Run classic Mac OS apps in macOS | Similar systems that run System 7 and MacOS 8.1 | How to use it | Customization | File sharing with other machines | What it contains | Recombine resource and data forks | A "rootless" System 7.6.1 app | Acknowledgments | Support and contributions
Also available: Standalone versions of BasiliskII and SheepShaver. Another page on this site offers self-contained copies of BasiliskII running System 7.6.1 and of SheepShaver running MacOS 9.0.4. These apps lack the printing and file-transfer features of the AppleScript apps on this page, but they may be all you need.
Under macOS (formerly named OS X), software written for the "classic" Mac OS (i.e. versions 6 through 9) can only be run through software that emulates Macintosh hardware from the 1980s and 1990s. The most advanced of these emulator programs is SheepShaver. SheepShaver is no longer supported by its original author, Gwenolé Beauchesne, but updates are available from an active support forum at E-Maculation, and the program is actively maintained by a programmer who uses the name kanjitalk755.
This page provides a fully functional SheepShaver system that runs Mac OS 9.0.4 (US English version). Unlike other SheepShaver-based systems, it makes it relatively easy to exchange files between SheepShaver and macOS, and makes it easy to print from Mac OS applications to macOS printers, or to create PDF files on the macOS desktop. It requires macOS 10.12 Sierra or later.
Note: For the sake of clarity, some features in this app refer to "OS X" but the app runs only under macOS 10.12 Sierra or later, not under earlier versions that were named "OS X."
To install this system, download and expand Mac OS 9.zip. (The file is about 620MB in size; it contains a 1.5 GB hard disk image file.) You may copy the Mac OS 9 application to your Applications folder or run it from anywhere else. This is a universal application, native to both Intel and Apple Silicon machines. (Updated 5 February 2024 with current SheepShaver code.)
If you use the OpenCore Legacy Patcher to run recent versions of macOS on unsupported hardware, do not try to run this or any other application on this page! It will almost certainly not work on OCLP systems. Please do not waste your extremely valuable time sending me a message reporting that the app crashes on an OCLP system. I can do nothing about that. Only the OCLP programmers can fix the problem. Please do not waste your valuable time!
A version for blind and vision-impaired users: At a user's request, I've prepared a version of this system with the outSPOKEN 9.0 screen reader installed. Blind and vision-impaired users may download it here. (It does not include the AppleShare file sharing feature added to the main version.)
If, when you start the application, you see a long error message that includes the string "translocation", then you must move the application to some other folder (and, if you want, move it back) before you run it. This is the effect of a new macOS security feature. The easiest thing to do is copy the application to your Applications folder.
Note that you can drop a CD or other disk image on the Mac OS 9 window when it is open, and the disk image will mount as if you had inserted a CD into a drive on a real Mac.
An older version, with a slightly different feature set suitable for single-user systems (or for installation in the home folder of different users) is available here.
For a similar system that runs Mac OS 9 under Windows, see another page.
Preserving your system when you update this app: If you ever need to install an updated version of this app, you can preserve any customizations you made to its emulated hard disk. Hold down the Option key when launching your older version of the app, and choose the option to export (backup) the Mac OS 9 hard disk image to your macOS desktop. Then run the new version of the app once to make certain it is working; shut it down; hold down the Option key when launching it again, and choose the option to import a backed-up hard disk image. This will restore your customized "classic" Mac OS 9 system.
I have created a similar, experimental system that runs System 7.6.1 under the BasiliskII emulator. You may download it in System761.zip. The System761 application works in essentially the same way as the Mac OS 9 application described elsewhere on this page: you may copy files to System 7 desktop by dropping them on the System761 icon. See the How to use it section below for further information. Note the special instructions for temporarily mounting disk images for installing or copying software in System761.
The System 7.6.1 app was updated 5 February 2024 with current Basilisk II coe.
The following three systems should run under macOS Sonoma and later, but have not been fully updated to make possible PDF-creation and other printing features under Sonoma. If you need to use them under Sonoma, send me a message.
I have also created a system (based on the System761 app) that runs Mac OS 8.1 under the BasiliskII emulator. You can download it in MacOS8.zip. Everything that this page says about the System761 app also applies to the MacOS8 app. See the How to use it section below for further information. Note the special instructions for temporarily mounting disk images for installing or copying software in MacOS8.
