Recommended alternatives to run IP 10+ and macOS 27+??
Absent a big lottery win by WaveMetrics, it seems any wishes for Igor Pro 10+ on macOS 27+ are DoA. Looking ahead, the three options for macOS folks appear to be
- Lock in with a machine having IP 9 on macOS 26
- Run IP 10+ in a Windows VM on macOS 27+
- Run IP 10+ in an Intel/AMD machine via remote login from macOS 27+
I am particularly interested in comparisons of the latter two options. My performance metrics do not include a need for computational speed in IP 10+. My highest metric is to enjoy seamless integration between IP 10+ and my preferred document layout+preparation tools in macOS (the tools are absolutely irreplaceable or their "equivalents" are uncomfortably frustrating to use in Windows).
So ...
- For the case of IP 10+ in Windows emulation on macOS 27+, what VM application is best recommended to provide the most seamless workflow between analysis development+computation+graphing in IP 10+ (running in the emulator) to document layout+preparation in tools on macOS?
- For the remote login case, accepting that an Intel or AMD chipset is demanded for IP 10+, what combination of Windows machine + remote login software on the Windows and macOS machines is best recommended to provide the most seamless .... (rest of story above).
For background, I have just updated from a 2019 i9 MBP to an M5 Pro MBP. Already, I am getting a notice to update to macOS 27 (which I have managed to shut off). At some point, I will want to update to macOS 27. When I reach that point, do I invest in a VM for my MBP M5 to run IP 10+ in Windows emulation? Or do I invest in a bare-bones miniPC, set it up solely for IP 10+, and do remote login, simply because the IP 10/Windows VM option is in itself a soon-to-be dead cause for macOS?
Sidebar: The Platform Support page says ... "Note that WaveMetrics does not explicitly support running Igor Pro 10 under ARM emulation, but we may do so in the future." What does this mean vis-a-vis my two choices?
Yes, what was once great is now gone. I don't see a lottery win in my remaining lifetime (and, as gracious as I am for Wavemetrics, I would not see making the required outlay they need in capital investment even if I did win enough). Time to move on.
According to https://support.apple.com/en-us/102527, Rosetta2 can still be used with macOS 27, so you're fine for the next year or so at least.
"Note that WaveMetrics does not explicitly support running Igor Pro 10 under ARM emulation, but we may do so in the future." What does this mean vis-a-vis my two choices?
It is possible that there is a bug that happens only when Igor 10 is run under Windows 11 ARM64, and if presented with such a bug we might not attempt to fix it. So far I don't think we've been made aware of any ARM64 specific bugs other than an early bug in the installer, which we quickly fixed.
- For the remote login case, accepting that an Intel or AMD chipset is demanded for IP 10+, what combination of Windows machine + remote login software on the Windows and macOS machines is best recommended to provide the most seamless .... (rest of story above).
Remote login sometimes does strange things with graphics card support. In the past we've had users complain that Gizmo didn't work properly when they were using Igor through remote desktop. I don't recall many recent complaints of this nature, so it's possible the situation has improved. I suspect you would be happier using a Windows ARM64 virtual machine rather than a separate PC with remote desktop, but I don't have any specific recommendations.
September 23, 2026 at 03:49 pm - Permalink