Mac World UK Best VPN for MAC Install Windows on a MAC Create your own apps in Swift 4 April 2018 pdf pdf
APRIL 2018
FROM IDG
VPN Install Create your own apps Windows in Swift 4 on a Mac
8 N E W S
4 Apple drops iTunes Store access for irst Apple TV
6 iOS 11.2.6 released to ix Telugu ‘text bomb’ bug
B U Y I N G G U I D E
52
8 Best VPN for Mac
20 Best password managers F E AT U R E
30 Install Windows on a Mac
52 Make apps with Swift 4
73 Get started with Swift 4
30 Latest Mac games
96 HomePod tips and tricks
R O U N D - U P H O W T O F E AT U R E S
96
77 Help Desk
86 Set up a HomePod 107 Reset a HomePod
111 Change Siri’s voice on a HomePod
114 Control a HomePod from a Mac or iOS device
116 Play music on a HomePod without subscribing to Apple Music
121
NEWS
Apple drops iTunes Store
access for irst Apple TVThe irst Apple TV’s days are numbered, writes Roman Loyola
ech companies (especially Apple) want us to use the latest products they have to ofer. They want to make money from the sales, but
T
they also develop and implement new technology that older devices can’t support at all (or can’t support it in a way that’s acceptable to the user). Eventually, each product’s time runs out, as is now the case with the irst-generation Apple TV.
Apple has released a support document that states the irst-generation Apple TV will not be able to access the iTunes Store starting on 25 May. This model Apple TV (considered obsolete by Apple) will not be updated to support the new security features will be used with the iTunes
NEWS
Store. To access the iTunes Store, you need a second-generation or later Apple TV.
iTunes Store, Windows XP, and Vista
The document also says that users of Windows XP and Windows Vista will not be able to use the latest version of iTunes. Older versions of iTunes will still work, but Apple will not ofer any support, and you won’t be able to buy anything, nor will you be able to redownload previous purchases.
These changes will come into efect on 25 May. In order to be able to make and redownload purchases, you need a PC running Windows 7 or later, and the latest version of iTunes.
iOS 11.2.6 released to ix
Telugu ‘text bomb’ bugA full suite of Apple OS updates ix the text bug that caused
Leif Johnson Messages and other apps to crash. reports
nternet trolls had a great time causing Apple products to freeze recently thanks to a bug involving a speciic character from India’s Telugu
I
language. Fortunately, the party’s over now, as Apple has released a barrage of updates that patch the issue on iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and Apple TV boxes.
Take our word for it: update your devices now. You’re most likely to encounter the bug on your iPhone and iPad, so be sure to get the iOS 11.2.6 patch on your device straight away.
Apple has had to deal with some high-proile bugs in the past few months, but this one was particularly nasty. All someone had to do was send a message with the speciic character to an app like Messages, and the app would freeze while Apple’s software struggled to interpret the character.
In the cases of Messages, the only way to get rid of it was to have a friend send you a new message. As Mashable discovered, if you happened to see the character on the Twitter app, you had little choice but to go to a non-Apple machine and block all instances of the character on your account from there.
This isn’t the irst time Apple has had to deal with such ‘text bomb’ bugs. In January, a developer named Abraham Masri managed to achieve similar efects with a line of script he posted on GitHub (which he later deleted). In 2015, a nonsensical string of Arabic characters also achieved similar notoriety for crashing iPhones. But seldom have such bugs afected such a wide range of Apple’s products.
The news comes only a few days after a report from Bloomberg described how Apple software chief Craig Federighi plans to focus on fewer “big” software updates in favour of a great commitment to iOS stability. If this quick ix serves as any indication, Apple’s taking that commitment seriously. The iOS 11.2.6 update ixes the issue on iPhones and iPads. On other devices, be sure to download macOS 10.13.3 supplemental update, watchOS 4.2.3, and tvOS 11.2.6.
BUYING GUIDE
Best VPN for Mac
Stay anonymous online and access blocked content with these
VPNs for Mac. Ashleigh Macro reveals your diferent options
I
f you’re worried about online privacy or looking to access sites that are ordinarily blocked in your country, a VPN (virtual private network) will help. You’ll be able to hide your location online and access blocked content using the services in our round-up of the best VPNs for Mac.
