Working OS X 10.9 Mavericks VMware Image For Windows 10/Intel Processor

Updated:

Follow these steps to download and install working OS X 10.9 Mavericks pre-installed VMware image for Windows 10, and 7 on Intel processor computers. Doing a fresh installation of OS X 10.9 on VMware workstation by Apple’s original DMG file is not so easy. We already published a guide about installing Mavericks on VMware from the DMG file. Instead of going through those difficult tasks, you can simply download this pre-installed and configured image and use it instantly. Since this was made by the vanilla kernel (without modifying the original kernel), future software updates also possible with it.

os x 10.9

Steps to Use OS X 10.9 Mavericks VMware Image on Windows 10/8.1/7

1) Make sure that your physical computer supports hardware virtualization technology ( vt-x). Mostly all the recent desktop and laptop computers support virtualization technology nowadays. In some computers this feature is already activated, in others it should be activated manually in computer BIOS settings.

You can read our earlier guide to find out how to enable hardware virtualization technology ( vt-x) in BIOS and how to test it.

2) Download the Mavericks retail image. Since the owner’s website is not working anymore, you can download it from this link.

3) Extract the main file which is in 7z format. You can use WinRAR or 7z.exe program for this purpose.

extract 10.9 vmware image

4) We need to use an unlocker patch to make VMware workstation to support Mac guest in Windows OS.

vmware unlocker for 10

If you are using the latest VMware workstations such as 14 or 15, use this link to download the unlocker – how to use VMware unlocker in Windows OS.

Note: Sometimes after using unlocker in VMware workstation, the Apple Mac OS X guest support may not appear. But still, the OS X guest will boot and work fine.

5) Open the vmx file of the retail Mavericks virtual machine as shown below.

open vmx file

6) Before starting the virtual machine, you can modify the settings on the next screen. I have increased the RAM to 2GB and the number of processors to 2.

7) Power on VM now. If VT-X is enabled properly and unlocker worked fine, you could see the initial configuration screen without any issues.

first screen

8.) After doing a few configurations, you will land on well working Mavericks virtual machine.

Remember- This is just for testing and learning purposes only. In the virtual environment, you will not get all features of OS X as running it on Apple hardware.

running mavericks on vmware

VMware Tools for OS X 10.9 Mavericks on Windows OS

Sound and network work fine in this method without installing VMware tools. It is already having multiple screen resolution options which normally come only after VM tools installation. Also, full-screen mode and auto-adjust screen size did not work after installing tools. Therefore, I do not see any valid reasons for VMware tools on OS X 10.9 except VMware shared folder.

If you need VMware shared folders on Mavericks with Windows 10 or 8.1 or 7 to share Windows OS folders and drives with guest OS, then continue the installation.

9) Mount the (attach to VM’s CD drive) darwin.iso file which is included in the same folder.

darwin.iso location - Vmware tools for mavericks
mounted darwin.iso

10) When the CD drive opens automatically, double click ‘Install VMware Tools’ and begin the installation.

Recommended: Take a snapshot of the virtual machine before beginning the installation. It will be easy to rollback if anything goes wrong in the future.

instaledl vmware tools

After restarting, to make sure that VMware tools have been installed properly, go to VM in the menu and see for the below option. If the ‘Reinstall VMware tools’ option is available, that means it’s already installed and working inside the virtual machine.

re install vmware tools

Configure VMware Shared Folder in OS X 10.9 Mavericks with Windows 10 and 8.1

11) Go to settings of the virtual machine and add a Windows OS host folder/partition. While setting up, you can select ‘Read Only’ if you like to protect the host data.

vmware shared folder in os x 10.9

Remember: VMware shared folder doesn’t require any network connectivity or configuration between host and guest. This purely works with VMware tools and integration services. So, it is very simple to configure and use without network connectivity.

12) Inside Mavericks guest OS, you can access VMware shared folder in Computer as shown below.

shared folder

Here is a video tutorial guide made by the owner of this OS X 10.9 VMware image.

This build can be upgraded to the latest versions of macOS. Take a backup or snapshot and start upgrading to the latest releases if you really need to have the recent macOS for your learning or development purpose.

Upgrading 10.9 to 10.10 Yosemite in VMware

We used this same pre-installed 10.9 image to update to 10.10 Yosemite and it worked fine. Without downloading any DMG files separately, the Apple App store update worked fine since we used the Vanilla kernel here.

Here is the status of the virtual machine before upgrading. If you notice, we already upgraded 10.9.0 to 10.9.3 which was the minor release from Apple.

OS X 10.9 before

As suggested, take a snapshot of VM before starting the upgrade process.

The installation will begin normally.

installation starting

Select the existing OS disk to over the current version. Click next to continue.

select disk for installation

Here is the working 10.10 Yosemite OS which was upgraded from 10.9 on VMware workstation.

Working 10.10 on VMware

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.

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104 thoughts on “Working OS X 10.9 Mavericks VMware Image For Windows 10/Intel Processor”

  1. Hey ! Do you know it’s possible to display a 3200×1800 resolution ?

    I run successfully Mavericks on my Dell LapTop, wich have a 3200×1800 screen, but i can’t select more than 2560×1600 in Mavericks.

    Is it possible ?

  2. You say “Also, full screen mode and auto adjust screen size did not work after installing tools.”

    For me, it doesn’t work that way out of the box.

