CrossOver 17 ships, lets Mac users run Windows versions of Microsoft Office 2016, Quicken ...

AppleInsider

CodeWeavers has released a major update to CrossOver, a tool for running Windows application on macOS, with version 17.0.0 of the utility including support for Microsoft Office 2016 and Quicken 2017, among other improvements.

The latest iteration of the software, which allows applications built for Windows to run within macOS without requiring a Windows license or installation, allows users to install Microsoft Office 2016. CodeWeavers advises that both the Home and Business versions can be installed from an Office 365 account, with full-featured versions usable, though warns many versions of Office will still not register or install when used with the tool.

Last year's CrossOver 16 release added support for Microsoft Office 2013, with version 17 improving support for both that version as well as Microsoft Office 2010. A second major addition to the roster is Quicken 2017, allowing for the Windows version to be used on a Mac instead of the native version.

The firm also claims there have been thousands of improvements made to the core technology used by the software, including a full upgrade of its Wine compatibility layer, which will benefit a large number of existing applications that are supported by the utility.

Notably, CrossOver 17 appears to be moving away from Windows XP and catering to applications that run on later Windows versions, with a note on the changelog advising "the default compatibility mode has been changed from Windows XP to Windows 7."

Other highlights in the new release include better support for gradient brushes and shapes in Office 2013, bug fixes that prevented "Everquest" and "Everquest 2" from running, and a change that will make more Windows applications run better on high dpi displays.

Mac users with active support entitlements will be able to upgrade their existing CrossOver installation to version 17.0.0 the next time they launch the tool. CrossOver Mac starts from $39.95 for the single version license, with higher-cost plans providing support and upgrades for a year or for a lifetime are also available.

Version 17.0.0 is compatible with macOS 10.10 Yosemite and later, and requires an Intel-based Mc with 300 megabytes of free disk space, as well as capacity for Windows application installs.

pigybank

Thanks for the heads up on a product nobody wants or asked for.  If you’re going to virtualization VMWare is the way to go.  Office 365 essentially has parity between Mac and Widows versions.   Quickbooks is nearly identical as well.  (I just took college courses in both).  If that’s all this does it’s not worth it. 

focher

pigybank said:

If you’re going to virtualization VMWare is the way to go.  Office 365 essentially has parity between Mac and Widows versions.

1. This isn’t virtualization.
2. Office 365 absolutely does not have feature parity between the versions. Even MS doesn’t make that claim.

mike1

pigybank said:

Thanks for the heads up on a product nobody wants or asked for.  If you’re going to virtualization VMWare is the way to go.  Office 365 essentially has parity between Mac and Widows versions.   Quickbooks is nearly identical as well.  (I just took college courses in both).  If that’s all this does it’s not worth it. 

Didn't realize you were appointed spokesperson for the entire world.

kimberly

mike1 said:

pigybank said:

Thanks for the heads up on a product nobody wants or asked for.  If you’re going to virtualization VMWare is the way to go.  Office 365 essentially has parity between Mac and Widows versions.   Quickbooks is nearly identical as well.  (I just took college courses in both).  If that’s all this does it’s not worth it. 

Didn't realize you were appointed spokesperson for the entire world.

Exactly.

appex

Windows 10 supported?

Mike Wuerthele

appex said:

Windows 10 supported?

"The latest iteration of the software, which allows applications built for Windows to run within macOS without requiring a Windows license or installation"

ben20

This is a great idea since it doesn't need a Windows licence. The problem is, it doesn't run all Windows applications. So check carefully! Didn't work for the older software  thatwe need!

maciekskontakt

pigybank said:

Thanks for the heads up on a product nobody wants or asked for.  If you’re going to virtualization VMWare is the way to go.  Office 365 essentially has parity between Mac and Widows versions.   Quickbooks is nearly identical as well.  (I just took college courses in both).  If that’s all this does it’s not worth it. 

Are you sure? I would suggest that you speak for yourself unless you work with more companies in your career. I did fourteen and most of them large many in Wall Street finance. Calm down with cockiness.

appex

Mike Wuerthele said:

appex said:

Windows 10 supported?

"The latest iteration of the software, which allows applications built for Windows to run within macOS without requiring a Windows license or installation"

Yes, I know, but sometimes you need to run Windows itself. I know CrossOver allows to install older Windows versions, but does it allow to install the latest Windows 10?

maciekskontakt

appex said:

Windows 10 supported?

You may want to read what CrossOver is. It is not VM that you need to install any Windows OS. So if it makes Windows version of Office 2016 work on Mac you do not care which APIs are emulated by CrossOver as long as it is compatible with Office 2016 requirements.

sirozha

How is Crossover different from Wine? I’m
using Wine now to run a few Windows applications. Can I just upgrade Wine or does Crossover have improved compatibility compared to Wine?

Also, advertising compatibility with 2016 Office 365 is kind of strange, since almost every office application is available as a native Mac application with the same Office 365 subscription. One application not available for Mac is Visio. So, is this version of Crossover compatible with the latest Visio? That is one application worth buying Crosssover for. 

Mike Wuerthele

appex said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

appex said:

Windows 10 supported?

"The latest iteration of the software, which allows applications built for Windows to run within macOS without requiring a Windows license or installation"

Yes, I know, but sometimes you need to run Windows itself. I know CrossOver allows to install older Windows versions, but does it allow to install the latest Windows 10?

