macOS image

[ladybug]

Hey,so is there a way to get an official macOS image file without having a MAC. I want to install it on my laptop which is Windows but I want it to be official not some shady one that might not work correctly.

[Avocado Diaboli]

No, you can only get it through a Mac by accessing the app store on it. And even then, if you were to ask a friend who owns a mac to download it for you, the license itself would prohibit you from installing it on anything but Apple hardware.

[Lightwreather]

14 minutes ago, stefanmz said:

Hey,so is there a way to get an official macOS image file without having a MAC. I want to install it on my laptop which is Windows but I want it to be official not some shady one that might not work correctly.

While this is technically Piracy, I'm assuming you want to hackintosh. In that case the Dortania guide should show you how to download macOS and install it (Provided you have compatible hardware.)

[Helpful Tech Witch]

4 minutes ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

No, you can only get it through a Mac by accessing the app store on it. And even then, if you were to ask a friend who owns a mac to download it for you, the license itself would prohibit you from installing it on anything but Apple hardware.

But hackintosh, certain laptops can do it fine, others need more work, others bassically can’t.

[LogicalDrm]

-> Moved to Operating Systems

 

If you want macOS, you need to own a Mac. Otherwise its equal to piracy, regardless of whether the images are available or not. Same applies to everything else you need to pay to acquire. Just it being available doesn't make it "not piracy" to get it for free.

[ladybug]

8 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

While this is technically Piracy, I'm assuming you want to hackintosh. In that case the Dortania guide should show you how to download macOS and install it (Provided you have compatible hardware.)

So can I just if I find a way to format my SSD to APFS can I just boot from a macOS bootable drive just like that? Without any extra setup as if it's Windows

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

14 minutes ago, stefanmz said:

So can I just if I find a way to format my SSD to APFS can I just boot from a macOS bootable drive just like that? Without any extra setup as if it's Windows

There are fully packaged installers available if you search online and those will work for most systems. But if it doesn't for you, you'll need to spend some time setting up an OpenCore installation media which can be a pain in the ass to get working. I've only used prepackaged ones from Hackintosh Zone or whatever it's called nowadays. 

[ladybug]

Just now, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

There are fully packaged installers available if you search online and those will work for most systems. But if it doesn't for you, you'll need to spend some time setting up an OpenCore installation media which can be a pain in the ass to get working. I've only used prepackaged ones from Hackintosh Zone or whatever it's called nowadays. 

ok so no way to just boot then. Because I have a .app folder taken from a mac which technically should be an installer itself. How do I use that?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

5 minutes ago, stefanmz said:

ok so no way to just boot then. Because I have a .app folder taken from a mac which technically should be an installer itself. How do I use that?

Just getting the .app isn't going to work because you'll need to have the right modified kernel and kexts (just to name a few things) to even get the installer to boot. I would recommend you to visit a proper Hackintosh community as they would have more and better informed people to answer your questions. Just search Hackintosh on Google, it'll be the first result. We don't really have a big Hackintosh crowd here. Most of us probably barely even know how ours are running as well as they are. Plus, this would begin to fall in the category of how to engage in piracy of MacOS.

[Nightshade94]

You can get the links for most macOS versions by googling them and then retrieving the link to the App Store on Apple's website.

 

Preferably have a thunderbolt drive ready, head into an Apple Store and ask them if you could use one of their Macs to download it.

 

They shouldn't give you a hard time, a lot of people who don't have access to a Mac to repair their devices are advised to head to an Apple Store and to use one of their computers to do it.

 

Good luck!è

[ladybug]

On 2/13/2022 at 2:22 PM, Nightshade94 said:

You can get the links for most macOS versions by googling them and then retrieving the link to the App Store on Apple's website.

 

Preferably have a thunderbolt drive ready, head into an Apple Store and ask them if you could use one of their Macs to download it.

 

They shouldn't give you a hard time, a lot of people who don't have access to a Mac to repair their devices are advised to head to an Apple Store and to use one of their computers to do it.

 

Good luck!è

Whatever I got a MacBook Air.