  3. Hello,
    Who can tell me how to Download Mavericks retail image from owner’s site here. I can not find it.
    Thanks.

    • Sorry guys, the owner has removed the download links from his site for some reasons, no response from him for my mail. I’m sure you will find the correct image by Googling.

  8. Anyone able to get iMessage working? Whenever I try to log on, it doesn’t do anything once I press Sign In. There’s just that spinning circle next to it, but never goes beyond that…

  9. Hello,

    I installed fine the MAC OS X Mavericks, and before I created an Apple ID, but now I try to download xCode from App Store and gives me an issue. The issue says “This Apple ID has not yet been used with the App Store, please review your account information”.
    I created my Apple ID before the installation and it doesn’t give me any issue. In the review of Apple ID I have to put my pay data and I don’t want to do it.
    How can I do to download the xCode?

    Thanks, best regards.

  10. works fine, execpt their are problems displaying thumbnails of pictures. Anyone else got this problem or know what to do?

    best regards..

  11. Found two sets of good links (rapidgator and ul.to) here: http://www.sinfuliphone.com/showthread.php?t=10023861 or search “os x mavericks 10.9 retail vmware image”. Fairly quick download if you have premium account or realdebrid or the like. Don’t forget to scroll down a little in the links box to get the password which is “mojado”. Works fine on Workstation 10. Just can’t get full screen without the scroll bar.

  12. I had problems getting this to work, and finally got it go after editing the .vmx file in a text editor and changing the virtualHW.version = “9″ setting to virtualHW.version = “8″, and upgrading my VMware from 8.0.0 to 8.0.3. It still takes about 15 minutes for Mavericks to boot, but at least it does, and runs pretty smoothly.

  13. I works almost perfectly on my Dell precision. Only I get a Quartz Extreme / Core Image not enabled error and can’t run any 3D apps. My video card is nVidia NVS 300.
    how to fix this?

    Many thanks

  14. When trying to log in with my Apple ID i get this message:
    “This Mac is no longer eligible to create Apple ID”

  17. i am on vmware 8 and i treid installing it but i get stuck at loading darwin/x86!!! i tried the f8 and -v and cpus=1 and so on but nothing happned … what can i do?

    thanks a lot!

  18. hi,

    writing you is actually my last restort …

    I am trying go get the Virtual Machine of OS X Mavericks to run on my computer.

    I think, but I am actually not so sure anymore, that my computer meets the minimum requirements.

    Every thime I try to run the image I get to the grey apple logo and then it seems to restart again. I hav followed all of you instructions in the youtube videos and read some other howtos.
    I did use the VMware Unlocker. Ever though this fixed the problem for others, it didn’t work for me.
    Hardware Virtualization is turned on. I even checked it using the the Intel Prozessors ID Utility (found that one in another how-to)

    You can find my hardwarespecs in the attachment “CORE-PC.txt”

    I have also attached the vmx- and the log-file from vmware. I searched for “error”s in it … found some but don’t know that to do with it … googled it – couldn’t find anything usefull.

    Again – a short description of my problem:
    I press “Power on this virtual machine”, I get a black screen. After a while I get the grey vmware logo on the gray screen. Then I see something written on the top left corner. It’s too fast so I could hardly read it … it’s something with “EFI” … googled it, tried to remote “firmware=efi” from the vmx file – dunno why I did that – didn’t help either.
    After that thex I get the grey screen with the grey abble logo without the spinning wheel. 1 to max 2 Seconds later it all restarts again. Black screen, vmware screen, grey apple logo screen, black screen, vmware screen, grey apple logo screen and so on

    I hav also tried some Tutorials using VirtualBox and iAtkos, Hazard and at least 2 other methods.

    OSX 10.6.2 works perfectly using VirtualBox. Didn’t try it in VMWare but as soon as I switch to 10.8 or newer I get these problems with Vmware and VirtualBox alike.

    Please help me …

    kind regards
    Bernhard

    P.S.: English is not my native language, so I hope I described everything good enough

  19. Is it possible to activate quartz composer through vmware graphics card settings ? i´m trying to use a software which requires quartz composer.

  20. Hello
    I downloaded the torrent and unzipped, but when i open the VMX file i get this error
    “”E:\FOLDER\OS X Mavericks 10.9 Retail VMware Image\OS X Mavericks 10.9 Retail VMware Image\OS X Mavericks\OS X Mavericks.vmx” is not a valid virtual machine configuration file.”
    I’m using VM 10.0.1 build-1379776 version. Not sure what’s the issue here. I tried running VMware unlocker for win 7 but when i setup new Virtual Machine. Mac OS doesn’t show as an OS option. Read me files are empty and setup guide links are also not working.

  22. Finally I got OSX to work, thanks to you 🙂

    I used the mentioned retail image of Mavericks, but I got two issues.

    1. I chose my region GMT +1 and my country but the interface is still english displaying the wrong time.
    2. The more annoying one: I can’t install the 10.9.2-update. It’ll download, restart and then stays at 99,9% forever – any idea how to get around this?

  25. Can I just install this os to my hard drive (partition) from bootable usb??? My laptop already run triple os Ubuntu, backtrack5r3 and windows 7 professional. My laptop Intel i5 4gb ram 1tb hard drive.

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