How to Install macOS Big Sur on VirtualBox on Windows – PC – IT Blog (Tricks, Ideas, Courses, etc…)

Apple has announced the next major release of macOS at WWDC 2020. Available today in developer beta and coming to all users in fall 2020. macOS Big Sur will be a free software update later this year. In the meantime, the developer beta is available on https://developer.apple.com/macos/ and for public beta in July.

This OS has new features that include an all-new iOS inspired design, Control Center arriving for Mac, a revamped Safari with greater privacy controls, Apple’s new translation software that uses on-device processing, and more.

Macs compatible with macOS Big Sur (macOS 11):

2015 and later MacBook
2013 and later MacBook Air
Late 2013 and later MacBook Pro
2014 and later iMac
2017 and later iMac Pro
2014 and later Mac mini
2013 and later Mac Pro

And Accordingly, the following models capable of running macOS Catalina will not be able to be upgraded to macOS Big Sur:

2012 and Early 2013 MacBook Pro
2012 MacBook Air
2012 and 2013 iMac
2012 Mac mini

Tip: before reading the rest of the article, it’s recommended to navigate to the Required File section of this post and download macOS Big Sur then you’ve time to read the item until the downloading gets complete.

Steps to Install macOS Big Sur on VirtualBox on Windows

Install VirtualBox on Windows PC
Install/Update VirtualBox Extension
Create a New Virtual Machine & Customize it
Run VirtualBox Code to the Command Prompt
Start the Virtual Machine
Perform Clean Installation of macOS Big Sur
Summary

Important Note:

Before we get started, make sure your system can support Virtualization Technology (VT), and it is enabled from BIOS so that you should be able to run Virtualization software like Virtualbox or VMware. Also, you should have a 64-bit Windows operating system with at least 2 GB Ram and 20 GB of free storage, however, we recommend you at least 4 GB of RAM or higher so you can store more files and install more apps on macOS Big Sur.

Furthermore, if you have an SSD, it’s highly recommended to use it as storage because SSD is much faster then mechanical hard drive (HDD ) and macOS run on SSD very smooth. Anyway, it is not 100% compulsory but if you have, don’t hesitate to use it.

Required Files

Download Virtualbox
Download Virtualbox Code
macOS Big Sur Beta 11.0 (20A4299v) Dev Beta 1
macOS Big Sur Beta 11.0 (20A4300b) Dev Beta 2
macOS Big Sur Beta 11.0 (20A5343j) Dev Beta 4/Public Beta 1
macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 (20B29) Initial public release Latest

Note: You can create macOS Big Sur ISO Image.

Recommendation: It’s highly recommended to create a new drive on your Windows PC and install macOS Big Sur on that drive.

Step 1: Install VirtualBox on Windows PC

From the “Required File” section of this post, you should have downloaded VirtualBox as well and if you didn’t, download VirtualBox’s latest version and install it on your Windows system. If you’ve already installed VirtualBox, then you can skip this step. Other than that, double click on VirtualBox Setup and click Next for a couple of times and you’re done with the installation.

How to Install macOS Big Sur on VirtualBox on PC

Installing Virtualbox

Trust Oracle Corporation

Step 2: Install or Update VirtualBox Extension

This step is not 100% percent necessary but it’s highly recommended to do this step because macOS Big Sur might not be compatible with VirtualBox and for this reason, it will cause a problem during the installation. Download VirtualBox Extension and follow the steps below.

#1. Open up VirtualBox, navigate to Tools>Pereferences>Extensions.3

#2. Click on Plus icon and select VirtualBox extension which you’ve downloaded at the beginning of this section. Click Install or Upgrade and then click OK button.

#3. Finally, you should see something like the screenshot below.

Update Virtualbox Extension

Step 3: Create a New Virtual Machine & Customize it

Creating a virtual machine for macOS Big Sur is the same when you create a virtual machine for the Windows Operating system or Linux. We will use the ISO image of macOS Big Sur to do the installation process.

Note: We’ll make the VMDK as well if we receive lots of requests for that. Otherwise, there is no point because you can install macOS Big Sur with iso image as well.

#1. Open up your VirtualBox application and click New.

#2. Type a name for your Virtual Machine. Click Expert Mode and choose the following options then click Create.

Expert Mode

Name the VM
Virtual Machine Location (a separate drive is recommended)
Type (Mac OS X)
Version (Mac OS X 64-bit)
Memory 4 GB (recommended 8 GB or higher)
Create a virtual hard disk

Your setting should look something like the screenshot below.

Create New Virtual Machine

#3. Select where you want to save your virtual hard disk. Also, make sure to increase the size of the disk. From virtual hard disk, type make sure to select VHD. If you select dynamic allocated, your VM speed will not be good but it’s good that does not allocate the specified storage at once, unlike fixed-size type.

Create Virtual Hard Disk

#3. It’s time to customize some of the settings according to your choice. Click Settings and from the pane choose System. On the Motherboard, tab uncheck Floppy disk and move it down. If you’re not happy with your memory setting still, you can change it.

#4. Click the Processor tab and select a minimum of two processors or higher.

Increase the Processor

#5. Navigate to the Display menu then increase the Video memory to 128 MB.

Increase Video Memory

It’s time to select your macOS Big Sur ISO file. Click Storage and then select on Empty. Click on DVD icon and choose your macOS Big Sur ISO file.

Select ISO Image

Make sure your macOS Big Sur ISO file is on the top, not your Disk because if your disk is on the top, your VM might not boot. Just change the SATA port number to 0 for your iso image. It’s not 100% compulsory.

