Running ShipWorks on a Mac

Can I install and run ShipWorks on a Mac?

ShipWorks is a PC-based application, which means that you can't install it directly onto a Mac Operating System (macOS). However, you still have several options available to you. You can actually run Windows on your Mac and install ShipWorks in Windows. It's like having two computers running on the same machine. Pretty cool.

What are my options?

You actually have several options that make it easy to run ShipWorks on your Mac. With any of the following options you will need, if you don't already have one, to purchase a copy of the Windows Operating System such as Windows 10.

Let's look at three commonly used options our customers use:

Running Windows with Boot Camp
Running Windows with Parallels
Running Windows with VMware Fusion

Boot Camp

Mac computers come with a built in utility called Boot Camp which is designed to help you install Windows on your Mac and to be able to switch between the macOS and Windows. This is a great option because:

It's free. It comes with your macOS.
It's easy to use and set up.
There is no additional, third party app configuration involved.

There is one drawback. Boot Camp requires that you boot your computer into Windows. This means that while you are booted into Windows you don't have access to anything within the macOS. You are basically just running Windows. So, when you want access to all of your Mac applications you have to reboot the computer into the macOS.

If this seems like the best option for you, click here for some some helpful tips and resources on getting Boot Camp set up.

But what if I don't want to have to reboot in order to switch between the macOS and Windows?

Parallels and VMware Fusion

Great question. It is possible to install third party applications (called virtual machine apps) onto your macOS that allow you to run Windows and the macOS at the same time. This makes it super easy to access all of your Mac and your Windows applications without the need to reboot the computer. You can also configure many of them so that it looks just like the Windows applications, like ShipWorks, are running natively on your Mac. Pretty sweet.

There are many virtual machine applications available just by doing a quick Google search. Two of the most commonly used are Parallels and VMware and we've listed some resources for you below. They share many of the same advantages:

They both allow you to run Windows on your macOS without the need to reboot.
They can both be configured so that it looks like your Windows applications are running natively on your macOS. This makes it super easy to access your Windows applications.

The drawbacks are that both products do require purchasing a license and do require a little more set up (we have some articles to help you out).

Here are some resources so that you can do a bit a research to see which option is best for you.