Update: Fixed down hard drive files (February 8, 2012).
Sorry about the delay guys, this page has been updated so that Xcode 4.1 does not crash anymore. (August 17, 2011).
If you've tried to virtualize previous versions of OS X, you know that it is a very tedious and time consuming process. This new guide works by giving you a simple VMWare Image. This means that the OS has already been pre-configured on a hard drive. For the most part, there is no need to mess around with boot flags or installation settings
This guide will show how to setup a fully working OS X Lion 10.7 on a Windows machine. This process will take about an hour but most of the time is spent downloading files. This was done on Windows 7 but should work on any OS as long as it meets the requirements.
Requirements
A laptop or desktop computer that supports virtualization (most newer computers do).
At least 1 GB of RAM (the more, the better).
VMWare Workstation (this is a paid program but a little research will get you it for free).
VMWare Hard Drive (vmx files, it is in a self-extracting .exe file)
OS X Lion (VMDK File)
Instructions
Before you start, make sure that you have enabled Virtualization in the BIOS of your computer. This is usually disabled by default by computer manufacturers.
An updated video has been made of all the new steps:
1. From the file downloaded, double click on
Mac OS X Lion VMware Files.exe. Click
Run then
Yes. This will decompress the files.
2. Once done, a folder named
Mac OS X Lion VMware Files will appear, double click it.
3. You will need to follow the instructions in this video to unlock VMWare. Instead of using the files from the video, use the files from Step 2.
4. From Step 1, you should have also gotten a folder named
Mac OS X Lion. Open that up and open the file named
Mac OS X Lion.vmx. Double-click this file. It will open in VMWare Workstation.
5. On the left column, click on
Edit Virtual Machine Settings. In the
Memory tab, you can edit how much RAM OS X will get. In the
Sound tab, change to
Specify host sound card, change it to your sound card. After the machine has started and sound doesn't work, change to
Use default host sound card.
6. At the bottom of the box is an
Add button, click it. Select
Hard Disk from the left, click
Next. Choose
Use and existing virtual disk.
7. Browse for the
Mac OS X Lion Installer.vmdk that was downloaded from the torrent. Click
Finish. Click
OK to close the box.
8. On the left column, click
Power on this virtual machine.
9. If a box asks to repair the image, click
Repair. Once the box comes up, click
I copied it, click
OK. A message about the CD Drive may come up, just click
OK.
10. The machine should power up in a few moments, ready to go. For ease of use, click in VMWare Workstation, click
File >
Add to Favorites.
11. You should now have a
Install Mac OS X screen. At the top, click
Utilities then
Disk Utility. Select the
42.45 GB Hard Disk. Click on the
Erase tab. Now you can name your hard drive what you want. Then click on
Erase. Click
Erase again.
12. Once the process is done, close out of the Disk Utility box, the Install screen will come back up. Click
Continue,
Agree. Select the
40GB Hard Disk to install Lion. Click
Install. The process will take about 30 minutes. Once it's done, the account setup will start. Once that's done, Lion will start.
13. To be able to use the machine in full screen, in OS X open
Preferences, click on
Displays. Now select the resolution of your monitor. Now in VMWare, click on the
Full Screen button on the toolbar (10th button from the left).
14. Now you're done, you can use this OS as a normal to install programs.