Many people, for example, use a VPN in order to access US Netlix while inside the UK or to enjoy the BBC iPlayer’s streaming services while outside
BUYING GUIDE
of the UK. They are also a great tool to help you keep prying eyes at bay, giving an element of anonymity while browsing the web.
There are free networks available, but be aware that some may install unwanted toolbars or third-party applications, and others simply ofer much less advanced features. It’s important to irst read the terms and conditions before using a free VPN, and to make sure you know the free
VPN’s limits. Generally, though, even paid-for services are cheap. You can subscribe to many for under £6 per month.
1. NordVPN
Price: $2.75 (around £2) from fave.co/2CSqdrT A great VPN option for security, ease-of-use and a variety of useful features is NordVPN. The company tells us that it does not keep any logs of user activity at all, and there are more than 3,200 servers across 60 countries to choose from which is more than most other VPN services available.
NordVPN ofers lots of privacy and security features to help it become one of the most attractive VPN services for Internet users looking for privacy online. One handy is Kill Switch, ends the connection if the VPN drops for any reason. It’s easy to set up and it’s quick, too, and there are mobile apps included should you need them, plus you can connect to up to six devices at once.
You can get NordVPN for as little as $2.75 (around £2) per month if you take advantage of the
BUYING GUIDE
NordVPN
three-year deal. Alternative options include a two- year plan, a one-year plan or a one-month plan.
2. ExpressVPN
Price: £5 per month from fave.co/2CSIwNF Among the speediest
VPN services out there is ExpressVPN. It’s not the cheapest option at £5 per month, but it does ofer 24/7 live chat customer support and a 30-day money back guarantee, as well as a zero log policy and kill switch.
There are more than 1,000 servers available in 95 countries, and a range of
BUYING GUIDE
apps for mobile devices as well as your Mac or PC, in addition to router apps too. ExpressVPN also works with Netlix to allow you to virtually reside in the country of your choice to access additional TV shows and movies. It’s a solid option.
3. PureVPN
Price: £1.40 per month from tinyurl.com/yclbhdtg PureVPN is fast and reliable, packed with features at a great price. It is among the biggest services when it comes to the number of countries it ofers. There are more than 750 servers available in 141 countries. It also boasts that there are no third parties involved and no logs of your activities, as it’s a self-managed network owned by the company itself. It does, however, keep a record of connections and bandwidth in order to optimally manage its servers.
Like NordVPN it has a Kill Switch feature, and also ofers split tunnelling if you only want to use the VPN connection for speciic apps.
PureVPN is compatible with more than 20 devices, including your Mac, and you can log in to ive devices at once with your account. Prices start at £1.40 per month for a three-year plan thanks to a special ofer, but there are also six- and one month options.
We did have trouble running PureVPN on older Mac operating systems, so bear this in mind before you subscribe. It does have a seven-day money back guarantee though, so you can always try it.
BUYING GUIDE
PureVPN
Plus, the support is fantastic thanks to a live chat feature available 24/7.
4. Goose VPN fave.co/2F6D4wo
Price: £2.99 per month from This fast and easy-to-use VPN is aimed at home users who want to access media that’s restricted in their region. It ofers few options to maintain a very simple interface, putting it among our favourite
VPNs of 2018.
There’s a 30-day free trial available, otherwise you can sign up for the one-year plan for £4.99 per month, or a more expensive one month plan. There’s also a limited one month plan that gets you 50GB
BUYING GUIDE
for £2.99, but that won’t be enough for most. You’ll be able to access US Netlix from within the UK, as well as other region-blocked content like BBC iPlayer from outside of the UK. There are less server locations available with Goose VPN, just 77 across 27 countries, and there is no kill switch. However, we found that short connection time and connection quality, as well as the ease of connecting to foreign media, makes up for it.
5. CyberGhost
Price: £2.50 per month from fave.co/2Hiwz6t Another of our favourites is CyberGhost ofers one of the safest ways to browse the web, and has CyberGhost
managed to build a solid reputation when it comes to security and transparency.
There are more than 1,150 servers available across 49 countries, and the list is growing fast. In addition to helping to keep you anonymous online, CyberGhost also boasts military-grade encryption to protect you against hackers trying to steal your data on public Wi-Fi hotspots.
It works with most devices including phones and tablets, and there’s also an ad-blocker included in the application to speed up suring. Of course, that does deprive impoverished writers of their hard earned money, so that’s something worth bearing in mind if you want to switch the ad-blocker on.