If you insist on going back to System 7.5.5, download the similar but much less automated System755.zip.) It doesn't include the convenient file-transfer and printing features in the 7.6.1 version.
And if you want something even older, here is System 7.1 in
System71.zip and System 7.0.1 in
System701.zip. With the
System71 app, like the System 761 app, you can drop a file on the
app icon, and the file will be copied to the BasiliskII desktop. This is not
possible with the System701 app, but if drop a file on the System701 app
icon, the file will be copied to your
macOS Documents folder, which is the same as the Unix folder in BasiliskII,
so you can easily drag it from the Unix folder to the File Transfer folder
in the System701 setup. (The System 7.1 app was updated with the file
transfer feature, 8 January 2023.)
I assume that you know something about Mac OS and don't need any advice from me. A few points are worth mentioning.
You can hold down the Option key while launching the application in order to access an options menu. See below for some details.
The Mac OS 9 system includes a startup script named ~MacOS9BackgroundScript. This script is used for transferring files from the host macOS system to the desktop of Mac OS 9.
The SheepShaver "Unix" folder: As in all SheepShaver-based systems, the Unix folder on the SheepShaver desktop is the same as a folder on the host system. You may transfer files between the host and emulator by opening the Unix folder from the SheepShaver desktop and moving files between anywhere on the SheepShaver emulated disk and the Unix folder, which is actually on the host. By default the Unix folder in SheepShaver is the Documents folder in your host macOS system, but this can be changed by holding down the Option key when launching the Mac OS 9 and using the menu.
Very important: When you drag a file from the Unix folder into the Mac OS 9 system, do not drag it to the SheepShaver desktop, because the actual file will no be moved to the SheepShaver emulated hard disk. Instead drag the file from the Unix folder to the File Transfer folder alias on the SheepShaver desktop. This alias points to a folder on the emulated hard disk, which is where the file should be. (See the paragraph below for further details.)
To run your own applications in Mac OS 9 (or System761 or MacOS8), you absolutely must copy the application to the Mac OS 9 (or System761 or MacOS8) emulated disk itself (or some other disk mounted in Mac OS 9 or System761 or MacOS8). Do not try to run your application from the "Unix" folder. Your application will not run, and will produce an error message instead! Do not drag an application directly from the "Unix" folder to the emulator's desktop: if you drag an application from "Unix" folder to the desktop, you will not copy the application to the Mac OS 9 (or System761 or MacOS8) system disk, and you will only cause difficulties for yourself, so just don't do it!
To exchange text or images between macOS and Mac OS 9 via the clipboard: For text, simply copy text to the clipboard in either macOS or Mac OS 9, then paste it into the other system. Recent versions of macOS do not support the PICT format used by the Mac OS 9 clipboard for image data, but you can transfer an image from the Mac OS 9 clipboard to the host macOS clipboard by going to the scripts menu in the top line menu and choosing Clipboard Image to Host. This script may cause instability in Mac OS 9, so save any open files before you run this command. (This script-based workaround is required by Big Sur and later macOS versions, and possibly also Catalina although I have not tested it.)
To transfer a file from macOS to Mac OS 9, drop the file on to the icon of the Mac OS 9 app: in other words, drop it on to the icon with the label Mac OS 9, which is the same icon that you double-clicked in order to start the app. (Do not drop the file on to any icon that you see in the Dock. Do not drop the file into the open Mac OS 9 window that displays the SheepShaver desktop! Only drop the file on to the icon of the Mac OS 9 application itself.) After a few seconds, the file should be copied to the Mac OS 9 desktop. The original file remains on your macOS host system.
To transfer a file to macOS from Mac OS 9, drop the file on the "Copy to Host" icon on the Mac OS 9 desktop; if all goes well, the file will be copied to your macOS desktop. Of, if you prefer, use the standard SheepShaver method of dropping the file into the Mac OS 9 Unix folder; a copy of the file will appear in your macOS Documents folder.
To print from Mac OS 9 to your default macOS printer, simple use the File/Print menu in your Mac OS 9 application, and print with the default desktop printer, "Print to OSX/macOS." After a pause, the document should print to your default macOS printer.
