All Mac® users know about the Mac App Store®, and most have probably used it to get an app or two. If you’re also a Parallels Desktop® for Mac user, there’s another store you should check out: the Microsoft Store.
- In fact, there are a couple ways to go about doing this with our first method being the one we recommend doing as it supports the full Windows version of the game. Use Boot Camp on your Mac.
- With Cider, Mac users’ long wait for Mac OS X-native games is a thing of the past—Mac users will be able to run Cider-enhanced Windows games simultaneously or nearly simultaneously with their.
If you don’t want to pay for playing Windows games on Mac, you can choose to partition your hard drive with Boot Camp. Then, you can run Windows on a separate partition. This means that you need to use hard drive space on your Mac to run Windows. By the way, you’d better install Windows 10 on the separated partition.
The Microsoft Store is accessible from Windows 8 or 10—but in all practical terms, this means onlvidy Windows 10, since Windows 8 is used so rarely these days.
The Microsoft Store is for all things to play or consume on Windows 10: movies, music, apps, books, fonts, extensions to the Edge browser, and even hardware. In Apple® terms, it’s iTunes®, the Mac App Store, iBooks®, and the Apple Store® all rolled into one. However, in this blog post, I will focus mainly on apps available from the Microsoft Store.
Accessing the Store
Just as Apple has the App Store app, Microsoft has the Microsoft Store app. (See Figure 1.)
Here are some apps I have downloaded from the Microsoft Store, none of which are available on the Mac App Store:
| Games | Productivity | Learning | Just Interesting |
| Age of Empires: Castle Siege | Microsoft Whiteboard | Kakitai: Learn Japanese by Writing | Nebo* |
| Crossy Road* | Office 365 Home* | Sensavis Visual Learning Tool | Plumbago |
| Microsoft Mahjong | Sway* | Penbook | |
| Age of Empires: Definitive Edition | Delve* | GestureSign | |
| Age of Sparta | Microsoft Math | Microsoft Font Maker | |
| Translator* | |||
| Fluid Math |
*Available for the iPhone®/iPad® in the Apple App Store.
All of these apps run fine for me on my MacBook Pro® in a Windows 10 VM using Parallels Desktop 14—with the single exception of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. I used every setting I know to get this app to run with acceptable performance, but in the end, I gave up. (Age of Empires is my favorite game of all time, as I posted back in 2014.)
You can predict whether an app in the Microsoft Store will run in Parallels Desktop by looking at its system requirements from within your virtual machine. (See Figure 2.)
Figures 3–5 show some other apps from the Microsoft Store running in Parallels Desktop on my MacBook Pro.
Video 1 shows some games from the Microsoft Store running in Parallels Desktop 14 on my MacBook Pro:
And Video 2 shows some of the 3D models available for the Sensavis Visual Learning Tool:
As of today, there are about 800,000 Windows 10 apps in the Microsoft Store, as opposed to only about 11,000 in the Mac App Store. There are a number of excellent apps in both stores, and the Mac user with Parallels Desktop can take advantage of both to find the perfect app for your needs.
Have you found a particularly useful or novel app on the Microsoft Store? If so, tell us about it in the comments.
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- Windows games
As the years goes by, more and more Windows games are added on the website. Some of them still work quite easily, others are lucky enough to have an active community developing patches and fixes to make them run on the most recent versions of Windows.
Almost all Windows games are available as ISO version, meaning a verbatim copy of the game disks. If you don't know how to use these files, read our tutorial. You may also get these usual problems:
- ISO is not a .iso file: an ISO image is a disk image of a CD or DVD file. Several file formats have been created to make ISO files and you will need to install another mounting software. In our archives, you'll come across BIN/CUE, MDF/MDS, CCD/IMG, NRG. You may want to convert these to ISO using WinBin2Iso, but you will lose audio tracks (usually music) if there are any.
- Corrupted ISO: many ISO files can't be mounted with the legacy ISO utility in Windows 10. You need to install another mounting software, see this page.
- Game is asking for CD: games have a copy protection program to avoid piracy. You will need to replace the original .exe program with another one. Sometimes, we provide this replacement on the game page, labeled as 'NoCD'. Otherwise, look for a 'crack' directory in the content of the ISO file.
PCGamingWiki
Late 90s and 2000s titles may have a game page on PCGamingWiki, a wiki dedicated to fixes and workarounds for PC Games. We try to add a link to the right wiki URL on every game page, so you should check out the game links below the game description. You can also make a search on the wiki, or through Google by searching the name of the game + 'site:PCGamingWiki.com' (without quotes).