ISO Image SATA 0

Step 4: Run VirtualBox Code to the Command Prompt

Once you’ve created and customized your virtual machine, it’s time to run some codes in order to install macOS Big Sur on VirtualBox.

First, you should notice your virtual machine name because later on, we will use it. Open the VirtualBox code which you should have downloaded from the Required File section of this post.

#1. When you opened VirtualBox code via notepad or any other text editor, use the replace function of the program to replace the VM Name to your virtual machine name. See the picture below to get an idea of how it’s done.

cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\"
VBoxManage.exe modifyvm "VM Name" --cpuidset 00000001 000106e5 00100800 0098e3fd bfebfbff
VBoxManage setextradata "VM Name" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct" "iMac19,1"
VBoxManage setextradata "VM Name" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemVersion" "1.0"
VBoxManage setextradata "VM Name" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiBoardProduct" "Mac-AA95B1DDAB278B95"
VBoxManage setextradata "VM Name" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/DeviceKey" "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc"
VBoxManage setextradata "VM Name" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/GetKeyFromRealSMC" 1

Replace VM Name

Tip: It’s highly important that you should quit the VirtualBox program before executing the code. If you don’t do it, your virtual machine might not proceed to the installation step.

Exit VirtualBox

#2. Once you replaced the “VM Name” with your virtual machine name, then run the code one by one to the command prompt (CMD). You can open the command prompt by pressing Windows+X key in Windows 10 or click windows key and type CMD and run command prompt as administrator.

RUN Command Prompt

Execute VBox Code by CMD

Step 5: Start the Virtual Machine

Starting macOS Big Sur with the older version of the Mac Operating system was a bit different, but with new macOS Big Sur still, it’s easy to set it up.

#1. Open the VirtualBox app then click the Start button. A black screen with a few yellow & white text will appear on the screen.

Start Virtual Machine

#2. Once you started the VM then you’ll see some code running in the background. Just wait until you see the Apple logo.

Apple Logo

#3. Select a Language and click Continue arrow.

Select Language

#4. Select Disk Utility and click Continue.

Select Disk Utility

#5. Select your main Virtual Disk and click the Erase button. Make sure to check the size of the disk and you should not erase the wrong disk.

Erase Virtual Disk

#6. Name your Disk that you want to install macOS Big Sur on it. I’ll name here macOS HD. Once typed a name then click the Erase button.

Name the Virtual Disk

#7. Close Disk utility.

Close Disk Utility

#8. Select Install macOS and click Continue.

Install macOS

#9. Click Continue.

macOS Big Sur Beta

#10. Agree to terms and Conditions.

Agree to the Terms & Conditions

#11. Select the installation disk and click Continue. Once you click continue it’ll take around 29 minutes to complete the first part of the installation.

NOTE: If you get the Operation Couldn’t be Completed BiErrorDomain Error 3 then follow this step by step guide below.

Fix the Operation Couldn’t be Completed BiErrorDomain Error 3

This is a very common error with macOS Big Sur beta version 1 that most people have faced. Just use our VirtualBox code and it should work without any error.

Fix the Operation Couldn’t be Completed BiErrorDomain Error 3

Installation Disk

Step 6: Perform Clean Installation of macOS Big Sur

Once you hit enter, a whole bunch of code will run on the screen, but you should not worry about it. Wait for a few minutes, and you should see the macOS Big Sur installation window. Have a cup of coffee until the installation complete because it’s going to take around 29 minutes to finish.
Once the installation part complete, your system will reboot, and after the restart, you should see macOS Big Sur Welcome page.
Select the following options. You can change most of the settings later on, so don’t worry about that for now.
1. Select your Country and click Continue.
2. Choose a Keyboard Layout and click Continue. If you don’t agree with preset options then you customize it. Just click Customize Settings.
3. You can turn on the Accessibility features now with macOS Big Sur. You’ve several options with accessibility like vision, motor, hearing, and cognitive. If you don’t want to set up right now just click Not Now button to skip them.
4. Read Data & Privacy and click Continue.
5. Now, you can transfer your data from your previous Mac or from your Windows PC. If you don’t want to transfer anything right now, just click the Not Now button to continue.
6. Click on Set Up Later then Don’t Sign In. You can add your Apple ID later.
7. Click Agree to the Terms and Conditions and click Continue.
8. Fill out the Full name, Account name, Password, and Hint then click Continue.
9. If you want to customize Express Set Up, you can click on Customize Settings otherwise click on Continue.
10. On the Analytics page click Continue.
11. On-Screen Time, click Set up Later.
12. Select an appearance theme and click Continue. Here you choose your dark mode if you want.
13. Wait for a few seconds and you’ll see the login screen now.
Well done 👍👌😮 you’ve installed macOS Big Sur on VirtualBox Successfully.

Welcome to macOS Big Sur VBox

Click on the image below to see the full resolution

Migration Assisstant

Summary

Basically, in this article, I’ve shown you the step by step pictorial guide on how to install macOS Big Sur on VirtualBox on Windows computer. After reading and following this guide, you should have done the following;

Downloaded VirtualBox with its Extension
Installed VirtualBox on your system
Installed & upgraded VirtualBox extension
Created a new virtual machine for macOS Big Sur
Customized macOS Big Sur VM
Executed the VirtualBox code to the CMD
And finally performed a clean installation of macOS Big Sur.

Related: How to install macOS Big Sur on VMware on Windows.

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