To print from Mac OS 9 and select an macOS printer for the current print job, follow the instructions immediately above, but choose the desktop printer named "Select OS X/macOS Printer." After a pause, a popup list of macOS printers should appear; choose the one you want.
To create a PDF file in macOS when printing from Mac OS 9, follow the printing instructions above, but choose the desktop printer named "PDF to OSX/macOS Desktop." The resulting PDF file on the macOS desktop will have an arbitrary name based on the current date and time.
To create a large-format PDF in macOS: You can add larger page sizes to the Mac OS 9 desktop printers. Go to the Virtual Printers folder inside the emulated hard disk; click and open one of the printers, preferably the one named "PDF to OSX/macOS Desktop." In the top-line menu, choose Printing, then Change Setup. In the setup dialog, click Change and select a PostScript Printer Defintion file. The one with "Architectural" in its name provides large-format page sizes for CAD and similar programs. Complete the selection and save the virtual printer. In your CAD or other application, choose File, then Page Setup... to select the page size you need.
Screen and other options are as follows:
To toggle between windowed and full-screen mode, press Ctrl-Option-Enter. The custom SheepShaver setup used in this application uses this key-combination instead of the standard SheepShaver toggle key (Ctrl-Enter).
To use full-screen mode by default, hold down the Option key when launching Mac OS 9, and set the screen size option to full-screen. When SheepShaver starts up, use the Monitors control panel to set the screen resolution to the resolution that matches your macOS screen.
Multi-user systems: On a multi-user Mac system, it is simplest to give each user a separate copy of the application somewhere in the user's home folder, perhaps in the user's (not the system-wide) Applications folder. On a single-user Mac system, the application will work correctly in the system-wide Applications folder.
However, if you want to multiple users to run the app from the macOS Applications folder, that may or may not work. correctly. If you choose to enable the multiple-user features in OS 9, keep in mind that you can have multiple users for Mac OS 9 but each of these users must start the application from the same user account in the host Mac system. If you want to use this feature, use the Extensions Manager control panel, and change the extensions set to the one with "multiple users" in its name and restart. You may then set up the OS 9 system for multiple users in the same way you did with a real Mac.
This application allows each user in a multi-user system (as described in the paragraph above) to create a second disk image that will be accessible in Mac OS 9 only to that user. Hold down the Option key when launching the application to access this and other options.
This system uses a special build of SheepShaver that does not use the Preferences pane. Instead, hold down the Option key when starting the app, and use the menus. Most of the menu items are self-explanatory, and include an option to change the location in your macOS system of the folder used in SheepShaver as the "Unix" folder for sharing files between macOS and Mac OS 9.
To change the window size, hold down the Option key when starting the app, and choose the option to change the screen size. When SheepShaver opens, you will probably need to use the Monitors control panel to select the size that you want (especially if you select the full-screen option).
To add or replace a disk image with the Mac OS 9 system, shut down the Mac OS 9 app and drop a disk image file on its icon. After dropping a disk image file you will be prompted to perform the next steps.
Note: This method should work smoothly with disk image files that have the file extension .dmg, .dsk, .iso, .img, or .toast, and may work with other common disk-image file extensions (depending on whether I've added support for them in the current version). The app will ask whether you want to mount the disk in the system (as you probably do) or copy it to the Mac OS 9 desktop. If your disk image has some extension that doesn't cause the app to display the prompt, change the image file's extension to .dsk and use the Finder's Get Info (Cmd-I) window to make sure that the old extension is not still being used.
For disk images used for games or software installation: If you want to mount a CD-ROM image that will let you install a game or other software, shut down the Mac OS 9 app, then drop the image on the Mac OS 9 app. Then follow the prompts to add the image as an additional disk, and choose the option to leave the image in its present location and link it to the application. Then, launch the Mac OS 9 app and install your game or software. Then shut down the Mac OS 9 app and either delete, move, or rename the disk image that you added and no longer want to use in Mac OS 9. The next time you start up the Mac OS 9 app, the disk image will no longer be on the desktop.
Again, the disk image must have the extension .dmg, .dsk, .iso, or .toast. If you drop an image with any other extension, then Mac OS 9 will try to copy the disk image file to its hard disk, which is not what you are trying to do. What you are trying to do is mount the image as a disk for use in the system.