It can cost as little as £2.50 per month if you sign up for two years, but there’s also a one year or one month option.
BUYING GUIDE
Vy
6. VyprVPN
Price: £4.08 per month from fave.co/2CUwd33 This family VPN ofers great value for money. You can connect to ive devices simultaneously for £5.83 per month if you sign up for a year’s subscription. For three devices the price decreases to £4.08 per month.
The downside is that we had trouble connecting to Netlix US the irst time, although we have since been more successful and found an easy and fast connection to the service. This is common among
VPNs as Netlix is constantly blocking VPN servers while VPNs are creating new ones to get around it.
There are more than 700 servers available worldwide, and you’ll ind that you can connect to
BUYING GUIDE
them quickly and easily. There’s also a kill switch and great mobile apps to boot.
7. Private Internet Access
Price: £2.10 per month from fave.co/2CTqevm For an even wider choice of servers, Private Internet Access ofers a whopping 3,340. It’s also cheap at £2.10 per month, and you’ll get ive licences for that small fee that can be used simultaneously on any device, including iOS and macOS.
It doesn’t track your IP
Private Internet Access
address or timestamps, ofers a Kill Switch feature and lets you pay anonymously. It’s also among the fastest
VPNs available. There is one big downside, though, and that’s that it is based in the US, which is the very centre of the 5-eyes data swapping collective. For some, that will ring alarm bells, but if you’re not concerned this is a deinite contender.
8. IPVanish
Price: £5 per month from fave.co/2oTjJ7Y
IPVanish is good-looking and easy to use, so is one of the best VPN options for beginners. It won’t help IPVanish
you watch US Netlix, but it is a popular option that is well-worth considering if you have a diferent priority such as torrents or security/privacy.
It’ll appeal to home users thanks to access to Netlix US. However, it’s also based in the US, which is a distinct turn-of for those worried about online privacy, but it doesn’t keep any traic logs at all so it’s unlikely any data will be available to share with the government anyway. The good news is that it has a whopping 700 servers across 60 countries, and you’ll be able to connect via ive diferent devices at once with the same account.
If you do want to use the service for torrents you can reduce the encryption to hide your IP address without sacriicing download and upload speeds.
Better yet, IPVanish owns and operates the entire internal infrastructure (its private network,
BUYING GUIDE
physical points of presence and servers), which is unlike most other VPN services available today.
IPVanish ofers a Kill Switch, and ofers apps for iOS, Android and Windows in addition to Mac. You’ll get a seven-day money back guarantee, and prices start at around £5 per month.
9. Hidden24 fave.co/2F7IbwA
Price: £3.33 per month from Hidden24 focuses completely on privacy and anonymity, after starting life in 2005 as a reaction to Sweden’s snooping laws. It now has a UK-based server farm that means you can protect yourself online by connecting to another UK server. It uses the operating system’s own VPN capability, so there’s no app to download, and setup is simple thanks to complete, detailed guides.
Hidden24
BUYING GUIDE
We found the service to be speedy and stable, but there’s no kill switch option and you can only connect to UK servers for now, so no US Netlix.
It is useful for ex-pats or those travelling outside of the UK though, as it means you can access UK content including BBC iPlayer even when you’re not in the country.
10. SpyOFF VPN
Price: £6.99 per month from fave.co/2oSHIE5 SpyOFF is fast and easy-to-use, with unlimited connections available for £6.99 per month. That’s a little on the pricey side, but it is good for families that need to connect via multiple devices at once. The number of servers is quite low, at 395 across 25 countries, but you will get a kill switch and there are mobile apps available.
If you’re worried about committing right away, you can sign up to the 15-day trial.
SpyOFF
BUYING GUIDE
Best password managers
Being hacked can have disastrous results. A passwordmanager is a great way to stay safe. Martyn Casserly reports
P
asswords are a pain. With so much of our modern lives based online, it’s now a necessary evil to create passwords for our email, media streaming, gaming, inancial, and other services.
But because conventions difer from site to site (this one demands at least two symbols and no capitals, while this one requires a mixture of cases and a minimum length), it’s important to
BUYING GUIDE
use original passwords for each account, and they need to be updated on a regular basis, it can be a Herculean task trying to remember them all.
That’s where password manager apps come in. These allow users to create one master password, after which the app takes care of logging into all other accounts. Only having to remember one combination of letters, numbers, and weird symbols? That sounds good to us.
