Is there a way to convert programs?

Benjamin Case · August 8, 2020

Let's say you wanted to convert a app from a .exe (Windows, witch sucks) to a .dmg, (macOS) without starting from the ground up, or changing code, would this be possible?

minibois · August 8, 2020

1 minute ago, Powerr Electron said:

Let's say you wanted to convert a app from a .exe (Windows, witch sucks) to a .dmg, (macOS) without starting from the ground up, or changing code, would this be possible?

There would be no easy way to do this.

Closest thing would be trying to figure out what language/framework/etc. the .exe is written in, decompile it and recompile it for MacOS use. That is, assuming the language/framwork/etc. support MacOS and once an update rolls out it won't work anymore..

It's probably a lot more practical to straight up run Parallels or whatever to run Windows on Mac.

vanished · August 8, 2020

No, there are too many platform-specific things. The program will be referring to specific paths (C:\Program Files, etc.) that don't exist on the Mac, it will be trying to call/run system functions and libraries and commands that don't exist, etc.

Chris Pratt · August 8, 2020

No. Applications are compiled for a particular platform, and will never run on anything but that platform. What you're talking about is essentially emulation, where there's a layer between the application and the OS that translates the instructions from the app into corresponding correct instructions for the OS.

There is a program for Mac called CrossOver which uses Wine under the hood. Wine is an emulation layer to run Windows applications on Linux, translating Windows instructions to Linux instructions, but in it's base form, app support is not great. However, it works for Mac OS, since it's just Linux under the hood, and CrossOver has done extra work to ensure broader compatibility, and of course iron out areas where Mac OS is a little different. Because of this, it's obviously not a free application.

Another alternative is Parallels, which is actually just virtualization software. It runs a full Windows OS in a virtual machine, but adds the nicety of making Windows apps just run, without having to literally go into the virtual machine. This isn't truly emulation, though. The apps are literally running in Windows, just without the trappings of the Windows desktop. Again, convenience comes at a price, though.

VirtualBox is a completely free solution, but there you're dealing with virtual machines, again. This is truly not emulation. It's a full Windows desktop experience, where you have to boot the VM and actually run and work with the apps in a Windows environment, but it does allow you to technically use Windows apps from a Mac.

Long and short, what you're actually talking about is impossible. There's ways to still get the Windows applications to run, but it's going to be through some other software layer, not directly in Mac OS, like a native app would.