Is it possible to run the Windows Phone 8 simulator directly in OS X?

Question

I'd like to test web sites in Mobile IE. I do not need or want Windows 8 loaded, just Windows Phone 8.

• I understand I can run Windows Phone 8 Simulator inside a Windows 8 VM. That is not my question.
• I understand Windows Phone 8 Simulator is an x86 build of Windows Phone 8. This should, theoretically, make it easier to launch on an x86 Mac within an x86 based virtualization environment.

Can I run Windows Phone 8 on Mac, directly?

Answer 1

Yes, the Windows Phone 8 Simulator / Windows Phone 8 Emulator can run directly in OS X. However the mouse cursor is not visible. Mouse works, but no cursor/circle to show where your pointer is, which makes the VM difficult to use. Windows Phone 8 Simulator does the same thing on Windows when launched in Hyper V Manager (rather than Visual Studio). This may change in future. Keyboard support is fine.

I used VMware Fusion 6.01 / OS X Mavericks.

• Get the Flash.vhd file from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v8.0\Emulation\Images\Flash.vhd inside Windows 8, and copy it to OS X (I used VMware Fusions Sharing feature to set this up quickly)
• Import the VM into VMware Fusion
• Change the CPU and Memory setting to a minimum of 2 cores, 512 MB (Windows Phone 8's mimum requirement). Before I did this, Windows Phone 8 would pause at the boot screen.

Windows Phone 8 will launch.

Keyboard shortcuts are listed at MSDN. Remember to press Fn on your Mac for function keys.