How to Run Games and Other Apps from the Microsoft Store on a Mac All Mac® users know about the Mac App Store ®, and most have probably used it to get an app or two. If you’re also a Parallels Desktop® for Mac user, there’s another store you should check out: the Microsoft Store. DOSBox: DOSBox is the ideal way to run old DOS applications and games on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux. DOSBox won’t help you run Windows games at all, but it will allow you to run PC games written for DOS PCs before Windows existed. Games are becoming more cross-platform all the time. Valve’s SteamOS helps here, too.

For years now, one of the aspects where PC users always were ahead of those of us with Macs was gaming. Franchises that many players around the world enjoyed on their gaming consoles were usually available only on PC, with Mac gamers left behind.

Download Pc Games On Mac

Nowadays though, thanks to Steam on OS X, Mac users can enjoy a lot more variety of choice when it comes to game releases. And even while the Mac Steam library is not as big as the one for PC, being able to access Steam on your Mac opens up a ton of possibilities.

So if you have ever wanted to give Steam a try on your Mac, read along.

What is Steam?

Long story short: Think of Steam as an independent App Store (requires a free account) but exclusively for games. The application helps users download and install their games on their computers, as well as offering a multiplayer and a social networking platform for players to interact.

Are You Ready?

The very basics you need to start gaming on Steam is to create a free account and download their native app.

There are some basic system requirements for running the Steam app, but you should be ok unless you have a very old Mac model.

Important Note: Note that the system requirements for running the Steam app are completely different than the ones for running games. So make sure to check the requirements for each game before jumping in.

Once you have the app on your Mac, open it to browse the different games available.

One of the great things about Steam is that it provides demos of most games for you to try before buying. Additionally, Steam is known for its constant sales, allowing you to get some great releases usually at lower prices than on consoles.

Once you find a game you are interested in on the Mac section of Steam (not all games are available on Mac sadly), make sure to check its minimum system requirements at the bottom of the game’s page of before downloading it.

Cool Tip: If you like to hunt for game sales on Steam, then you can check IsThereAnyDeal and CheapShark, two sites that constantly monitor and showcase the latest Steam sales and deals.

Perfect Control

One of the best aspects of using Steam to play on your Mac is that it allows you to use game controllers. And the good news is that if you have a game console, its controller will likely work with Steam.

For example, if you have a PS3 or PS4 controller, you can easily use those to play Steam games, which makes the experience a lot better than merely using your keyboard.

In the case of a PS3 controller, all you need to do is start Steam and then press and hold the PS3 controller’s PS button. After a while Steam will take over and the app will become full screen and take you its controller interface.

There you will be able to use your controller to navigate around all of Steam, including the shop and other media options.

And of course, you will be able to play games with the controller as well.

And there you go. If you never tried Steam and are into gaming, then use this guide and give the platform a try. It is a great way to play games on your Mac.

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#games

Did You Know

Houseparty was founded in 2012 and launched in 2016.

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All Mac® users know about the Mac App Store®, and most have probably used it to get an app or two. If you’re also a Parallels Desktop® for Mac user, there’s another store you should check out: the Microsoft Store.

The Microsoft Store is accessible from Windows 8 or 10—but in all practical terms, this means onlvidy Windows 10, since Windows 8 is used so rarely these days.

The Microsoft Store is for all things to play or consume on Windows 10: movies, music, apps, books, fonts, extensions to the Edge browser, and even hardware. In Apple® terms, it’s iTunes®, the Mac App Store, iBooks®, and the Apple Store® all rolled into one. However, in this blog post, I will focus mainly on apps available from the Microsoft Store.

Accessing the Store

Just as Apple has the App Store app, Microsoft has the Microsoft Store app. (See Figure 1.)

Here are some apps I have downloaded from the Microsoft Store, none of which are available on the Mac App Store:

Games	Productivity	Learning	Just Interesting
Age of Empires: Castle Siege	Microsoft Whiteboard	Kakitai: Learn Japanese by Writing	Nebo*
Crossy Road*	Office 365 Home*	Sensavis Visual Learning Tool	Plumbago
Microsoft Mahjong	Sway*	Penbook
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition	Delve*	GestureSign
Age of Sparta	Microsoft Math	Microsoft Font Maker
Translator*
Fluid Math

Run Pc Steam Games On Mac

*Available for the iPhone®/iPad® in the Apple App Store.

All of these apps run fine for me on my MacBook Pro® in a Windows 10 VM using Parallels Desktop 14—with the single exception of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. I used every setting I know to get this app to run with acceptable performance, but in the end, I gave up. (Age of Empires is my favorite game of all time, as I posted back in 2014.)

You can predict whether an app in the Microsoft Store will run in Parallels Desktop by looking at its system requirements from within your virtual machine. (See Figure 2.)

Playing Pc Games On Mac

Figures 3–5 show some other apps from the Microsoft Store running in Parallels Desktop on my MacBook Pro.

Video 1 shows some games from the Microsoft Store running in Parallels Desktop 14 on my MacBook Pro:

And Video 2 shows some of the 3D models available for the Sensavis Visual Learning Tool:

As of today, there are about 800,000 Windows 10 apps in the Microsoft Store, as opposed to only about 11,000 in the Mac App Store. There are a number of excellent apps in both stores, and the Mac user with Parallels Desktop can take advantage of both to find the perfect app for your needs.

Have you found a particularly useful or novel app on the Microsoft Store? If so, tell us about it in the comments.