How password managers work
The idea of password managers is to simplify the way you access your various accounts. This is done by the manager generating a master password, which you then use to access its dashboard area where all of your login details are stored. Here you can enter far more complex passwords for each service, knowing that the manager will automatically ill in the details via plug-ins in your browser or through apps on your smartphone and tablet apps.
The managers can also create random passwords for your accounts. These will often be harder to hack than your own eforts, as they are not designed to be easily remembered by humans.
Obviously, security is a high priority – as the manager apps have the virtual keys to your kingdom – which is why all of the ones listed below use high-grade encryption to protect your details.
Many also feature digital wallets, so your bank details can be safely stored and then used to make purchases online without having to
BUYING GUIDE
root around in your pocket or bag for the card number and expiry date.
These services don’t usually come for free, but many ofer trials so you can see if it’s the solution for you. After that you’ll need to pay a small monthly fee, but we think that’s a price worth paying for only having to keep one password in your brain.
1. Dashlane
Price: Free (one device), £38.99 per year
fave.co/2CQuPOZ
(multiple devices) from Here’s a password manager that’s been growing in popularity over the past year or so. A potential reason for this is the free tier on ofer, which gets you up and running in a matter of minutes. Once installed Dashlane can pull any stored account details you might have in your browsers, making them available in the dashboard area where they can be viewed and managed.
The app analyses your current passwords to see how secure they are, and gives you an overall rating based on how often you reuse login details on multiple sites. There’s also a feature to auto- replace passwords instantly with ones generated by Dashlane. Plug-ins and extensions are available for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox, all of which will auto-ill forms and login details when you visit a website.
Credit card and PayPal details can be stored in the digital wallet section of the app, alongside digital versions of your passport and other IDs. There’s also a section for any secure notes you
BUYING GUIDE
Dashlane
wish to keep safe. The clean, clear interface for Dashlane means it’s easy to setup and use. The fact that it also features AES 256-bit encryption, and has apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android, makes it a very good option if you’re new to password managers.
The free tier allows the service to be used on one device, but if you want to sync your passwords to your phone and tablet too then the Premium tier will set you back £38.99 per year.
2. LastPass fave.co/2F5v5Qr
Price: £22.99 per year from LastPass is probably the best-known password manager, thanks to it being one of the original L
pioneers in the ield. The company places a strong emphasis on security, trumpeting the use of “AES 256-bit encryption with PBKDF2 SHA-256 and salted hashes to ensure complete security in the cloud”.
The app does all of its encryption locally, so LastPass never knows your master password, and the Premium tier also supports two-factor authentication for another layer of security.
There are plug-ins and extensions available for Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera, all of which allow you to automatically access login details for sites and accounts. Mobile apps for iOS and Android can also be found in the relevant app store.
LastPass seem to have given its interface a lick of paint recently, as it’s simple and straightforward to use, which is something that wasn’t always the case. Just like with other managers you have access to a vault where all of your passwords are stored, and these can be changed to more complex
BUYING GUIDE
alternatives at the touch of a button. LastPass will also advise you on how secure your passwords are for your existing accounts.
The app ofers a digital wallet to store your card details, plus another area for oicial ID such as passports and driving licenses.
Alongside the free version you can sign up to a Premium plan for £22.99 per year. Those wanting more scope can opt for the family plan which includes six user accounts and only costs $48 per year on the LastPass website, which is about £35.
One of the advantages of a paid plan is an Emergency backup which means that should you sufer an accident, or even pass away, then your family will be given access to your account.
It should be mentioned that, due to its size and popularity, LastPass has been the target for hackers over the last few years, leading to a few vulnerabilities being found in the code. But LastPass has responded very quickly to ix each instance and made public statements about the nature of the problems. To date, it seems that no user information has ever been obtained, thanks in a large part to the encryption and security protocols used by the company.
3.
1Password
Price: £3.99 per month or £34.99 per year from
fave.co/2CUt6bu Another long-standing favourite is 1Password.
Much like the other oferings on this list the app
1Password
comes with the standard vault that you access via a master password, and in which you can see and update your various account login details.
A free 30-day trial is available, but after that you’ll need to move onto a paid subscription that currently costs £3.99 per month or £34.99 per year. For this you’ll be able to use the software on as many devices as you like, including the accompanying iPhone and Android apps, the former of which also supports Touch ID to log in.
