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Deploying macOS in VMWare on Windows (Full Guide)

This document will guide you on how to setup a macOS virtual machine on your Windows operating system. This guide has a lot of steps, but I promise it's not hard. It's mainly to provide all the context and information to make the setup easy to follow. I've also broken the steps down into multiple sections in order to make it easier to understand.

Before You Begin

Make sure that your PC has Virtualization enabled in the BIOS. If you do not know if you have virtualization enabled, open Task Manager's Performance tab:

If virtualization is disabled, you need to boot into your PC's BIOS and enable it. Now, enabling it will be different per-vendor, however, here are 2 YouTube videos that may help:

Downloading a Fresh Copy of macOS

The first step in setting up a virtual machine is getting an image that is compatible with our virtualization software, in this case, VMWare. To do this, we will use OpenCore. The following instructions are a shortened form of the full OpenCore Install Guide:

https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Install-Guide/installer-guide/windows-install.html

Note: This method is preferred over downloading an existing ISO from the internet because you never know when the integrity of an ISO from the internet might be compromised.

Pre-requisites

Instructions

  1. Download the latest release of OpenCore.

  2. Extract the OpenCore ZIP file, and open the extracted folder.

  3. Navigate into Utilities\macrecovery.

  4. Holding Shift on your keyboard, right-click your explorer window and select Open PowerShell window here.

  5. Run the python command corresponding to the macOS version you want to download, found in the OpenCore Install Guide.

    macOS Ventura

    If you'd like to download macOS Ventura, use the command below:

    This is not recommended for inexperienced users!

    python ./macrecovery.py -b Mac-27AD2F918AE68F61 -m 00000000000000000 download

  6. Next, cut/copy the BaseSystem.dmg file (generated in the macrecovery folder), to your user profile's Documents folder

Converting the macOS System Image to a VMWare Disk

Now that you have the BaseSystem.dmg file, we will now need to convert it into a format that VMWare can understand and load. In order to do that, we need to use yet another open-source tool called QEMU. Follow the steps below to learn how to use it.

Installing QEMU

This is a short guide to show you how to install QEMU, an open-source tool for working with disk images.

  1. Download QEMU for Windows.

    • Download Link: https://qemu.weilnetz.de/w64/

    • You will see a bunch of folders with years on them. Ignore those. Download the qemu-w64-setup-XXXXXXXX.exe installer.

  2. Run the installer once the download completes.

    • If you get a Windows SmartScreen alert, allow the installer to Run Anyways.

    • If you get an error during installation saying a file cannot be written, just click the Retry button in the prompt.

    • The installer will install files to C:\Program Files\qemu

  3. (Optional). You may want to add the C:\Program Files\qemu path to your Windows System Environment Variables

    • This is optional because I will be using the full path to qemu-img in the rest of the guide.

    • If you are non-technical or a beginner, I would skip this step.

Creating the VMDK

Now that we've installed QEMU, we need to use it to convert the BaseSystem.dmg to a VMWare .vmdk disk image.

  1. Open Explorer and navigate into your Documents folder (where your BaseSystem.dmg is located).

  2. Holding Shift on your keyboard, right-click your explorer window and select Open PowerShell window here.

  3. Run the following command to use QEMU to convert the image to a .vmdk.

  4. You will now have a recovery.vmdk file in your Documents folder that you can use with VMWare.

Preparing & Unlocking VMWare

In order for you to even be able to load a macOS system into VMWare, you will need to use a third-party program called Auto-Unlocker to patch your VMWare installation.

Pre-requisites

Instructions (VMWare 16)

  1. Download Auto-Unlocker.

  2. Extract the downloaded zip file.

  3. Run the Unlocker.exe file.

    • This will bring up a GUI to patch your VMWare installation

    • The app will attempt to auto-fill the install locations. However, if they are empty, please locate and select your VMWare installation folder.

  4. Click the Patch button

  5. Once the patching is complete, you may close the Unlocker app.

Instructions (VMWare 15 or Older)

  1. Download Unlocker.

  2. Extract the downloaded zip file.

  3. Run the win-install.cmd file as an Administrator

Setting up the Virtual Machine

Creating the Virtual Machine

This section will detail how to create the base virtual machine using the recovery disk we created earlier.

Pre-requisites

Instructions

  1. Open VMWare and click File -> New Virtual Machine

  2. Select Custom Installation and start navigating through the New Virtual Machine setup screens.

  3. On the Guest Operating System Installation page, select, I will install the operating system later.

  4. On the Select a Guest Operating System page, select Apple Mac OS X, as well as the corresponding macOS version.

  5. On the Processor Configuration page, select 1 for the Number of processors.

    • For the Number of cores per processor, select a number that is within your computer's resource constraints.

