# Keep86 user guide > Install Keep86, scan your Mac for Intel-only apps, set up the Keep86 virtual Mac once (Keep86 downloads macOS 27 from Apple), then choose Keep for the apps you need. Each kept app gets a shortcut you open like any other app. This guide covers every step, from the first scan to uninstalling. Keep86 is in development and planned for October 2026. This guide describes the app as it is built today. Steps that haven’t been verified on a Mac with Apple silicon yet are marked **with version 1.0**: they may change before release. The app’s screens are in English for now, so labels are quoted in English. [STEP-BY-STEP SCREENSHOTS — with version 1.0] ## Before you start - **A Mac with Apple silicon** (M1 or later) running macOS 27 or later. On a Mac with an Intel processor, Intel apps run natively; Keep86 offers only a test mode there (Simulation mode). - **Free disk space:** about 65 GB during setup (the macOS 27 download and the new virtual Mac), about 40 GB afterwards, plus space for the apps you keep. - **Memory:** 16 GB recommended (8 GB is enough for light apps). The virtual Mac uses 6 GB by default while it runs (at least 4 GB). - **An internet connection** for the setup and for licence checks every few days. - **The installers and licence keys** of the apps you want to keep. Keep86 copies apps from your Mac, but some apps ask to be activated again. Keep86 is for personal, non-commercial use only, as Apple’s macOS licence requires for virtual machines. ## Install Keep86 1. Download Keep86 from keep86.com and open the disk image. 2. Drag **Keep86** onto **Applications**. 3. Open **Terminal** (Applications › Utilities), paste this command and press Return: ``` xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Keep86.app ``` This build is signed by us, not with an Apple Developer ID, so macOS quarantines the download and blocks it the first time you open it. The command removes the quarantine mark from Keep86 only. You need it once per download from keep86.com; updates installed by Keep86 don’t need it. 4. Open Keep86 from your Applications folder. 5. A crow icon appears in the menu bar. Closing the Keep86 window doesn’t quit Keep86; it keeps running in the menu bar so your kept apps can open. ## The welcome screen The first screen explains what Keep86 does. Tick the box “I’ll use Keep86 for personal, non-commercial use only, as Apple’s macOS licence requires for virtual machines.”, then choose: - **Get started** — to set up the Keep86 virtual Mac now, or - **Just scan my apps** — to see first which of your apps are Intel-only. ## Find your Intel-only apps Open **Find apps** in the sidebar (or choose Scan for Intel-only apps from the Keep86 menu) and click **Scan this Mac**. - Keep86 looks through `/Applications`, `/Applications/Utilities` and `~/Applications`. It reads each app’s own files on your Mac; nothing is uploaded. - Each app gets an architecture: **Intel only**, **Universal**, **Apple silicon**, **32-bit** or **Unknown**. - Apps are grouped: - **Needs Keep86** — Intel-only apps that stop working without Rosetta. Use **Select all** to pick them all. - **Update instead** — a version for Apple silicon exists; updating is the better choice. - **Won’t run** — for example 32-bit apps or apps that include drivers. Keep86 can’t run these. - **Already fine on Apple silicon** and **Not an app Keep86 can read** appear under **All apps**. - The **In Keep86** column shows what Keep86 knows about each app: “Not tested yet”, “Native version available”, or a limitation such as “Limited · may not draw · OpenGL”. Keep86 has not published test results yet, so most apps show “Not tested yet”. Tick the apps you want to keep. You can come back to this screen at any time and choose **Scan again**. ## Set up the Keep86 virtual Mac Open **Guest** in the sidebar. Setup is a one-time task in three steps. Keep86 downloads macOS 27 directly from Apple; we never ship or store macOS ourselves. **With version 1.0.** 1. **Download macOS 27 from Apple.** Click **Check Apple’s catalog**. Keep86 shows the macOS 27 version it found. Tick the box to allow the download (about 15–20 GB), then click **Download from Apple**. You can choose **Continue in the background** and keep using your Mac. 2. **Install macOS in the guest.** Click **Install macOS in the guest** and wait until the progress bar finishes. 3. **First start.** This step needs a licence or a free trial (see Licence and Macs). Click **Start the guest for setup**. The window of the virtual Mac opens once: - Set up macOS: choose your country and keyboard and create a local account. You don’t need an Apple ID. - Decline FileVault and Location Services inside the virtual Mac. Your Mac’s own disk stays encrypted. - When the desktop appears, open the shared folder in the virtual Mac’s Finder (“My Shared Files”) and double-click **Keep86 Guest Tools**. It installs Rosetta and the Keep86 agent in the virtual Mac and turns off sleep and automatic updates there. - When macOS asks, allow Screen & System Audio Recording and Accessibility for Keep86Agent inside the virtual Mac. Keep86 continues by itself when the agent is ready. If a setting is still missing, Keep86 shows a checklist with the exact place to change it, and the buttons **Check again** and **Show the guest window**. Automatic updates must stay off in the virtual Mac: an update to macOS 28 would remove Rosetta from it. ## Keep your apps In **Find apps**, tick the apps and click **Keep 1 app** (or **Keep N apps**). - Keep86 copies each app into the virtual Mac, together with its preferences and its folder in Application Support. The original app on your Mac is not changed. - For each kept app, Keep86 creates a shortcut with the app’s name and icon in `~/Applications/Keep86 Apps`. Spotlight and Launchpad find it. To keep an app in the Dock, drag its shortcut to the Dock. - Kept apps are listed in **My Apps**. Use **Add apps** to keep more, the **…** menu to reveal a shortcut in Finder, or **Remove from Keep86…** (quit the app first). Removing moves the shortcut to the Trash; the original app on your Mac is not touched. - Large apps take longer to copy, and each kept app needs disk space inside the virtual Mac as well. ## Use your kept apps every day **With version 1.0.