Install and activate

MacVisor 27 needs an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 27.

Install

1. Download MacVisor with the button above. The app is signed and notarized.
2. Open the DMG and move the MacVisor.app to /Applications.
3. Open it.

First-run setup

The first launch opens the Setup Assistant. It explains what MacVisor installs and why before it asks for anything, then works through a checklist, then offers the free trial or asks for your license key.

The Network Helper runs as root, so it installs only from a copy of MacVisor that only an administrator can change, such as one in /Applications. A standard account's copy in ~/Applications can't install it, and the assistant says so: ask an administrator to install MacVisor in /Applications.

On a standard account, the Network Helper item reads Waiting for an administrator until it is approved: switch on MacVisor in Login Items and enter an administrator's name and password when macOS asks, or ask an administrator to switch it on from their own account. One approval covers every account on the Mac. Only an administrator is offered Register Again, which repairs the helper's registration; a standard account is asked to fetch one.

macOS doesn't let an app approve its own background items. When something waits for you, the assistant says exactly what to switch on (System Settings -> General -> Login Items & Extensions -> Background App Activity -> MacVisor), opens Login Items once, and carries on by itself as soon as you have. Setup also creates the Default MacVisor Network, which new Linux VMs join, and offers Open MacVisor at login. VMs set to start at login start either way, because the background service starts them, not the app.

Local Network

VMs live on a local network of their own (192.168.64.x by default), and since macOS 15 an app may not reach it until you allow it. Without the permission VMs still run, but MacVisor's own connections to a guest's address fail with "No route to host", most visibly the automatic account and agent setup in macOS 27 guests. mvz shell, mvz exec, Docker contexts and port forwards go through the guest agent instead and don't need it.

macOS asks twice, once for the app and once for the VM runner; both entries are titled MacVisor. Allow both. If you declined, open System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Local Network and turn both on; the Setup Assistant's Local Network item shows the current state. Commands you run in Terminal that connect to a guest's address, such as curl http://dev.mvz:8080, depend on Terminal's own Local Network permission (or that of whichever app runs them), not on MacVisor's.

Microphone access is requested only for a VM configured to use the host microphone.

Checking setup later

Assistant -> Setup Assistant... (also in Settings -> General, and from the status bar at the bottom of the sidebar) shows the same checklist any time: the license agreement, the background service, the Network Helper, Local Network for the app and the VM runner, the mvz command, <vm>.mvz names, the default storage location, your license, and Open at Login. Each item says what's wrong, why it matters and what to do, with a button that fixes it where MacVisor can; Fix All runs the safe fixes in order. The checklist updates live while it's open.

MacVisor also watches these by itself. If macOS stops the background service or the Network Helper later (after installing a differently signed build, for example a development build and then a release), or holds one for approval again, the assistant opens and says what to switch on or off and on, once per problem.

Right after the Mac starts up, the background service can take a minute to start. MacVisor waits for it and says "MacVisor's background service is still starting..." rather than reporting errors, and never restarts a service that is only slow. See Troubleshooting.

Remove Background Service in the dashboard's Control Service panel stops the background service and unregisters it; running VMs keep running. MacVisor doesn't add it back by itself, at that moment or at the next launch: the Setup Assistant says the background service is off and offers to add it back. Turning the service back on elsewhere, in Login Items & Extensions for example, works too.

VMs on an external or network volume

macOS asks before a background service reads removable, network, or protected folders. Until you allow it, the location shows as waiting for permission rather than empty. Click Allow, or grant access under System Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Files and Folders. The VM runner asks once more when the first VM on that volume starts.

The mvz command-line tool

The Network Helper links one binary under two names: mvz, and macvisor, the same command under its longer name. The docs use mvz:

/usr/local/bin/mvz      -> /Applications/MacVisor.app/Contents/Helpers/macvisor-cli
/usr/local/bin/macvisor -> /Applications/MacVisor.app/Contents/Helpers/macvisor-cli

The links follow the app when it moves or updates. Check the service and library:

mvz service status
mvz list
mvz images

Without the helper, run the binary from inside the bundle at /Applications/MacVisor.app/Contents/Helpers/macvisor-cli. With the helper on, zsh and fish completion is set up for you, without changes to your shell's startup files; see Shell completion for the one line a fresh zsh setup may need, and for bash.

Updates

Settings -> Updates controls automatic checks and lets you check now. Updates are downloaded over HTTPS, verified against MacVisor's signing key, and never installed without asking. Running VMs are not interrupted.

During the beta, an update can stop a suspended VM, or a live snapshot taken before it, from restoring; the VM's disk is not affected. If VMs are suspended when you choose Install and Relaunch, MacVisor names them and asks first; Not Now leaves the update for later. To keep a suspended VM's state, resume it and shut it down before installing. A session that doesn't restore after an update is explained on the VM's Overview, with Start from Disk...; see When a saved session won't restore.

Start the trial or activate a key

Creating, cloning, and importing VMs needs a trial or a license; VMs you already have run without one. The Setup Assistant's license step, and Settings -> License, offer both:

• Start Free Trial starts the 30-day trial at once, with no key, email, or checkout; it needs the internet once. It covers every feature for 30 days, and there is one trial per Mac, which any account on it can start. From the command line: mvz license trial. The trial doesn't start until you ask for it, except on a Mac updating from a beta that had a free trial key (see If you activated during the beta).
• Buy MacVisor gets you a MacVisor 27 Pro key. For Enterprise, contact sales.

Paste the key you bought (it begins with MVZ-) and click Activate. On a trial, enter it in Settings -> License: it replaces the trial, with no need to end it first. Activation is online with ScaleNinja's licensing server and the license is re-checked about weekly; a Mac stays licensed offline for up to 30 days. One license covers every macOS account on the Mac. Details, including moving a license to another Mac, in Activate your license; terms in Pricing and licensing.

Uninstall

Assistant -> Uninstall MacVisor... removes the background service, the helper, the mvz and macvisor links, /etc/resolver/mvz and /etc/resolver/macvisor, and MacVisor's support files, including the licensing record, after showing you the list. An active license is deactivated first so the key can move to another Mac. MacVisor asks before going on only when its background service isn't answering, since the service is what deactivates the license. If the licensing server can't be reached, it carries on and keeps a small note so that the next install of MacVisor on this Mac releases the license once it is online; you can also move the key with Move to This Mac on the new Mac. Uninstalling deletes nothing on the licensing server. Only links that point into MacVisor are removed; a tool of your own named mvz or macvisor stays. Your VM locations are untouched: .macvisor packages, templates, and the macOS installers in Templates/Installers stay. On a standard account, uninstalling removes only that account's firewall rules and MacVisor data: the helper, the mvz and macvisor links, and the resolver files serve every account on the Mac, so they stay until an administrator uninstalls MacVisor from their account.