  6. On the Memory for the Virtual Machine page, we recommend the following:

    • Minimum: 4096 MB

    • Recommended: 8096 MB

  7. On the Network Type page, select Use network address translation (NAT).

  8. On the Select a Disk page, select Use an existing virtual disk.

  9. On the Select an Existing Disk page, browse & select the recovery.vmdk disk we created earlier.

  10. Finish the setup.

  11. Edit your Virtual Machine's settings.

  12. Add a new piece of hardware.

    • On the Hardware Type page, select Hard Disk.

    • On the Disk Type page, select SATA.

    • On the Select a Disk page, select Create a new virtual disk

    • On the Specify Disk Capacity page, enter an amount that makes sense

      • Minimum: 50 GB

      • Recommended: 80 GB

    • Complete the Hard Disk setup.

Patching the Virtual Machine (iServices)

This section will detail how to patch your virtual machine in order to properly run macOS and get iServices setup.

  1. Navigate to your virtual machine's files

    • The virtual machine's files are located here: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Virtual Machines\

  2. Create a backup of your virtual machine's .vmx file

    • You can just copy and paste it into the same directory, appending .bak to the filename.

  3. Open your virtual machine's original Configuration File (.vmx) in a text editor (i.e. Notepad)

  4. Paste the following line into the .vmx file and save it.

smc.version = "0"

  • If you have an AMD CPU, also add the following to your .vmx file.

cpuid.0.eax = "0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:1011"
cpuid.0.ebx = "0111:0101:0110:1110:0110:0101:0100:0111"
cpuid.0.ecx = "0110:1100:0110:0101:0111:0100:0110:1110"
cpuid.0.edx = "0100:1001:0110:0101:0110:1110:0110:1001"
cpuid.1.eax = "0000:0000:0000:0001:0000:0110:0111:0001"
cpuid.1.ebx = "0000:0010:0000:0001:0000:1000:0000:0000"
cpuid.1.ecx = "1000:0010:1001:1000:0010:0010:0000:0011"
cpuid.1.edx = "0000:0111:1000:1011:1111:1011:1111:1111"

macOS Ventura

If your VM is macOS Ventura, you may need to add (or edit) the following to enable internet connectivity:

ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"

Booting the Virtual Machine

Once you've edited the .vmx file, you should be able to boot the virtual machine normally.

Common Issues

If you are having issues performing the initial boot for the virtual machine, take a look at the most common issues below.

  • Stuck on Apple Boot Logo: If you attempt to boot your virtual machine and it's stuck on the Apple Boot Logo, do the following to fix the issue. Power off the Virtual Machine, then open the virtual machine's settings. Once the settings window opened beside the Hardware tab click on Options. Change the Apple Mac OS X selection to Microsoft Windows then click OK. Power on the virtual machine again. Once all installed then go back to settings and set it back to Apple Mac OS X

  • The CPU has been disabled by the guest operating system: Enable virtualization in your computer's BIOS

    • There are guides on YouTube describing how to do this.

  • Feature 'cpuid.ds' was absent, but must be present: This is due to a corrupted vmx file. Try using a backup of your .vmx file and edit the .vmx file carefully this time.

    • Make sure that your editor is not converting the quotes (") to "greek" quotes

  • This virtual machine requires AVX2 but AVX is not present. This virtual machine cannot be powered on: This is due to a corrupted vmx file. Try using a backup of your .vmx file and edit the .vmx file carefully this time.

    • Make sure that your editor is not converting the quotes (") to "greek" quotes

  • Module 'featurecompat' power on failed: In your .vmx file, make sure that your editor is not converting the quotes (") to "greek" quotes

Installing macOS

Once you're able to boot into the recovery setup, follow these steps to properly install macOS.

Note: You may want to power off your virtual machine and take a snapshot before continuing. If anything goes wrong during setup, you can always revert back to your snapshot.

  1. Select Disk Utility and hit Continue.

  2. On the Disk Utility page, select the Hard Disk you created.

    • This is not the one labeled, macOS Base System

  3. With the Hard Disk selected, click Erase in the top right of Disk Utility.

    • This will format the hard disk into a format that macOS can use.