To add or replace a disk image with the System761 or MacOS8 system: Two methods are possible. Either hold down the Option key when starting the application and follow the prompts; or, if you only want to mount a disk image temporarily, create a folder in your home folder named either "System761 Disks" or "MacOS8 Disks" (without the quotation marks). Drag into that folder the disk images that you want to mount in System761 or MacOS8, and launch the System761 or MacOS8 app. When you no longer want to mount those disks, move them out of the folder or delete or move the whole folder.
Other customization options will be described if you ask for them.
SheepShaver makes it possible to use AppleTalk over TCP/IP to share files with a copy of the Mac OS 9 app (or any other SheepShaver implementation) running on a different machines, or with a Classic Mac that can connect with the internet. The Mac OS 9 app makes this possible, starting with the version dated 15 May 2022.
This ability is disabled by default, for the sake of stability and security; it exposes your system to the rest of your network. To enable it, do the following:
When the app starts up, use the File Sharing control panel to turn File Sharing on; be sure to add a checkmark next to "Enable File Sharing clients to connect over TCP/IP". When File Sharing has started, use the Chooser->AppleShare to connect to the IP address of a classic Mac or to the IP address of the host machine of a similarly configured SheepShaver system, with File Sharing enabled. Be sure to use the IP address of the host machine, and not the 10.0.2.15 address used by SheepShaver.
For improved stability and security, disable these control panels and extensions when you no longer need file sharing. In the first step listed above, make a copy of "basicprefs-noshare" and name the copy "basicprefs", replacing the existing file. Then perform the second of the two steps listed above.
The Mac OS 9 application contains a standard US-English Mac OS 9 installation, without features that can't be used in this system, such as FireWire support. It also includes a large number of standard Mac OS applications and instalers for standard Mac OS applications, plus some Control Panels, Extensions, and Scripting Additions.
When the Mac OS 9 app starts up, it creates (if it has not already done so) a SendToMacOS9 folder in your macOS Documents folder; this folder is thus visible in the Unix folder in the Mac OS 9 system.
The file-transfer system uses the ~MacOS9BackgroundScript script described above. The Files from Host folder in the System Folder uses a CopyFiletoMacOS9 folder action script found in the Scripts:Folder Action Scripts folder.
In both Mac OS 9 and System761, the Utilities folder contains an AppleScript named DecodeAppleDouble which may be used to recombine the data fork and resource fork of Mac OS files that have been copied to a non-Mac system and then copied back into SheepShaver.
This "rootless" version of my System761 app runs a single application without showing the full System 7.6.1 desktop. By default it runs SimpleText, but you can change it easily to run any of the following applications:
If you change the name of the app so that it includes "BBEdit" or "AppleWorks" or "ClarisDraw" or "Graphic" (or "GraphicConverter") or "HyperCard" or "Word" or "WordPerfect", it will start up running that app in a window on the macOS desktop. When you quit BBEdit, or whatever app you chose, the underlying BasiliskII app should close down a few seconds later. You can have multiple copies of the app, each with a different name, but you can only run one of them at the same time, because they all use the same hard disk image.
If you want me to modify the app to run something else, feel free to get in touch with me at the address at the foot of this page. I may ask you for a substantial cash contribution, but you can easily do the job yourself, as described a few paragraphs below.
If you want the app to display the System 7.6.1 desktop, as Basilisk II normally displays it, hold down the Option key when launching the app. You can then easily import your own programs to the virtual hard disk.
The app (which is notarized) stores its virtual hard disk in your ~/Library/Application Support folder. If you want to modify the hard disk image, modify it there.
My build of the Basilisk II app is entirely the work of programmers who call themselves zydeco and mabam. You can find the source code and further details on this GitHub page.
You can easily modify the AppleScript wrapper so that it runs whatever old app you want. Simply open the AppleScript wrapper and study the code.
This system is built on software provided by many people who are more expert than I am. The AppleScripts used in this application could not have been written without the help of many experts at Macscripter.net and Emaculation.com.
Please do not ask me to help you customize the "classic" Mac OS or advise you about any applications. Please ask for support in the E-Maculation support forum for SheepShaver. If you want to get in touch with me about the AppleScript used in this system, then please visit this page.
If you find this system useful, please feel free to make a contribution via PayPal from the link on this page.
Edward Mendelson (edward [dot] mendelson [at] columbia [dot] edu)