Note: ArcGIS applications require a licensed installation of Microsoft Windows.
Note: Installing Windows on macOS using Boot Camp requires a Mac with an Intel processor.
Note: Running ArcGIS software on Apple silicon may introduce stability, feature, and performance degradation and is not recommended until Microsoft Windows is fully supported on Apple’s M-series and later processors.
Both ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Pro require Microsoft Windows. Running ArcGIS software on a Mac is made possible by installing Windows using one of two methods:
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Install Windows natively on your Mac’s hard drive using Apple’s Boot Camp. This option involves creating a dual-boot environment on your Mac which will require choosing which operating system you want to use when you start you computer. Switching from one operating system to another will require restarting your Mac.
See Apple’s Install Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp Assistant to get started.
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Install Windows as a virtual machine on your Mac using a third-party application such as VMware Fusion, Parallels, or Oracle VM VirtualBox. This option enables running Windows inside your Mac’s host operating system without the need to restart your Mac to boot into Windows. Please reference the minimum system requirements for installing ArcGIS Pro in a virtual machine on macOS.
See ESRI’s Run ArcGIS Pro on a Mac to get started.
Please note that ESRI does NOT support running ArcGIS on a Mac, and that you can only use ArcGIS on a Mac using one of the Windows platform installation options described above.
If you have an incompatible Apple device and are unable to run Windows using either of steps outlined above, consider using OWLab, a cloud-hosted Windows Virtual Desktop, to access ArcGIS Pro.