When Parallels Desktop is launched because you clicked on an “.exe” file, Parallels Desktop boots your Windows VM and tells Windows that you want this “.exe” file opened. This is just like when you double click on a “.jpg” file and the macOS launches Preview, or when you double click on a “.docx” file and the macOS launches Microsoft Word.

So when you double click on that “.exe” file, the macOS ® launches Parallels Desktop. Underneath, here is how the magic works: Parallels Desktop tells the Mac that it can open “.exe” files. When you have Parallels Desktop and a Windows virtual machine (VM) on your Mac, everything just works when you double click on an “.exe” file. The Windows operating system is needed to open an “.exe” file. exe extension means that the file is a Windows application. With this background, it is understandable that the Mac by itself can’t open an “.exe” file because the. In other words, opening a file with an “.app” extension is really launching that application the macOS itself opens that file. When you double click on a file with the “.app” extension on a Mac, the macOS® launches that application. (See figure 1.)įigure 1_Applications on the Mac have the file name extension “.app” What you may not have noticed is that Mac applications themselves have an “.app” extension. Those files are word processing documents. Similarly, you may have noticed that files with extensions “.docx” or “.doc” are opened on the Mac by Microsoft Word or TextEdit. You may have noticed that files with extensions “.jpg” or “.jpeg” are opened by the Preview app on the Mac.

File Extensionsīoth PC and Mac computers use three- or four-letter extensions on file names-the portion of the name after the period-to determine which application can open a file. The longer, more positive answer requires a little background. The quick, short answer is, “ By itself, the Mac can’t open this file.” How can I open this file?įrom a person who only uses Mac computers and iPads, this is a very reasonable question. My friend asked me to download a file named Paint-tool-sai.exe, but I can’t open it on my Mac. I frequently get questions like this from Mac users: exe from your Mac by using Parallels Desktop® for Mac.

What opens exe files on mac