How to Install Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in VMware with Windows OS

Updated:

This article explains step by step method to install the older version of Mac OS X 10.5.5 in VMware on a Windows PC. If you are interested in learning the older version of Mac OS X Leopard to do some testing, then you can continue reading this article. This guide is only for testing purposes. Whoever doesn’t have the chance to buy Apple hardware with Mac OS can use this method for only learning purposes.

Note: This article originally published in August 2009

Installation is not that easy.

Installation is not as easy as inserting the CD and clicking ‘Next’ buttons or running some executable files. I wanted to install and learn Macintosh OS X on my Windows PC, so I searched on the internet for possibilities to have Mac OS by virtualization. But the results returned nothing beneficial than changing the Windows OS theme to Mac OS themes.  Based on the other tips on several websites and trial and error by myself, I’m writing this method to install Mac on VMware on Windows PC.

As I said, earlier installation is not easy since the hardware platform requirement for both Operating Systems is different. To make the steps easy, and avoid the Mac installation from the beginning, we will import Mac OS pre-installed hard disk to VMware.

Software Requirements for Mac 10.5 on VMware

  • Desktop virtualization software: VMware workstation 6 or latest.
    You can download the VMware workstation from the VMware site here. Either you can try 30-day free evaluation version or buy the full version.
  • Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard VMware image download

Hardware Requirements:

Make sure after you installed the VMware workstation, you have a minimum of hardware resources that can be allocated to the Mac OS virtual machine.

RAM – 1GB

Hard Disk 15GB

Processor: Automatic allocation

Mac 10.5 on VMware Step by Steps

1) Install the VMware Workstation.

2) Download Mac OSX 10.5.5 Leopard  VMware Hard disk image. (Approx Size – 1.9GB)

3) Extract the image to a folder (You need WinRAR for extraction, and the extracted file size is Approx 9.4GB). Make sure extraction is successful, and you get all VMware files as below

Extracted images of mac OS 10.5

4) Start VMware Workstation and open the Mac OS X Leopard.vmx. (In VMware go to File – Open from the extracted place)

5) Once you opened the correct vmx files, you can see the configurations which already done on this image. The below screen is the default when you open it before powering on the virtual machine.

VM configuration

6) Make sure Guest OS is ‘FreeBSD’. Even if you have a Dual processor and have the option to select two processors in the VMware option, DO NOT change to two. Leave the Processors 1 only. Do not worry about Hard disk allocation of 30GB. You can increase the memory size if you have a memory resource on your computer.

7) That’s it click ‘Power on this virtual machine’. Now you should be able to see Mac OS.

8) In case the Mac OS is stuck with the following welcome screen for a long time, try the below step.

Mac spin wheel

You must disable ‘Intel Hardware Virtualization’ from your BIOS.  Any time you enable or disable the Hardware virtualization setting in the BIOS; the computer should be completely powered off (cold restart) for 10 seconds before booting.

Read More about how to Disable or Enable Hardware Virtualization in BIOS

Now start the Mac on VMware again, this time it will work fine.

Working Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on VMware

  • Network

Somewhere I read that Network will not be working in Mac with VMware, but it works fine with this image. I tested ‘Bridged’ and ‘NAT’ networks in VMware both worked well.

  • Mac Admin Password

This OS image has the Admin password, and the password is ‘password ‘.

Mac VMX File

For some reason, if you need to verify your virtual machine VMX file, you can check mine here.

We published many guides to install the latest Mac OS on Windows PC such as Windows 10, and 8.1 on our main page here, you can check to get the newest version of the guide.

If you like to use this VMware image on Oracle VirtualBox, check this guide.

If any of the above solutions did not fix the Windows PC issues, we recommend downloading the below PC repair tool to identify and solve any PC Issues.

Dinesh is the founder of Sysprobs and written more than 400 articles. Enthusiast in Microsoft and cloud technologies with more than 15 years of IT experience.

You Can Read Next

215 thoughts on “How to Install Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard in VMware with Windows OS”

  5. I have downloaded the Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard VMware image zip file but getting error while extracting. it says disk is full.

  6. Fanindra. think about it.
    what does disk is full mean?
    what is a disk?
    what does full mean?
    why are you so stupid?

    thank you whoever posted this. im sorry that people like fanindra have to make such ignorant posts.

    people, READ EVERYTHING on your computer. and pay attention to what you read. otherwise you will end up destrying your system.

  7. I have downloaded an installed all: it’s all ok! Great! Now I have a question: it’s possible to upgrade MAC OS to 10.5.8 version?
    Thank’s a lot

  9. Trying to see if I can run upgrade on it, dunno if will work.

    But I need to be OSX 10.5.8 so I can do IPHONE work on it

  10. Did you make the account not have read/write access to system files? I need to change the SystemVersion.plist file yet I don’t have write access to the file.

    For those wondering, you can’t update to 10.5.8. It will crash and continuously reboot the virtual machine.

    However, if you change the SystemVersion.plist file to say that you are using 10.5.8, then you can install the IPhone SDK 3.1.

  11. Hi! Wanted to know if when i install some application and customiz the settings on MAC, will it be save permantely??
    I mean, when i switch of my pc, do my settings n application be saved???

    or it just an emulation and is temporary stored and all lost when the pc if switch off?

    thx in advance… [[I need the answer before i install the MAC as i will use it often then if i keep my soft n settings]]

  14. Thanks heaps, havnt tried yet – waiting for offpeak downloads :P.
    if this works as well as described, your a legend!

  15. The image you mentioned is too big for me to download. I have an official mac Snow Leopard cd. What other applications do I need to be able to read this cd and install apple on a windows computer?

  17. Use Alcohol software to make ISO of MAC DVD. Make sure it should be for 32Bit. Still OSX 10.6 VMware not available. Will update later

  18. Hi,
    You must disable ‘Intel Hardware Virtualization’ from your BIOS??

    How can i disable this? It stucks at the login like the image showed above.

    Thanks in advance for the help..

    Tiago Fernandes

  20. It should be working if you select the processor type in VMWare virtual machine to 32bit, since this image supports 32bit processor only.

  21. Thank you Admin. I just downloaded all the information listed in your site, followed the instructions and the machine booted up with no surprises. I am getting few console warning messages that I will work on it. I will aslo work on the VM Tools installation. I am running it on a Dell Precision M65 with 4 Gb of Ram and the HD is a SATA 320 Gb 7200 rpm. Workstation is a VM Ware Ace 6.5.3.

    Again, thank you very much for your hard work.

  22. Great deal there, pal!
    Using it now but I want to update some softwares but it requires like a password?

    Name: Mac Admin
    Password: (May I know the password?)

    Thanks in advance!

  25. Hi,
    I tried to change the file SystemVersion.plist and I can’t, it tells me I don’t have enough appropiate access priviledge.

    I make right click on the file (System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist) and the GetInfo. In the section of “Sharing and permission” I put Read & Write to all….. but still I can’t modify it.

    Can anybody help me?
    Thanks in advance!
    Juan

Comments are closed.