  4. Close Disk Utility.

  5. On the recovery page, select Reinstall macOS <version> and hit Continue.

  6. Continue through the setup, accepting the license agreement(s).

  7. When prompted to select the disk to install macOS, select the disk you just formatted.

  8. Wait for the operating system to be installed.

  9. Once the operating system is installed, navigate through the macOS setup.

    • You do not need to sign into an Apple ID when prompted.

  10. Create your macOS computer account, finish the setup, and login.

Note: Once everything is setup, you may edit the Virtual Machine's settings and remove the recovery.vmdk Hard Disk. Do not delete the Hard Disk you created manually (to store the install). Note 2: You may want to power off your virtual machine and take another snapshot before continuing.

Fixing iServices

By default, your macOS deployment will not support iServices such as iMessage. In order to support iServices, additional configurations must be done. We will accomplish this by utilizing a tool called Clover Configurator.

  1. Boot up your macOS virtual machine and login.

  2. Open Safari and download Clover Configurator.

  3. Open Clover Configurator.

    • You may need to allow it to run via System Preferences -> Security & Privacy.

  4. Once opened, navigate to the SMBIOS tab in the sidebar.

  5. Find the up/down arrow button under the large "question mark" image, and to the right of the Update Firmware Only checkbox.

  6. Click on the up/down arrow button and select any product made in 2019 or newer.

    • We recommend MacPro7,1 or iMac16,1

  7. Copy the following configuration to an editor (i.e. Notepad), on your host computer (Windows).

board-id = "AAA"
hw.model.reflectHost = "FALSE"
hw.model = "BBB"
serialNumber.reflectHost = "FALSE"
serialNumber = "CCC"
smbios.reflectHost = "FALSE"
efi.nvram.var.ROM.reflectHost = "FALSE"
efi.nvram.var.MLB.reflectHost = "FALSE"
efi.nvram.var.ROM = "DDD"
efi.nvram.var.MLB = "EEE"

  1. In Clover Configurator, click the Generate New button next to the Serial Number field to generate a new serial number.

  2. Copy & paste the following Clover Configurator SMBIOS fields into the configuration from above:

    • AAA: Replace with your Board ID (i.e. Mac-XXXXXXXXXXXXXX)

    • BBB: Replace with your Product Name (i.e. MacPro7,1)

    • CCC: Replace with your generated Serial Number

  3. In Clover Configurator, click on the Rt Variables tab in the sidebar.

  4. Click on the Generate button next to the ROM text.

  5. Copy & paste the following Clover Configurator Rt Variable fields into the configuration from above:

    • DDD: Replace with your generated ROM

    • EEE: Replace with your generated MLB

  6. Close Clover Configurator & shut down your macOS virtual machine

  7. Open your virtual machine's .vmx file. The same one you edited earlier in the setup guide.

    • The virtual machine's files are located here: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Virtual Machines\

  8. Paste your completed configuration above into the .vmx file.

  9. Find the board-id.reflectHost configuration and verify that it is set to "TRUE".

  10. Find the ethernet0.addressType configuration and change it from "generated" to "static"

  11. In your browser, go to the following link to grab an "OUI" for the configuration:

  12. Find the ethernet0.generatedAddress configuration and change the first 3 segments to match the 3 segments of your chosen OUI.

    • Example: If my current generatedAddress is 00:0c:29:bb:91:7f, and I've selected the OUI, 00-1F-F3, my new generatedAddress will be 00:1f:f3:bb:91:7f

    • It's recommended to use lower-case characters for the alphabetical letters.

  13. Rename the ethernet0.generatedAddress configuration to just ethernet0.Address

  14. Replace the ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0" configuration with ethernet0.checkMACAddress = "FALSE"

  15. Save and close the .vmx file.

Your macOS virtual machine should be good to go! You now should be able to sign into iMessage and use the other iServices. Boot up your virtual machine and sign into iMessage to verify everything is working correctly.

Note: If something failed during setup and your macOS virtual machine will not boot, restore from an earlier snapshot and redo part of the setup!

Final Checks

Here are a few final checks to make sure that your macOS virtual machine is setup correctly.

  • When the macOS virtual machine is booted & running, click on the Apple Logo and select About this Mac. Verify that the serial number listed matches the serial number you configured in the steps above.

  • Open System Preferences and open your Date & Time settings. Verify that your timezone is set correctly and your time is properly synced.

    • If you are unsure, you can open Safari and go to https://time.is to see if your time synchronization is misaligned.

    • If your time synchronization is misaligned, you can synchronize it by opening Terminal and running this command: sudo ntpdate -vu time.apple.com

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