Security is again front and centre, with
1Password boasting end-to-end encryption so only you will hold the key to your account. AES 256-bit is the order of the day, and 1Password monitors the activity on your account so it can send you warnings if any odd behaviour is spotted.
One interesting new feature is Travel mode. This allows you to completely remove certain
BUYING GUIDE
information from your device when going abroad. In these strange times, this could prove very useful if you’re passing through some of the rather aggressive customs checkpoints that now demand access to your devices. The best part is when you get home again everything can be restored by licking a switch in the settings.
1Password has won numerous awards, and is always an easy service to recommend. Based in Canada too, so you know they’re nice.
4. Keeper
Price: £22.99 per year from fave.co/2F7XVzG Keeper claims to be “the world’s #1 most downloaded password manager & secure digital vault”, providing its services to millions of customers around the world.
Keeper
BUYING GUIDE
This doesn’t come as a surprise when you see the feature list and general polish that the app contains. You can store unlimited passwords, have Keeper auto-generate strong new ones and sync passwords across multiple devices, all while holding credit card details and other important documents in its secure vault.
There’s also support for Touch ID on the Mac and iPhone, Apple Watch compatibility, and the option of using two-step authentication.
Perhaps one of the reasons for its popularity is the reasonable pricing structure. An individual account costs £22.99 per year and can be used on all of your devices (macOS, iOS, Windows and Android). That seems like a bargain to us.
5. EnPass
Price: Free from
fave.co/2CSodje
Those looking for a simple, secure solution that doesn’t break the bank would do well to consider EnPass. It works on a device by device basis, with the macOS client being free and mobiles costing £9.99 each for a lifetime licence. This is achieved due to the fact that EnPass doesn’t store any of your information on its servers. Instead, everything is encrypted and kept on your personal device. Details can be synced securely via iCloud, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, or ownCloud/ WebDAV, to keep all of your devices in step.
You still have the classic features of other password managers, such as auto-ill forms, EnPass
security analysis of your passwords and generating complex replacements easily, secure storage for sensitive information and AES 256-bit encryption, plus support for iOS, Android and Apple Watch devices.
It’s a little more hands-on than some of the others in this list, but we like the no-nonsense approach and the fact that your data never leaves your device.
FEATURE
Install Windows on a Mac
Clif Joseph reveals how to install Windows on a Mac, using
Boot Camp, VMWare, Parallels, and VirtualBoxne of the beneits of using a Mac is that it gives you the choice of either running the macOS on its own, or installing Windows
O
for those occasions when you need to run speciic Windows app or games that might not normally be available for the Mac. In this article we explain how to install Windows on your Mac, irst with Apple’s own dual-booting Boot Camp Assistant and then with third-party virtualization software. We also discuss the pros and cons of each approach.
One last thing before we plunge in: did you know that you don’t need to have a copy of Windows on
FEATURE
your Mac in order to run Windows apps? Here’s how to run Windows apps on your Mac without Windows.
Which Macs can run Windows?
This depends on the version of Windows you’re trying to install, but any recent Mac should be able to run Windows 10. In fact, most Macs since late 2012 support it. There’s a complete list here.
Boot Camp versus virtualization
There are two main options if you need to install Windows on your Mac, and the option you choose will generally depend on the type of software that you need to run.
The irst option, provided by Apple itself with the Boot Camp Assistant that is installed on every Mac, is called ‘dual-booting’, as it gives you the ability to start up (or ‘boot’) your Mac using either Windows or the macOS. The Boot Camp Assistant can split your Mac’s hard drive (or solid-state drive) into two sections – called ‘partitions’. It leaves the macOS on one partition, and then installs Windows on the second partition, and then you simply choose which operating system you want to run by pressing the Alt key on your keyboard when you ‘boot’ your Mac.
Installing Windows on a Boot Camp partition with this method efectively turns your Mac into a straightforward Windows PC, and devotes all of your Mac’s processor power and memory – and its graphics card if it has one – to running Windows alone. That’s the best option if you want to play Windows games, or run high-end graphics and
FEATURE
design software that needs all the power it can get. The only disadvantage of Boot Camp is that you lose access to all your normal Mac apps while you’re running Windows, which means that you have to shut down Windows and boot back into the macOS if you want to use Mac apps such as Apple Mail or Photos.