Crossover doesn't and can't install any full version of Windows at all. Are you referring to the bottles?

seanismorris

So if you had an Apple A11 Bionic laptop you could run the full Office 2016?

(Wine supports ARM)

I suppose we’d need to compare the native Office vs. the Windows Office...

loopless

CrossOver/Wine is an answer to a question nobody asked. Wine is a reimplementation of the Windows API on top of Linux - that is, a reverse engineering of the Windows API. The only possible advantage of Wine over , say, running Oracle VMBox and a real copy of Windows is that you don't have to pay for a Windows license. It's technically  a very interesting thing to do, but ultimately pointless. And it is quite buggy.

dewme

I believe there is a spectrum of Microsoft Office type functionality available on the Mac that allows a very wide range of users to be as effective and productive as they really need to be and pick a price point that works for them, from $0 to a full shabang Office 365 subscription. Everything from using Office for Mac 2011 (it does still work), to LibreOffice 5, to Apple's suite of office apps, to Wine/CrossOver, to VMware/Parallels/VirtualBox, and finally to a single-license or subscription version of Microsoft Office. I also believe that far more users, especially casual users, buy into the full shabang Office 365 than those who really need it. Some of them probably got hooked through student versions or employee purchase programs. No doubt, if your personal income is directly or indirectly though employment bound to Microsoft's suite then the answer is straightforward and likely in a subscription format. When I look at something like running a Windows version of Office 2016 with the aid of Wine/CrossOver on a Mac I assume there are going to be some nits that kind of get in the way. These nits may be enough to move that particular solution somewhere else on the spectrum I alluded to, perhaps up against a different solution that has a much different cost structure. When I'm spending my own money it becomes more of a data driven and bang-for-the-buck decision.

sirozha

loopless said:

CrossOver/Wine is an answer to a question nobody asked. Wine is a reimplementation of the Windows API on top of Linux - that is, a reverse engineering of the Windows API. The only possible advantage of Wine over , say, running Oracle VMBox and a real copy of Windows is that you don't have to pay for a Windows license. It's technically  a very interesting thing to do, but ultimately pointless. And it is quite buggy.

That is not the case at all. With Wine, you don’t have to run the OS in a VM. Windows in a VM puts a significant drain on the laptop’s resources and drains the battery like crazy. When you run a Windows application under Wine, it’s a noticeable difference compared to running the same application in a virtualized Windows instance. Of course, most applications have issues running under Wine or refuse to run at all. 

I will never run a Windows application that has a native Mac counterpart in Wine. Native applications are always a preferred way as far as I’m concerned. However, instead of getting a quad-core MacBook Pro for $3,000, I decided that my next laptop will be a MacBook if Apple releases its next MacBook version with at least two USB-C ports. Therefore, for me, it would become critical to try not to run Windows in a VM just to be able to run a couple of Windows apps on my Mac, such as Microsoft Visio, Cisco CIPC, and a few other technical tools that don’t have a native Mac equivalent. Wine is a valid alternative to a hypervisor plus guest OS  in my use case. 

sirozha

Doesn’t work with Visio 2013 32-bit

webraider

appex said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

appex said:

Windows 10 supported?

"The latest iteration of the software, which allows applications built for Windows to run within macOS without requiring a Windows license or installation"

Yes, I know, but sometimes you need to run Windows itself. I know CrossOver allows to install older Windows versions, but does it allow to install the latest Windows 10?

This Is for running software written for Windows, but not for actually running Windows itself.  It installs the libraries that programs need to run in a Windows environment on the Mac, so that you can open and use these programs from within the Mac OS.  if you want to run Windows itself virtualization or boot camp would be a better option.  

Marvin

loopless said:

CrossOver/Wine is an answer to a question nobody asked. Wine is a reimplementation of the Windows API on top of Linux - that is, a reverse engineering of the Windows API. The only possible advantage of Wine over , say, running Oracle VMBox and a real copy of Windows is that you don't have to pay for a Windows license. It's technically  a very interesting thing to do, but ultimately pointless. And it is quite buggy.

I would agree that the compatibility/stability problems make it mostly pointless but I think it's a good concept. It would be better if Microsoft made this compatibility layer for the Mac themselves. It would be an alternative to selling a copy of Windows, they sell a compatibility app and ensure apps run ok against it. There are a few advantages in addition to not having to run a VM and full OS.

You get a shared filesystem with the Mac. This can be a security risk but malicious apps are designed to attack Windows and people would mainly be running important utilities. This means you don't have a VM image or partition wasting multiple GBs of space and when you remove apps/files you get the space back on the Mac side. You don't have a VM allocating a lot of RAM, it's per app and the Mac system can compress it. It can share access to Mac APIs like Photos, Music, Spotlight. It would be really useful to use for things like transcoding WMV files, running Windows only utility apps.

They can also put a focus on games because games don't usually need to interact much with the system like drag/drop, manually opening files, copy/paste, they are pretty self-contained so they just need a translation between Windows graphics calls and the Mac and Microsoft makes the whole system for this.

appex

Mike Wuerthele said:

appex said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

appex said:

Windows 10 supported?

"The latest iteration of the software, which allows applications built for Windows to run within macOS without requiring a Windows license or installation"

Yes, I know, but sometimes you need to run Windows itself. I know CrossOver allows to install older Windows versions, but does it allow to install the latest Windows 10?

Crossover doesn't and can't install any full version of Windows at all. Are you referring to the bottles?

Yes, I mean to install Windows 10 itself as a bottle. Is that possible? Thanks.