How To Get Snow Leopard For Free On Mac

Posted : admin | On 05-10-2021

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If you miss the old version of Preview from Snow Leopard, and you either have a Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard machine or backup handy, you can restore the older version of Preview (5.0.1) from Snow Leopard to run in OS X 10.7 Lion.

  • About Snow Leopard Recovery Mode. Pre-installed into Mac, OS X Recovery is a facility provided by Apple computers that enables you to restore or reinstall Mac OS X without using a physical recovery disk. For Mac Snow Leopard, there is also the Snow Leopard recovery that helps you. Restore Mac from a Time Machine backup; Install or reinstall Mac.
  • For example, if the iMac is a 27-inch, Mid 2010 model (which came pre-installed with Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.3) and the version of Snow Leopard is OS X 10.6.0, then I would assume this version would not be usable. If you do get Snow Leopard installed, then you should install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1. You may have problems.

macOS is the operating system designed to run on Apple laptops and desktop computers. As Apple grew and strengthened the ecosystem through the years, macOS operating system version history evolved too.

In this article, we guide you through the evolution of Apple’s operating system, from the first public release in 2001 to the latest macOS Monterey announced at WWDC 2021 on June 7.

Is there any difference between Mac OS X and macOS?

No, they are essentially the same thing — just named differently. In fact, three terms were used at different times with reference to Apple’s operating system: Mac OS X, OS X, and macOS. Mac OS X was the official naming through version 10.7, from 2001 to 2011. In the next four years, the OS X names were used. Finally, Apple shifted to “macOS” with the release of macOS High Sierra in 2016. The latter helped standardize the naming of Apple’s operating systems — macOS, iOS, tvOS, iPadOS, etc.

List of macOS versions

Brief backstory. In 1996, Apple purchased NeXT, the company Steve Jobs built after he had left Apple. The same year, Jobs returned to Apple and helped build the first Mac OS that could compete with Windows. That’s when it became obvious Apple could grow to become a big player.

The first ancestor of the macOS family was Mac OS X Public Beta released in 2000, followed by a public release of Mac OS X 10.0 in 2001. Let’s recount the stories of all Mac OS X versions, up to the current macOS.

1. Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah)

March 24, 2001: Aqua interface is born with Mac OS X Cheetah. It’s a big step in the evolution of graphical interfaces, with 2D and 3D graphics support, granting an all-new visual experience. Cheetah featured a water theme, which, according to Steve Jobs, “one wanted to lick when they saw it.” Beauty comes at a cost, though. Graphics improvements made Cheetah very slow, which prompted Apple to shift focus from visual experience to performance in the next release.

source: Apple Wiki | Fandom

2. Mac OS X 10.1 (Puma)

September 25, 2001: As you might have noticed, the first generation of Apple’s operating systems was named after animals. Puma arrived with a solid performance boost and a few other functional improvements such as simplified CD and DVD burning, new features in Finder, and more extensive printer support.

source: Apple Wiki | Fandom

3. Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)

August 23, 2002: The third release of Mac OS X added search to Finder (can you imagine it, Finder used to exist without it!) Jaguar also brings MPEG-4 support for QuickTime, a range of privacy features, and, for the first time, Accessibility API called Universal Access. Some of the apps born with this release continue living on Mac even today (for example, Address Book, which is now called Contacts).

source: VTII Technology

4. Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)

October 24, 2003: Meet Safari! The first official web browser made by Apple replaces Internet Explorer on Mac. In fact, Safari was available on Jaguar but it’s the first release where it becomes a default browser. Other than that, Panther adds 150+ new features, including Font Book, Xcode enhancements, and more.

Snow

source: Cult of Mac

5. Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

April 29, 2005: Did you think Apple TV is pretty new? Well, guess what, it was born in 2005, with the release of Apple’s fifth operating system! Tiger was a pretty big update. It featured Spotlight search, Automator, VoiceOver, and around 200 other improvements. During this time, Apple also switched to Intel’s processors, which made Tiger the first system operating on Macs with Intel chips.


source: Wikipedia

6. Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

October 26, 2007: Here comes Leopard, one of the most Mac-changing systems. This time, Mac’s desktop changes significantly, with Dock, a new menu bar, and Stacks. Time Machine, Spotlight enhancements, and support for 64-bit apps arrive too. In fact, Leopard featured so much new stuff that Apple even had to delay the initial release date to finish it all in time.

source: Apple Wiki | Fandom

7. Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

August 28, 2009: Leopard’s successor, Snow Leopard, focused on expanding 64-bit architecture. Most of the native applications were rewritten in 64-bit. Back then, experts used to say that was the first step to a full transition, which, as we know today, became true. Also, the App Store was born in the Snow Leopard era.

source: Wikipedia

8. Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)

July 20, 2011: With Lion, Apple brings lots of useful enhancements from iOS to Mac OS. Launchpad, multi-touch gestures, and more. Interestingly, many people criticized Mac OS X 10.7 for the so-called “natural scrolling,” which moved the content up when you scroll down. Back then, it seemed more natural to have the content move down — as Windows did it.