This is where the other option – known as ‘virtualization’ – can come in handy. Instead of splitting your hard drive into separate partitions for macOS and Windows, you use a virtualization program – such as Parallels Desktop ( fave.
co/2H4Bzvd ) or VMWare Fusion ( fave.co/2H7jrkf ).
The virtual machine (VM) is simply an app that runs on the Mac just like any other Mac app.
FEATURE
However, the virtual machine mimics the workings of a PC, allowing you to install Windows on the virtual machine, and then install any Windows apps that you need to run as well.
This is deinitely the most convenient option, as it means that you can run your Windows apps on the Mac desktop right alongside all your normal Mac apps, so there’s no need to dual-boot back and forth between the macOS and Windows as you do when running Boot Camp.
But virtualization has disadvantages too. Running Windows within a virtual machine means that you’re efectively running two operating systems at the same time, so you’re going to need plenty of processor power and memory to get decent performance when running your Windows apps. Even so, most recent Macs can still provide good performance when running Windows in a virtual machine, and it’s only 3D games and high- end graphics apps that need the extra power you can get from dual-booting with Boot Camp.
What you’ll need for Boot Camp
The Boot Camp Assistant is an app provided by Apple that helps you to install Windows on your Mac. You’ll ind the Assistant located in the Utilities folder within the main Applications folder on your Mac – but before you run the Assistant there are a few things that you should check irst.
Apple recommends that you have a minimum of 55GB of free storage available on your Mac’s internal hard drive (or solid-state drive) for installing
FEATURE
Windows, along with a USB memory stick with at least 16GB of storage for the additional ‘driver’ software that Windows needs in order to control components such as your Mac’s monitor and camera, as well as your Mac keyboard and mouse (which, of course, are diferent from conventional Windows mice and keyboards).
And, of course, you’ll need a fully paid-for copy of Windows, along with the licence number. Some recent Mac models will only work with Windows 10, although older models may also work with Windows 7, or Windows 8.1. You can check which versions of Windows your Mac can run on Apple’s website ( fave.co/2oJGhaX ).
The installation process will also vary, depending on which version of Windows you’re using. If you’re using Windows 10 then you’ll need to download it as a ‘disk image’ ile – sometimes also called an ‘ISO ile’ – from Microsoft’s website ( fave.co/2oI617M ).
You can download ISO iles for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 also. However, these versions of Windows were originally sold on disk, so if you still have the original disk then it’s probably quicker to create the ISO ile using the installer program on the disk. This is actually quite straightforward, and Apple covers this option on its website too ( fave.
co/2H4W8rk ).
Running Boot Camp
Once you’ve completed those preparations you’ll be ready to run the Boot Camp Assistant and install Windows on your Mac.
FEATURE
When you run the Boot Camp Assistant for the irst time, it will prompt you with a number of options. The irst option is simply to conirm that you want to ‘Create a Windows 7 or later install disk’. This will copy your Windows ISO ile on to the USB memory stick so that you can install Windows.
When you select this option, the Boot Camp Assistant also tells you that it will download the driver software for Windows on to the USB memory stick as well. However, it will only download the drivers for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, so if you want to install Windows 7 – which is still used by millions of people around the world – then you’ll have to head back to the compatibility tables on
fave.co/2th42Mn
Apple’s website ( ) in order to locate the driver software that you need for your Mac and then follow the instructions to copy the drivers on to your USB memory stick.
If this is your irst time using Boot Camp then, of course, you’ll also need to select the option to ‘Install Windows 7 or later’. This will allow you to split – or ‘partition’ – your Mac’s hard drive into two separate sections, known as ‘partitions’. The normal macOS is left on one partition, while the second partition is used to install Windows and any other Windows software and apps that you want to use.
By default, the Boot Camp Assistant ofers to create a small Windows partition that is only 32GB in size, but you can use the slider control to adjust the size of the two partitions as required. There’s also a simple button that will simply split the drive into two partitions of equal size.
If your Mac has more than one internal hard drive or SSD then it is possible to devote one of those drives exclusively to Windows.
However, Boot Camp doesn’t play well with external drives connected via USB or Thunderbolt, so it’s best to use your normal internal drive wherever possible. And if you have an external drive connected to your Mac for Time Machine backups then it’s a good idea to remove it as Boot Camp can get a bit confused if it detects an external drive during installation.
