DePaul University GIS Collaboratory - Department of Geography



How to use ArcGIS on a MacArcGIS is not supported for MacOS, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t use ArcGIS on Mac. There are a few alternatives available to you, either in using “Dual Boot”, “virtualization”, or using the DePaul provided Virtual Lab. For the virtualization or dual boot methods, what you are essentially doing is installing Microsoft Windows on top of, or side by side with, your MacOS computer. This has the advantage of speed, reliability, and flexibility. For the Virtual Lab, you would be remotely connecting into an ArcGIS instance running on DePaul servers. There is no cost to this, nor installation needed besides entering credentials for the remote connection, but for security reasons your ability to store and access data is limited using this method. First I will explain the “Dual Boot” method.Dual BootApple includes a utility called “Boot Camp” that lets you run multiple operating systems on the same computer. When Boot Camp is installed correctly, upon turning on your computer you have the option of using your Mac computer with the MacOS operating system, or with the Windows operating system. Because ArcGIS runs natively in Windows, you can then install a copy of ArcGIS and use it while booting from the Windows installation. The main benefit to using a Dual Boot option is that the Windows installation you put on your Mac is able to use your computer’s hardware to the fullest, and use all your RAM, CPU, etc. to drive ArcGIS or other applications. This is however also it’s downside; installing an extra operating system takes up a lot of hard drive disk space, and you have to reset your computer completely to switch between operating systems. For more information on dual booting with a Mac, go to will also need an evaluation or student license to install on your personal computer, which is either free for 60 days or 100 dollars for a 12 month license. For information on obtaining an ArcGIS evaluation or student license (to install with Windows), go to Finally, you’ll also need a copy of Windows to install alongside MacOS. As a DePaul student you can receive discounted copies of Windows here: is similar to the Dual Boot method but, instead of having a separate Windows installation you are emulating Windows within your MacOS installation. If you’re unfamiliar with Virtualization, it’s as if you are running an entirely new operating system within your MacOS operating system, but as an application. So you end up with a copy of Windows as an application you can move around, minimize, stop and then restart, just as you would a browser window or a video game. The advantage to this is that if you like working in the MacOS operating system, you can switch between the programs and interface you are familiar with and then tab back into your virtualization of Windows. And within your virtualization you can run ArcGIS, or any other programs based on Windows. The disadvantage to virtualization is that your host operating system (Mac OS), and the emulated operating system (Windows), are both using the same hardware resources at the same time. So if you have 8 gigs of RAM, 3 gigs or more might be used up just by your MacOS computer being idle, then another 3 gigs for the Windows operating system being emulated, leaving for instance 2 gigs left to run the ArcGIS application (or any other applications). So when using Virtualization it’s important to remember the performance impact that will result. In addition to that, some hardware such as graphics cards might not be usable effectively by the virtualization. So for maximum performance, dual boot is superior, but there is flexibility with the virtualization option.To run Windows in virtualization, you’ll need a virtualization program in addition to a Windows license.For virtualization, I recommend VirtualBox or Parallels.VirtualBox is free, but might be difficult to use for a beginner. is more beginner friendly, but costs $100 a year: will also need an evaluation or student license to install on your personal computer, which is either free for 60 days or 100 dollars for a 12 month license. For information on obtaining an ArcGIS evaluation or student license (to install with Windows), go to Finally, you’ll also need a copy of Windows to install alongside MacOS. As a DePaul student you can receive discounted copies of Windows here: Lab A final option that is free of cost for students is the DePaul virtual lab. The Virtual Lab is applications that are hosted and run on DePaul computers that are then accessed through a remote connection using your DePaul credentials. So in a way it is like the virtualization method except instead of it being hosted through your machine, it is being accessed through the remote connection. The advantage of the virtual lab is that it is of no extra cost to you, requires no installation or advanced hardware on your part, and can be accessed as long as you have a stable internet connection with ideally the speed greater than 8 Mbps. The Virtual Lab can be accessed at this link: or simply Scroll down to the bottom where you should see ArcGIS ArcMap, and click on the Apple logo on the left. It should prompt you to download a remote link to the Virtual Lab instance of ArcGIS. If you have never used Virtual Lab before, you should visit this link to make sure you have the correct setup for your Mac OS: Lab includes all the functionality for ArcGIS that a computer on campus can provide. However, saving and transferring documents is limited for security reasons, as well as incompatibilities between Windows and Mac. When you click “Connect to Folder”, you may experience an error like so: Even though you may see a user folder with your name, you will be unable to connect to it. Virtual Lab passes your credentials to a DePaul server which accesses your user profile, but the Virtual Lab connection is only authorized for a single application and therefore you can’t connect to the DePaul server outside of the ArcGIS environment. To save and share data with ArcGIS you instead have to use the network drives available to you in Folder Connections or bring the data in using the “ArcGIS Online” service. Network DrivesAlthough you will not be able to save/connect to the named user profile (shown in the picture before), when you click on Connect to Folder you should see a “S” drive in the folders you are able to connect to. You may also see a “home” drive, but this is not supported to connect to since it will have Mac OSX file paths and ArcGIS won’t understand them. You should be able to connect to the S drive using Connect to Folder.Now, if you are working on a lab and need to get exercise files into ArcGIS, you are going to need a way to get them either directly into the Virtual Lab session or onto the S drive that is provided to you. DePaul Information Services limits the ways you can use and work with your S drive, but there is a solution. Although ArcGIS will not be able to access the local files on your computer, other Virtual Lab applications can. Specifically, the Mac version of SAS available in the Virtual Lab can access your MacOS filesystem, allowing you to copy files from your MacOS computer onto your DePaul provided S drive.To do so, go to: then, open the Mac OS version of SAS 9.4. From clicking “This PC”, and accessing your home folder, you should be able to access any needed ArcGIS files, copy them, and then move them over to the S drive. Then they are available for use in your Virtual Lab session of ArcGIS, by connecting to the S drive within the Virtual Lab ArcGIS. Finally, the last option for getting files in and out of Virtual Lab ArcGIS is by using ArcGIS Online, which requires setting up an account with ESRI.ArcGIS OnlineHaving an ArcGIS Online account lets you login from within the Virtual Lab into your ArcGIS Online account and transfer your content into ArcMap. To set up an ArcGIS online account, go to: set up an ArcGIS online account (unless you already have one). Once you have an ArcGIS online account, you can add files into your “My Content” by clicking on the “My Content” tab. Please view this link for a list of file types and extensions that can be loaded into ArcGIS Online: functions similarly to Dropbox, but not all file types are supported. You have a storage limit of approximately 1 gig. Keep in mind that formats such as Shapefiles need to be zipped into a .zip before uploading. After you have added your needed data (exercise files, mxds, shapefiles), you are ready to transfer.Then, go to Virtual Lab ArcGIS, and click on File: You should see “Sign In” and “ArcGIS Online” as tabs. First, sign in using the username and password you set up with ArcGIS online.Once you have logged in, you should next click on “ArcGIS Online” under the File tab (It is below “Sign in”). From there you can navigate to “My Content” and add the files previously added to your ArcGIS Online account into your Virtual Lab ArcGIS instance.When you want to save or share data, you can save it back into ArcGIS Online, or export it onto your S drive.You can download data from your ArcGIS Online account onto a Mac computer using a browser. For additional questions regarding Virtual Lab, ArcGIS Online, virtualization or other issues mentioned in this document, contact Cassandra Follett at cfollett@depaul.edu ................
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