How to get snow leopard for free on mac pro

source: iXBT

9. OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion)

July 25, 2012: Major apps like Notes, Reminders, and Messages arrive from iOS, turning Mac into a more comfortable spot for managing your daily routine. The most significant update in Mountain Lion is Notification Center, with on-screen banners communicating updates.

source: iXBT

10. OS X 10.9 (Mavericks)

October 22, 2013: Operating system number 10 debuts a range of privacy features, majorly focused on password encryption and storage. This is when iCloud Keychain arrives. Also, OS X 10.9 features new Maps, iBooks, and Tags for the first time, as well as upgrades Notification Center by allowing users to reply directly from notifications.

source: Apple Wiki | Fandom

11. OS X 10.10 (Yosemite)

October 16, 2014: Biggest redesign in years. From small things like thin fonts and new color schemes to the big shift towards flat graphic design, which better matches the design of iOS. What’s more, Yosemite introduces Handoff and Continuity. This once again confirms Apple’s intention to craft a better cross-device experience in the future.

source: TechRadar

12. OS X 10.11 (El Capitan)

September 30, 2015: El Capitan is faster, better, stronger than the previous operating system, due to a major performance boost. For example, it allows opening apps 40% faster than old systems. Also, this is the year when Split View’s dual-pane emerges, opening up new possibilities for managing windows on Mac.

source: Softpedia

13. macOS 10.12 (Sierra)

September 20, 2016: With Sierra, Apple shifts to the “macOS” naming. Again, more iOS perks arrive, such as unlocking a Mac with Apple Watch. There’s also a new Storage Optimization feature with a detailed overview of storage and suggestions on how to free up disk space. And, hey Siri!

source: TechRadar

14. macOS 10.13 (High Sierra)

September 25, 2017: macOS High Sierra adds a new video standard called HEIC and a transition to Apple File System (APFS), which is an improved alterantive to its predecessor file system HFS+. Apart from that, there are a few enhancements in Safari, Mail, and Photo — but nothing major.

source: Macworld

15. macOS 10.14 (Mojave)

September 24, 2018: That’s when things go dark. We mean Dark Mode! Mac users can now move through their day-and-night routine, with the colors of the screen moving with them, thanks to Dynamic Desktop feature. There are more and more apps that arrive from iOS, including Stocks, News, and Home.

source: apple.com

16. macOS 10.15 (Catalina)

October 7, 2019: macOS Catalina marks the death of iTunes, splitting Apple’s top-destination for media content into three dedicated apps — Music, Podcasts, and Movies. Apple continues aligning iOS and macOS with Sidecar, a feature that lets your connect an iPad screen to your Mac, and the ability for developers to port iOS apps to macOS.

source: Mobile Review

17. macOS 11 (Big Sur)

November 19, 2020: There’s no macOS 10.16, because Big Sur deserves a more epic version name — 11.0. Bringing a huge design change and transition to Apple’s M1 Macs, macOS Big Sur is the one to remember. This is the first operating system that allows running iOS apps natively on Mac — the so-called Universal apps.

source: apple.com

18. macOS 12 (Monterey)

Fall 2021: Announced on June 7, macOS Monterey brings Shortcuts — the ability to set up quick actions with different apps to automate your flow. Apart from that, there’s Universal Control, a natural transitioning across your Mac and iOS devices (for example, you can move your cursor between Mac and iPad); redesigned Safari with tab groups, and a range of cool FaceTime enhancements. More on macOS 12 Monterey here.

source: apple.com

What’s the latest macOS?

New operating systems for Mac not only bring new features, they bring better performance, enhanced privacy, and better workflow for those working across devices. If you’re wondering whether to upgrade to the newest macOS, we’d say yes, it’s worth it.

How to check the latest macOS on your Mac

Before you upgrade, you should find out what your current macOS is. Some macOS versions can’t be “skipped.” For example, if you want to upgrade to Lion, you should first install Snow Lion. Here’s how to check your operating system version on Mac:

Mac
  1. Go to Apple menu > About This Mac
  2. See the name of your current macOS in the Overview section
  3. To check for pending macOS updates, choose Software Update.

Tip: If you don’t want to upgrade, but you feel like “you have to” because your Mac is slowing down or acting weird, don’t rush into it. Check what’s wrong with iStat Menus app, a real-time system monitor that can identify any pitfalls in your system. Maybe some apps are putting pressure on your Mac or you’re low on storage. In this case, macOS update won’t help.

