The firmware update process should now happen automatically without you having to do anything more. Double-click to launch and start the processĤ. You’ll also notice that a disk drive icon appears on your desktop which can also be opened to get to the PKG file Inside the DMG file is the firmware installer. PKG file – it’s this update that you need to install, by double clicking on the icon (or use right click and select Open). A new Finder window opens that contains a. Now that you’ve downloaded the DMG file, double-click to open it’s contents. Just click to save the file in your Downloads folder A DMG file contains the actual firmware updateģ.
Once you’ve identified the relevant update on the Apple website, there’s a Download button to obtain the DMG file. For example, the Apple support pages list the model each update applies to and the fixes contained within, such as resolving various network, boot-up or other hardware issues The Apple support website lets you download firmware updates individuallyĢ. Check which firmware updates apply to your particular Mac.
Sometimes, if Software Update hasn’t already informed you that a firmware update is available, it’s worth keeping an eye on the Apple support pages which provide direct links to manually download the updates themselves.ġ. The restart process looks a little different to normal while the firmware is being updated, after which it will restart again and boot to the normal login screen Any updates can be viewed, postponed, or installed immediately Download Updates Manually For firmware updates, it will also be necessary to restart your Mac, which should happen automatically.
Click the Show Details button for more information about the available updates, or just select Install to get started. The next screen displays any software and firmware updates found. Note that applications you’ve installed from the App Store are not normally checked during this process – you have to update those separately Your Mac will check for application and firmware updates from Appleģ. A small window opens whilst your Mac checks to see if any software updates are available. Go to the Apple menu in the main menu bar and choose Software Update Firmware can normally be installed as part of the regular Software Update processĢ.
To get Nested Virtualization support you will need to upgrade to the Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro edition to get this feature.Luckily, the normal Software Update mechanism that most Mac owners are already familiar with can be used to check and update your Mac’s firmware, since Apple distributes most updates that way.ġ. There’s no BIOS update setting you can access on Mac computers like other traditional desktop computer hardware.įYI, If you are using Parallels Desktop for Mac Home Edition, this edition of Parallels does not support Nested Virtualization. Unfortunately, if you still don’t have the VT-x virtualization support enabled, even though your CPU does support it, then you may need to wait for a new update from Apple to enable it if the above methods do not work. This can be done with the Option + Command + P + R keyboard combination at startup of your Mac. It is also possible that for some reason it was disabled, and to re-enable the VT-x virtualization support, you will need to Reset the NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac. This can be done through the Software Update feature of macOS, or by downloading Apple’s Firmware Update utilities. It is possible that if it’s not turned on for your computer, then you will need to update your computer to the latest software / firmware.
This is something that may be necessary for running things like the Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) successfully within your Windows VM on top of macOS.Īll macOS computers that have an Intel i7 or i9 cpu should have VT-x virtualization support enabled by default. Let’s take a look at checking for status of Virtualization (VT-x) support, and enabling it so you can use Hyper-V and other virtualization within your Windows VMs running on macOS. This feature may not always enabled by default on macOS. When running Windows on top of macOS through virtualization you can use developer tools like Visual Studio, Windows Terminal, and others on macOS! However, using Windows Hyper-V to be able to run Windows VMs within your Windows VM requires the Intel VT-x virtualization support of the Intel CPU in the macOS computer to be enabled. Doing this allows you to run both macOS and Windows, or even Linux, operating systems and software on a single computer at the same time.
Many Developers and other IT Professionals use macOS (via a Macbook Pro or other Apple computer) and do need to run Windows on their machine under virtualization using Parallels or VMWare.