** - **Open** a kept app like any other: double-click its shortcut, or choose it in Launchpad, Spotlight or the Dock. If the virtual Mac is asleep or stopped, Keep86 starts it first. - **Windows** of the app appear on your desktop as separate windows, each with a small “86” badge. While one of them is in front, the app’s menu bar is shown in your Mac’s menu bar. - **Copy and paste** text and images between your Mac and kept apps. - **Documents:** when you open a file from your Mac with a kept app, Keep86 gives the app a copy of the file in its shared folder. Save your work there, or use Save As to choose where it goes. [WHERE SAVED DOCUMENTS END UP — with version 1.0] - **Quit** a kept app as usual, or from its Dock icon. - **Sleep:** when no kept app is open, the virtual Mac goes to sleep after 10 minutes (you can change this in Settings) and frees the processor. It wakes when you open a kept app. Memory it uses is returned to your Mac when it sleeps or stops, not while it runs. - **Menu bar:** the crow icon shows which kept apps are open, the memory the virtual Mac uses, and the buttons **Open Keep86**, **Put the guest to sleep**, **Stop the guest** and **Quit Keep86**. - **Quitting Keep86** puts the virtual Mac to sleep; it continues where it left off next time. ## Settings Open **Settings** in the sidebar (⌘4). Changes are saved right away. - **Guest resources — Cores and Memory:** how much of your Mac the virtual Mac may use. These apply when the virtual Mac is created. - **Sleep — Go to sleep after:** minutes without open apps before the virtual Mac sleeps (0 = never). - **Video:** H.264 (default, low latency) or Raw. - **Advanced:** Show the virtual machine window (for troubleshooting) and Simulation mode (testing only). - **About:** your version, your licence, Third-party licences… and Check for updates. - **Diagnostics:** Show log and Copy log, for support requests. - **Remove Keep86 completely…** (see Uninstall). ## Licence and Macs Open **Account** in the sidebar. - **Free trial:** 7 days, no card, once per Mac and email address. Enter your email and click **Start free trial**, then type the 6-digit code from the email and click **Start my trial**. - **Licence key:** after a purchase, enter the key from your purchase email (format K86-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX) and click **Activate**. - **One Mac per licence:** to move Keep86 to another Mac, choose **Deactivate this Mac…** on the old one, or remove that Mac on your account page at keep86.com, then activate the key on the new Mac. - **Offline:** Keep86 checks the licence every few days and keeps working offline in between. If it can’t connect for a while, Account shows how long it keeps working. - **When a plan ends:** on 6-month and annual plans you keep the last version of Keep86 you received (“Kept version”); monthly plans stop. Your kept apps stay in place either way. Licensing in the app is **with version 1.0**: the licence server it talks to is being built. Keep86 stores your licence in your Mac’s Keychain and sends only the licence ID, a hashed hardware ID, your Mac’s name, the app version and, for the trial, your email address. Never your files or apps. ## Updates Updates will be offered inside Keep86 from the first public release. Until then, **Check for updates** in Settings is unavailable. **With version 1.0.** ## Troubleshooting - **An app shows “Limited · may not draw · OpenGL”:** it uses OpenGL, which the virtual Mac’s graphics don’t provide. It may start, but some drawing may fail. Check the app in our [compatibility database](https://keep86.com/compatibility). - **“Limited · App Store app”:** you can’t sign in to the App Store inside the virtual Mac; apps that check their purchase may refuse to open. - **“Won’t run · drivers”** or **“32-bit only”:** Keep86 can’t run apps that need their own drivers, or 32-bit apps. - **“Set up the guest first”:** open Guest in the sidebar and finish the setup. - **“The guest didn’t answer in time”:** wait a moment and try again. - **“Keep86 couldn’t reach its licence server”:** check your internet connection. Keep86 keeps working offline for a while. - **“Check your Mac’s clock”:** set the correct date and time in System Settings › General › Date & Time, then click Retry. - **“There isn’t enough free disk space”:** free up space and try again. - **A shortcut says “Keep86 is not installed”:** install or open Keep86, then try again. - **Something else:** in Settings › Diagnostics, choose **Copy log**, or **Copy details** in the error banner, and send it to hello@keep86.com or through the [contact form](https://keep86.com/contact). ## Uninstall Keep86 In **Settings**, choose **Remove Keep86 completely…**. Keep86 first shows what will be removed and how much space it frees. - The virtual Mac is deleted permanently (not moved to the Trash). Anything saved only inside it is deleted with it. - Documents you opened in kept apps (the shared folder) and the shortcuts in `~/Applications/Keep86 Apps` move to the Trash. - Keep86’s settings, caches and Keychain items are deleted. Tick **Also move Keep86 itself to the Trash** to remove the app too. - Your own apps and documents outside Keep86 are not touched. - Keep86 deactivates the Mac first, so your licence is free for the next install. A trial that is still running continues when you install again with the same email. ## Known limits - No OpenGL or OpenCL inside the virtual Mac (graphics use Apple’s paravirtualized GPU). - No App Store sign-in inside the virtual Mac. - No 32-bit apps and no apps that need their own drivers or kernel extensions. - At most two macOS virtual machines per Mac (Apple’s licence); Keep86 uses one. - Memory given to the virtual Mac is not returned to your Mac while it runs. - Whether a macOS 28 Mac will still allow Rosetta inside the macOS 27 virtual Mac has not been confirmed by Apple. We will test it with the first macOS 28 betas and publish the result. --- Source: https://keep86.com/user-guide