How to update to the latest version of macOS

Older Mac OS X releases or newest macOS, the process of updating operating systems follows the same logic:

  1. First, you backup your data to make it available on the new macOS
  2. Second, you make sure you have enough space on Mac to install new macOS
  3. Third, you download and install the new update.

The first step is essential. Without securely backing up your disk, you might lose access to the images, docs, and whatever essential stuff stored on Mac. We recommend Get Backup Pro or ChronoSync Express to run a backup. The former can back up selected files and the latter does a great job backing up folders. So you don’t have to back up the whole disk, with all the clutter stored on it. Here’s how to create a backup with Get Backup Pro:

  1. Click on the “+” button in Backups to create a new project
  2. Choose a destination for your backup
  3. Click File+ to add files for backup
  4. Press Start.

Back up folders with ChronoSync Express:

  1. Choose “Create a new synchronization task” on the right
  2. Name the project
  3. Choose folders for backup
  4. Choose your backup destination
  5. Hit the arrow button to start backing up.


Once you’ve secured the data, go ahead and clean your Mac with CleanMyMac X. Remove clutter, system files, unused apps and app caches, etc. This way, you’ll free up lots of storage and get your Mac ready for a new macOS installation. We recommend to start with a Smart Scan, but if you want to go for a deeper cleanup, go through dedicated modules, they all work like magic.

Nice work! Now you’re ready to install macOS 12 Monterey or any other macOS version you want to try. For detailed instructions on how to update macOS, read this article.

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More and more frequently I find myself assisting customers with business analysis issues in Mac shops. Things can get complicated when dealing with multiple operating system platforms. A process that works great on Windows may not necessarily work on a Mac and vice versa. Throw some Unix or Linux into the mix and things get ubercomplex very quickly. To solve problems in heterogeneous computing environments, I like to have a test system with each operating system flavor at my fingertips. VirtualBox is the tool of choice for me. It’s free and offers a fairly low footprint on my computer. This tutorial will teach you how to install OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) on VirtualBox. I know there are a lot of guides on this already, but I found none of them detailed enough and most just didn’t work for me.

–UPDATE– A lot of you have been asking me about this article and stating that the instructions don’t work. I can confirm that these instructions DO NOT work using the current version of VirtualBox 4.3.8, nor do they work with any recent (2013/2014) released update version of VirtualBox. The version of VirtualBox which was used for this article and did work at the time with these instructions is VirtualBox-4.1.18-78361-Win. You can still download it here.

Furthermore, after some testing, it appears that only INTEL based host systems work for these instructions. I’ve tested the instructions using a system running Core i3 and Core 2 Duo systems with VirtualBox-4.1.18 and the instructions do work. On a system with an AMD FX8350 processor and VirtualBox-4.1.18, however booting the virtual machine just yields a gray apple screen and no hard drive activity.

–UPDATE 2– Several users have pointed out that the following videos show how to install and run OS X Yosemite in VirtualBox 4.3.20. Instructions on how to acquire all components are in the video descriptions.

  • AMD Architecture – http://bit.ly/1DP4BK1
  • INTEL Architecture – http://bit.ly/1zBHQTp
  • Optimize OS X on VirtualBox – http://bit.ly/1DP5zpv

[requirements]

How To Get Snow Leopard For Free On Macbook

  1. A RETAIL copy of OS X Snow Leopard ($29.99 at the Apple Store). The OS X Discs that came with your MacBook or iMac WILL NOT WORK because they are designed to only allow installation on Mac hardware.
  2. ImgBurn or some other tool to let you generate an ISO file from your Snow Leopard DVD.
  3. iBoot.iso (freely available here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/GYAdrDe6P1cZdIbL/iBoot-3.3.0.zip – registration is required)
  4. VirtualBox v4.1.18 (freely available here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_4_1)
  5. A host system running an Intel processor (according to my testing).
Get

[procedure]

[step 1] Download and install Oracle VM VirtualBox.

How To Get Mac Os Snow Leopard

[step 2] Visit http://www.tonymacx86.com/ and register a new account. Then download the iBoot.iso file here: http://www.tonymacx86.com/GYAdrDe6P1cZdIbL/iBoot-3.3.0.zip. Extract the ISO file and note its location, you’ll need it later. Download iBoot.iso here.

[step 3] Insert your Mac OS X Snow Leopard installation DVD into your computers DVD drive. Then open ImgBurn and create an ISO image file of the installation DVD. Note the location of this ISO file, you’ll need it later.