Once you’ve partitioned your Mac drive, Boot Camp will shut down your Mac and launch the
FEATURE
Windows installer program from the USB memory stick. You can just follow the prompts to install Windows. As soon as Windows starts up you will also be prompted to install the additional Boot Camp drivers from the memory stick as well.
Once that’s done you can simply ‘dual-boot’ between the macOS and Windows by pressing Alt on your keyboard when you turn the Mac on. You’ll see the two partitions with the macOS and Windows displayed on screen as the Mac starts up, and you can simply select whichever operating system you need.
Getting started with Parallels and VMWare
Virtualization programmes such as Parallels Desktop ( fave.co/2H4Bzvd ) and VMware Fusion ( fave.co/2H7jrkf ) provide an ingenious and lexible alternative to the dual-boot approach of Boot
Camp. Instead of splitting your Mac’s hard drive into separate partitions, and then installing Windows on to the Boot Camp partition, these programs create a ‘virtual machine’ – or VM – which is simply an app that runs on the Mac and acts like a PC. You can then install Windows on the VM, along with whatever Windows apps and software that you need to run. The VM can run alongside other Mac apps, such as Safari or Apple Mail, so there’s no need to switch back and forth between the two operating systems, as you are forced to do with Boot Camp.
These programs aren’t free, so you’ll need to buy a copy of the program you prefer, as well as providing your own copy of Windows (although both Parallels and VMWare do provide trial versions that
FEATURE
you can look at to see which one you prefer). There is a free virtualization program, called VirtualBox ( fave.co/2oIFpTY ), but it’s complex and diicult to use, so we’ll focus irst on using Parallels and
VMWare to install Windows. Go to the VirtualBox section if you feel ready for the challenge.
Parallels Desktop 13 has a more colourful graphical interface than VMWare Fusion 10, but the two programs take the same basic approach. They provide several options for creating a new VM on your Mac, using an installer disk, or ISO ile.
It’s also possible to connect an existing Windows PC to your Mac and create a VM on the Mac that is an exact copy of the PC, complete with Windows and all the Windows apps that you need. And, if you’re already using Boot Camp, you can even create a VM that duplicates your Boot Camp partition – which is a handy option for quickly checking a few iles, or running apps that don’t need top performance, without having to shut the Mac down and boot into Windows.
Once you’ve decided how you want to install Windows, both programs allow you to adjust a number of important settings. VMWare is a little more complicated here, as it displays a window with a lot of settings that might seem a bit daunting to irst time users. Parallels makes things a bit easier for beginners, by providing a number of predeined options that are suitable for productivity software such as Microsoft Oice, or running heavy-duty
3D games, or design software.
Virtual hardware
Both programs also let you change the ‘hardware’ coniguration of your VMs if you need to – just as though you were choosing the physical hardware for a real Mac or PC. If your Mac has a multi-core processor – such as the new iMac Pro, which has up to 18 processor cores – then you can devote multiple cores to your VM in order to improve performance. You can also allocate extra memory and disk space, and even increase the amount of video memory that your VM can use for handling 3D graphics in games and other graphics software.
Other options provided by both Parallels and
VMWare include the ability to connect external devices, such as a hard drive or even Bluetooth speakers to your Windows VM. You can also determine how your VM interacts with the macOS on your Mac, perhaps sharing speciic folders and iles that you need for a work project, or sharing your music or photo libraries.
A key aspect of how your VM runs on your Mac is the way it appears when it’s running on the Mac desktop. By default, both Parallels and VMWare run their VMs in a window – so you get a kind of ‘Windows window’ that displays the Windows desktop loating in its own window on top of the Mac desktop. However, it’s also possible to expand the Windows desktop so that it ills the entire screen, making your Mac look just like a normal PC (whilst still allowing you to switch into Mac apps by using Command-Tab).
But a better option for many people is the ability to hide the Windows desktop altogether, so that individual Windows apps appear all on their own on the Mac desktop, just like ordinary Mac apps.
The number of diferent options available here can be a bit intimidating, but the great thing about virtualization technology is that you can’t break a
VM. You can save diferent versions of your VM – just like saving diferent versions of a document in Microsoft Word. That allows you to experiment with diferent settings to see which options work best for you, and then simply revert back to a previous version of the VM whenever you want.
Oracle VirtualBox
Here’s an alternative method of running Windows on your Mac: use Oracle VirtualBox to run Windows as a virtual machine.
