# Build for mac from windows

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/build-for-mac-from-windows/19667>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [September 14, 2021, 1:50pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/build-for-mac-from-windows/19667 "2021-09-14T13:50:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sheerinaseem](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/sheerinaseem/32/12357_2.png) [@sheerinaseem](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/sheerinaseem)\
**Post date:** [September 14, 2021, 1:50pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/build-for-mac-from-windows/19667/1 "2021-09-14T13:50:15Z")

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Our team of developers are working on building a teaching and education tool using slicer. The development is currently being done on a Windows setup. I however have a mac. Is there a way the build can be genrated for a macbook system on windows development environment itself?

Please help!  
Thanks

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**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/build-for-mac-from-windows/19667/2 "2021-09-15T01:23:16Z")

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I don’t think you can cross-compile Qt desktop applications on PC for macOS, but you have several other options:

- You might be able to run macOS on a virtual machine on Windows. I haven’t tried this ever, so I’m not sure how much it is officially supported by apple and how robust it is, but you can give it a try, you might be able to set up everything for free.
- Your safest option is to buy a cheap macbook or mac mini. A used one is fine, but preferably not older than about 3 years. The nice thing is that you can do realistic testing, troubleshooting if you ever need that, and it may be faster than the virtual options.
- You could also rent a macOS computer on the cloud. Since building, and especially packaging can take really long time (many hours), the cost could relatively quickly reach the price of a used mac. It may be a good option if you don’t need to build often, or if you want to share one virtual computer between many developers.

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**Author:** ![sheerinaseem](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/sheerinaseem/32/12357_2.png) [@sheerinaseem](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/sheerinaseem)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2021, 2:59pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/build-for-mac-from-windows/19667/3 "2021-09-16T14:59:19Z")

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Thanks alot for this. It looks like getting a cheap windows system will be a slightly feasable option.