If you had ever wanted to get the MacOS experience without owning a Mac, then you may want to use a virtual machine to get the experience, and this guide will teach you how to do just that by installing MacOS Ventura on a virtual machine.
What You Will Need
MacOS Ventura ISO
This is the ISO file for MacOS Ventura.
NOTE This file is not from me and I simply found it on the internet. As of right now, VirusTotal did not get any positives on this file and it appears to work fine. This may change in the future, so beware.
VMware Workstation Pro
This will be our hypervisor
NOTE You may be able to find a cracked version or use a pirated license key, but that is illegal and not recommended.
Step 1: Patching VMware Pro
Download the unlocker script from GitHub, and path VMware Workstation Pro. Make sure VMware Pro is patched before you do this, otherwise you might not install the patch correctly.
After running the patch, you should see MacOS as an option for your VM.
Step 2: Creating the VM
In the VM settings, create a new VM with the version of MacOS 12 and supply your ISO. Give the VM at least 16 gigabytes of RAM, and at least 80 gigabytes of hard drive storage. Give the VM a name, and click “Finish”
Step 3: First Boot and Setup
Click on Power on this virtual machine. Once the operating system has loaded, select your language and double-click on Disk Utility
Look for VMware Virtual SATA Hard Drive Media. Select it, then click Erase.
A menu will pop up. Change the name to whatever you want, and set the scheme to whatever you want. I set it to MacOS Extended (Journaled), but the most common format is GUID Partition Map. I would still recommend MacOS Extended, though. After you type your name and your scheme, click Erase.
The virtual disk will now begin erasing and formatting.
Once the virtual disk is done formatting, close out of the window and click Install MacOS 13 Beta.
The installer will then continue. The install should take around 15-20 minutes.
Once the VM finishes installing, wait for the machine to fully boot. Once it is bootes, shut down the VM and go to the VM’s settings.
Click on CD/DVD (SATA) and make sure that Connect at power on is disabled.
Power on the VM and continue with setup.
NOTE There have been problems with people’s screen going black and then rebooting after setting up network options. Make sure you do not set up Wi-Fi during setup, and set it up when you are in the desktop environment.
VMware Tools (Darwin)
Click on VM > Install VMware Tools… and continue with the setup on MacOS
Limitations
The following are limitations that you might want to consider before trying this project:
- Hardware acceleration is basically nonexistant
- Might have random crashes
- Might have bugs and be slow
- You will not get support from Apple.