


One year later, VMware Fusion was released, offering the same capability, and today, these two apps offer excellent Windows virtualization on Macs if they have Intel processors. Apple released Boot Camp, which allowed users to install Windows in a dedicated partition on a Mac and boot into that operating system when necessary.Īround the same time Parallels Desktop was released offering virtualization the ability to run Windows within macOS, rather than requiring that you choose an operating system at startup. In 2006, when Apple switched to Intel processors, running Windows became simpler. For many years, Virtual PC was the go-to app for running Windows on the Mac, until Apple released hardware with Intel processors. While slow – Windows code had to be translated to work on Macs’ PowerPC processors – it did allow users to run Windows within macOS, and not have to reboot. In 1997, Connectix released Virtual PC, an app that could emulate Windows on a Mac. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple, all this ended, and users needed to rely on emulation software.

The 1996 Power Mac 4400 also supported Windows, through the use of a PCI PC compatibility card, which contained a Pentium processor. The Power Macintosh 6100 was available in a version with a PDS (processor direct slot) card which contained an Intel 80486 DX2/66 processor, allowing users to boot into Windows when needed, or even run both operating systems simultaneously if they had two monitors. In 1994, Apple released a Mac that allowed users to run both operating systems on a single computer. Some needed to run specific apps for their business, others wanted to play games that were unavailable on Mac many web designers would even use a Windows PC to ensure that their websites ran correctly on Windows browsers. Apple had a small sliver of PC market share, so many Mac users, especially in professional environments, also needed to use PCs to be able to run certain apps.