[step 4] Open Oracle VM VirtualBox and create a new Virtual Machine. For the OS Type Operating System and Version options, select MacOS X and MacOS X Server respectively.

[step 5] Next specify the maximum amount of ram you have available for the Virtual Machine (VM). My host system has 8GB of ram, so I selected between 2 and 4GB or RAM for my VM.

Mac Os X 10.6 Download

[step 6] Next create a new Virtual Disk (VD) in VDI format. If you select the Dynamic Allocation option, you’ll be specifying the maximum size of your virtual disk in this dialog. The disk file will only be as large as the aggregate of the data you store in your virtual machine.

[step 7] Once your VM has been created in VirtualBox, edit its settings by right clicking it. In the System->Motherboard tab, you’ll want to make sure that the following options are set:

  • Boot Order
    • CD/DVD Rom (checked)
    • Hard disk (checked)
    • (all others unchecked)
  • Chipset
    • ICH9 (selected)
  • Extended Features
    • Enable IO APIC (checked)
    • Enable absolute pointing device (checked)
    • (all others unchecked)

On the System->Processor tab, select the number of processors you want your VM to have (my host system has a Core I3 processor so I selected two).

  • Processor(s):
    • 1 (or more depending on your host system capabilities)
  • Execution Cap:
    • 100%
  • Extended Features:
    • Enable PAE/NX (checked)

On the Storage tab, you may want to create two IDE CD/DVD drives. One should be the IDE Primary Master and one should be the IDE Primary Slave. This is optional, but you will always require one drive to have the iBoot.iso file mounted on it so I suggest having two virtual drives for mounting of other ISO files when needed.

Important: Select the IDE Primary Master drive, click the CD Icon and select Choose CD/DVD Disk file... and select the iBoot.iso file we extracted in [step 2].

There is no need to modify any other VM Settings, so click OK when done.

[step 8] Start the VM. After a few moments of running you should see the following screen:

[Step 9] Now we will need to virtually swap the iBoot ISO image for the the OS X Snow Leopard ISO image we created in [step 3]. Here’s how to do this:

  1. Hit the CTRL key on the right hand side of your Keyboard (at any time) to gain control of your cursor for use outside the running VM.
  2. Right-Clock the CD/DVD icon in the bottom right hand side of your running VM.
  3. Select IDE Controller (IDE Primary Master) and select the OS X Snow Leopard ISO file we created in [step 3]
  4. Left click the RED Apple inside the running VM to bring context control back to the VM (note your cursor will disappear). Now press the F5 key on your keyboard. This will tell the VM to check for the newly loaded ISO file. You should now see the following screen (NOTE iBoot has changed to Mac OS X Install DVD):
  5. Hit Enter on your keyboard to start the installation of Mac OS X Snow Leopard on the VM you created.

[step 10] Follow the steps shown below in the guided OS X Installer:

NOTE: Some readers have reported a install screen without any installation destinations available at this stage. If this happens to you, it means that we’ll need to format your VDI or virtual disk as Mac OS Extended before you can proceed. Here’s how:

[step 10 a] From the installer menu select Utilities->Disk Utility.

[step 10 b] Select the virtual disk and then click Erase. Select the Mac Os Extended (Journaled) format and continue.

[step 10 c] When the format is complete, you should be able to proceed with the installation to the disk you formatted.

Click the available formatted disk to proceed with the installation.

[step 11] At the conclusion of the OS X installation program, you’ll be asked to turn off your PC. You’ll most likely see the screen below. When you do, close the virtual machine window and then select “Power Off the machine“. Note you can also do this from the VirtualBox management console by right-clicking the running machine and selecting Close->Power Off.

Snow Leopard Download Apple

[step 12] Before you start your Virtual Machine again, we’ll need to make sure that the iBoot.iso file is set back as your default CD image. You can do this by editing your Virtual Machine Properties and checking to make sure the iBoot.iso file is mounted as the CD device.

Download Os X 10 6

[step 13] Now that your iBoot.iso file is mounted, we can start the Virtual Machine back up. After initial boot we should see the screen below. We can now use the right/left arrow keys to highlight virtual disk containing our OS X installation. Hit enter to boot the system. NOTE: whenever you change the CD device during a session, you must remember to change it back to iBoot.iso before restarting the VM. This is why I recommend creating to CD Devices. One as your primary containing the IBoot.iso image and one that you can use to mount other CD iso images.

Once your system boots, you’ll be asked to complete the setup program and specify personal information.

Once completed, your Mac OS X Snow Leopard VM should be ready for use. I suggest not installing the Oracle VM VirtualBox additions since they fail during the install on my version and there is an entire forum dedicated to hackery to get these to work. Sound isn’t perfect, but the VM works well enough for testing.

That’s it.