer named 'Raw PS to Win PS Printer.' The raw PostScript data will be sent to your Windows default printer; if that printer is not PostScript-compatible, you may waste a lot of paper, so be careful with this option.
If SheepShaver locks up: While the MacOS9 app is running, a small Mac-like icon appears in your Windows system tray. You may click on this to open a menu that includes 'Force Quit.' You may click on this to shut down SheepShaver forcibly; you will be asked to confirm that you intend to do this. (SheepShaver is notably unstable, and liable to crash without warning, so this feature may be useful.)
You may use the supplied SheepShaverGUI app (in the Programs folder inside the MacOS9 folder) to modify the system, but the file transfer and printing features will only work if you launch the MacOS9 app from the MacOS9 desktop icon or the MacOS9.exe program inside the MacOS9 folder! If you launch SheepShaver from the SheepShaverGUI, you may get error messages about the file transfer system; if this occurs, shut down SheepShaver and relaunch the MacOS9 icon or MacOS9.exe program.
To transfer files from a real Mac to SheepShaver, follow the instructions in this post on emaculation.com.
To add additional disk space to MacOS9: This system includes a 4GB disk image. If you need additional disk space, then visit this page at Macintosh Garden and download one of the provided disk images (I recommend the third download, with a 10GB disk image). Then follow these steps:
- Use something like the 7z file manager app to extract the downloaded disk image.
- Rename the extracted disk image to something like Second.dsk (for convenience, use the .dsk extension, whatever the original extension might be).
- Move the renamed disk image into the MacOS9Programs folder.
- Use Notepad or any text editor to edit the SheepShaver_prefs file in the same folder and add this line after the first line: disk Second.dsk (using whatever name you gave the to the disk image file).
- Save the SheepShaver_prefs file and restart MacOS9.
'Cannot map second Kernel Data' error: If, on your system, SheepShaver starts up with the error message 'Cannot map second Kernel Data area: 487', then go to the Programs folder inside the MacOS9 folder, rename SheepShaver.exe to SheepShaver-old.exe and rename SheepShaver-noJIT.exe to SheepShaver.exe. This alternate version will probably be slower, but should at least run. (This error message occurs unpredictably on some systems but not on others.)
Further details may be available later if you ask for them.
What the MacOS9 app contains
The MacOS9 application contains a standard US-English Mac OS 9 installation, without features that can't be used in this system, such as file-sharing. It also includes a large number of standard Mac OS applications, plus some Control Panels, Extensions, Scripting Additions, and a gray desktop image that you can easily change if you prefer.
The file transfer system uses two AppleScripts: either the MacOS9StartUp script or the BackgroundScript script described above. The MacOS9AppData folder uses an OS9Action folder action script found in the Scripts:Folder Action Scripts folder.
In the MacOS9 disk image, the Transfer folder alias and From Windows folder are required by the file-transfer system, as are the MacOS9AppData folder and the WinPath.txt file found in the System Folder.
The Transfer folder is an alias of the Windows folder named Transfer (inside the MacOS9 folder, typically in your user folder). In contrast, the File Transfer folder on the MacOS9 desktop is a mere convenience for use when copying files from the Computer or This PC folder.
Acknowledgments
This system is built on software provided by many people who are more expert than I am. The included build of SheepShaver was built by Ronald P. Regensburg and posted at the E-Maculation support forum for SheepShaver. The AppleScripts used in this application could not have been written without the help of many experts at Macscripter.net, and the AutoIt script that provides the launcher application could not have been written without the help of many experts in the forum at AutoItScript.com.
Support
Because part of this system is written in the AutoIt scripting language, some anti-virus programs will flag it as malware. Absolutely do not waste your extremely valuable time alerting me to this; do not waste your extremely valuable time writing me an e-mail asking if the software is safe. Do not take my word for it that this is all the result of a false positive. Upload the software to a site like VirusTotal.com for testing. If you do not trust my software, do not use my software.
Please do not ask me to help you customize the 'classic' Mac OS or advise you about any applications. Please ask for support in the E-Maculation support forum for SheepShaver. If you want to get in touch with me about the AppleScript and AutoIt used in this system, then please visit this page.
Edward Mendelson (em thirty-six [at] columbia [dot] edu, but with two initials and two numerals before the [at] sign, not spelled out as shown here).