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CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac 6.0

Run Windows apps on your Mac without Windows

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Last reviewed: March 9th 2007

The list of Windows apps you'd actually want to use is pretty small

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Since the arrival of the Mac Intels, people have been asking whether it can run Windows. The answer's been a resounding 'Yes'. Apple's own Boot Camp enables you to install Windows XP natively on your Mac, enabling you to boot up into either OS X or XP. VMware's Fusion and Parallels Desktop both enable you to run Windows and other operating systems, virtualised on your Mac.

In all these cases, however, there's been one big drawback: you need Windows. You have to go through the rigmarole of installing Windows, updating it, installing anti-virus and anti- spyware software, configuring it and so on. When people say they want to be able to run Windows on their Macs, what they usually mean is they want to run Windows software.

13: lucky for some!

This is where CrossOver Mac comes in. It's based on the long- running open source project WINE, which attempts to replicate from scratch all the functions of Windows necessary to run programs. The idea of CrossOver Mac is to install Windows apps on your Mac and run them as though they were normal Mac applications. All you need is the X11 windowing system that came on your OS X installer CD or system disk.

In practice, you launch CrossOver and either insert a Windows installer CD or run the CrossOver Software Installer. If your Windows app is supported, everything should be fine. Unfortunately, there are only roughly 13 programs supported. These include Internet Explorer 6, and a few things that aren't actual programs, such as DCOM98. Most major DTP and web design apps, such as InDesign, Illustrator and QuarkXPress are unsupported, and those that are don't get support for the latest version.

If your desired application is supported, all is well and good. CrossOver will walk you through the installation process, step-by- step, creating the right kind of environment for the job. When it's done, you get a double- clickable Mac application.

We tested Office 2000 and IE6 and both work fine, although they didn't look exactly like a standard Mac app, having the feel of a 'Macced-up' Unix X11 program that's a pale version of their Windows incarnations.