Each of these is a paid program, so you’ll have to buy both a Windows license and a copy of your virtual machine program of choice. Popular virtual machine programs for Mac include Parallels and VMware Fusion. RELATED: How to Seamlessly Run Windows Programs on Your Mac with Parallels If you already have a product key, you can download Windows installation media for free and install it in a virtual machine program. You’ll need a Windows license to install Windows in a virtual machine.

However, they’re still running inside the virtual machine in the background. You don’t have to use your Windows program in the virtual machine window, either-many virtual machine programs allow you to break Windows programs out of your virtual machine window so they can appear on your Mac desktop. Windows will think it’s running on a real computer, but it’s actually running inside a piece of software on your Mac.

They allow you to install Windows and other operating systems in a window on your Mac desktop. A virtual machine is one of the best ways to run Windows desktop software.

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