PCem Emulator
PCem is versatile IBM PC emulator, which allows you to properly emulate a whole computer, including late 99 Pentium computer. You also get a Voodoo2 3dfx card and many other drivers. This emulator can be very effective for Windows games until early 2000s generation. You can read this tutorial. Additional information and resources can be found on Emugen.
Alternatively, you can use 86Box, a forked project from PCem which supports Pentium up to MMX 300 MHz. You can watch this video tutorial.
Linux + Wine
Running Windows games under Linux can work surprisingly well, we have a dedicated tutorial here.
Mac + Porting Kit
You can run Windows games on your Mac using Porting Kit (free), or Crossover (14-day trial).
Windows 3.1 Games
Some games were made for Windows 3.1 instead of DOS, you will need to install Windows 3.1 in DOSBox. You will find a copy of Windows 3.x on WinWorld. Follow these tutorials to get it running: VirtualBox forum, Vogons, Sierra Help or this blog post.
Windows 95 Games
Many of the Win95 games won't run on recent Windows versions, but you can install Win95 in DOSBox. The procedure is a bit complicated, hopefully dada_ and some folks over Vogons and #dosbox@freenode set up a guide to do this, check it out in the Google doc.
You can also install Windows 95 in VirtualBox, follow this tutorial to do it.
Another promising solution would be windows95 Portable made by Felix Rieseberg, which runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Following these tips, you’ll clean up your hard drive and make your Mac run faster. 4) Close Memory-Hogging Processes. Memory shortage is another classic cause of slow performance. How to make imac faster. Tap on login items- click on the name of the application- symbol located below the list appeared to the left. Doing so will remove all the applications from the list. Make a note, the fewer applications, better. Here's 10 tips to boost gaming performance on Mac! Watch part 2: Watch more Mac gaming guides. How to Optimize Your Mac for Gaming Free Up some Disk Space and Clean Up System Clutter. One of the best ways to keep your Mac in speedy shape is to clean. Disable OS X Features You Never Use. #1 Check Your Mac's Existing Settings Before you install a game, make sure you're well acquainted with the various aspects of your Mac, including the OS, processor, memory, available hard drive space,.
How To Download Windows Games On Mac
Windows 98 Games
Some of the recent abandonware games were made for Windows 98. You can still get Win 98 working on your computer using VirtualBox. You will find a guide to the installation here, then a second guide to setup properly Windows. You should read BOTH of them before installing Windows 98. You can also use pre-configured Win98 VMWare images, available at WinWorld.
One of the easiest and best ways to play PC games on a Mac is to use Nvidia's cloud-based game streaming service for macOS users, GeForce Now. GeForce Now for Mac is available right now across. Play mobile games on mac.
Windows XP Games
How To Run Windows Games On A Mac
Some will work perfectly, some won't. We rarely have all the resources necessary to get these games to install and then be played. You may have to look over the web for a x64 setup file or fixed exe file. If you find a good tutorial, please post the URL in the comment or drop us a message.
3dfx Games
The second half of the 90s was very exciting as video games would start to benefit from 3D acceleration hardware. The 3dfx company released the Voodoo Graphics cards in 1996, which provided 3D acceleration for games that supported the technology. Performances and graphics were way ahead of the competition (Riva, Matrox, S3, ATI..) but came at a price. 3dfx released its last Voodoo card in 2000, marking the end of 3dfx supported games.
How To Run Windows Games On My Mac Computer
Hopefully, 3dfx can be emulated nowadays using nGlide, a free 3Dfx Voodoo Glide wrapper made by Zeus Software. Very easy to use, just install and play for most games, but you should visit the compatibility page, as many games require a patch or some tweaking.
How To Run Windows Games On Mac
Another great glide wrapper is dgVoodoo2, which allows you to play not only 3dfx games, but also DirectX (1-7) and Direct3D games. Both programs are very useful, as one may work better than the other.
DirectX Games
As written above, dgVoodoo2 is great for old windows games which often use DirectX. You can also try these alternatives: dxwrapper, an on-going project which may prove difficult to use. WineD3D will convert DirectX to OpenGL, see the readme file in the utility folder.
Games for Windows Live
How To Run Windows Game On Mac
Late 2000s and early 2010s may require the infamous GFWL (Games for Windows Live) installed on your computer. To install it on Windows 10, you need the offline installer, right click on gfwlivesetup.exe, go to Properties, click on the Compatibility tab and set compatibility to Windows 7, click OK. Then right click on gfwlivesetup.exe and select Run as administrator.