FEATURE Download and install VirtualBox VirtualBox is a free download from fave. co/2oIFpTY . Opt for the latest edition by clicking
the ‘amd64’ link beside VirtualBox 5.0 for OS X Hosts in the VirtualBox binaries section at the top of the page. Once the disk image has downloaded, locate it on your Mac, mount it and double-click the VirtualBox.pkg ile to install the application.
You’ll need 175MB of free space on your computer to accommodate it, in addition to the space required by Windows (up to 32GB). When the installation completes, launch VirtualBox from your Applications folder.
Download your copy of Windows 10 as explained above, and put it somewhere convenient so you can access it from within the VirtualBox installer. Click the New button on the VirtualBox toolbar and give your new virtual machine a name (‘Windows 10’ in our instance) and select the operating system you’re installing from the Version drop-down menu. Click Continue.
Devote suicient resources
When Windows is up and running it will behave like a separate computer from the rest of your Mac, which will continue to run macOS. To do this it needs to ‘borrow’ resources from your Mac, which your Mac won’t be able to touch while the virtual machine is running. The most important of these is memory.
VirtualBox suggests 2GB (2048MB) on our machine (a Mac mini with 16GB RAM), but we’re going to increase this to 4GB (4096MB) to give Windows some room to breathe. If you want to do the same, use the slider and then click Continue.
Create a virtual disk
When you set up a virtual machine, not only the operating system but also the applications running on it and the iles created and edited in it are stored in a bundle, which your Mac will see as a virtual hard drive. This is convenient as it means you won’t get your Windows and macOS assets mixed up, but it also means that you’ll put a large chunk of your disk out of reach of macOS. For this reason we’re going to stick with VirtualBox’s fairly conservative recommendation of a 32GB virtual disk for Windows. When you click Continue you’ll be asked what kind of drive you want to create. Stick with
VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) unless you’re going to use this installation of Windows with a diferent virtualization app, such as Parallels Desktop.
Put of the inevitable
VirtualBox can either take away the 32GB immediately or take it piecemeal as and when required by increasing the size of the Windows drive over time as your iles and range of installed applications grows. It makes sense to opt for the latter, so unless you have any particular reason for giving up the full amount right away, leave the storage option set to Dynamically allocated and click Continue.
Install Windows
You’ve now created your new virtual machine
- – all you need to do now is install Windows on
Locate your installation ile
We’ve stored our installation download on an SD card in the slot on the back of our Mac mini. We need to tell VirtualBox where this is, so we click the folder icon on the screen that popped up when we clicked Start and select the ISO ile on the card. Clicking Open returns us to the set-up screen where we click Start to open the disk image and use it as the installation media.
Walk through Windows
Once you’ve selected your language the installer needs to know whether you’re upgrading an old version or opting for a Custom install. Pick Custom, as you’re setting up a brand new virtual machine and then, on the following screen, make sure Drive 0 is selected as the installation drive (this should be the only option).
Sign into Windows
The virtual machine will reboot a couple of times during the installation before asking you to set up your preferences. You can opt for Express Settings, which accepts all of Microsoft’s defaults, including using Bing as your search engine, automatically installing updates when they become available, and sending your browsing history to Microsoft.
If you don’t want to do this, click the Customise button and tweak the settings by hand. Next, you need to tell Windows whether the machine belongs to yourself or your organization. Only you know the right answer here, but if you’re a home or small business user, the chances are the second option is the most appropriate.
Click Next, then enter your Microsoft account details to log in. If you don’t already have a Microsoft account, click Create one.
Finish up
The inal two steps ask if you’d rather use a PIN that in place of a password, and whether you want to store your iles on OneDrive or the local virtual machine. When you’ve decided what you want to
FEATURE
do in each instance, Windows reboots one last time before presenting your with the desktop.
Running macOS on a Windows PC
What about the opposite scenario? Is it possible to run macOS on a PC? In a word: no. It is one of those ironies that although Microsoft is famed for its aggressive commercial practices, Apple is responsible for this particular impasse. Although you can run Windows on any X86 computer, Apple makes its own macOS software available only on Mac software. Overtly the reasoning is laudable: macOS is designed to run on Apple’s own hardware, and the experience wouldn’t be as good on any old computer. This is one reason why you will never run an underpowered Mac.