How to run uTorrent in Mac OS X
Written by Smaran on September 15, 2006As a x-Windows guy and an ardent BitTorrenter I can confidently say that uTorrent is one of the best BitTorrent clients available for Windows 95 through Vista. It’s lean, takes up very little memory and doesn’t need to be installed, you can even run it off a USB pen drive. It also offers all the important features like Selective Downloading, Universal Plug ‘n’ Play Support, Super Seeding Mode and RSS Feeds Subscription. Soon we will also be able to use uTorrent via a web-interface.
If you don’t like torrents try MP3 Fiesta. They hold nearly 67,000 albums from nearly 17,000 artists. Prices are around the $0.10 mark for single tracks with full albums coming in at roughly $1.00. Tracks are available from 192kbps and they take major credit cards and PayPal
uTorrent is currently only available for Windows. But that isn’t going to stop us from running it in OS X.
We currently have two ways of doing this. The first and more obvious way to do this would be to install Parallels and just run it as we would any other Windows program. The second is with an exciting new program (not so new for Linux users) called CrossOver. CrossOver is still in beta, but is already a very usable and stable alternative to installing a copy of the entire Windows operating system on your Mac, which is essentially what you’re doing when you run Parallels.
So, here’s what you need to do:
Sadly, CrossOver only works on Intel-Macs, so don’t try this on a PPC one (I won’t be responsible if it blows up in your face :-P).
First off, go download CrossOver Beta, it’s available as a free download on the developer’s site. Once you have it installed, you will be able to run quite a few Microsoft programs, as well as other small Windows programs within OS X. uTorrent is one of those other small programs.- Next, you need a copy of uTorrent. After you’ve downloaded the Windows executable (utorrent.exe), double-click it and CrossOver should start bouncing in the dock with the little .exe symbol displayed on it. After a few seconds uTorrent will load up.
- That’s it, you’re done! You’re running uTorrent in Mac OS X!
Waitasecond, slow down. There are still some things you need to know…
The file structure that you see while trying to download a torrent is a tad confusing. You see, CrossOver tricks programs into believing that there’s a C: drive on your Mac, when there actually is none.
Make sure you do not save your files in the C: drive. You can get to your user folder by choosing:
Desktop > / > Users > Yourusername
Another annoying thing is the fact that you can’t just untick files you don’t want when trying to download selectively. You have to right-click on the file and choose “select” or “deselect.”
But seriously, do I really want to run a BitTorrent client that has to be emulated through CrossOver? No. For me this was just a fun side-project. Just like attempting to run IE6 in OS X. A major drawback is that CrossOver hogs too much RAM to be able to constantly run in the background. The day there’s something like Rosetta for Windows applications, it’ll open up a whole new market to developers. Even better would be a Mac-version of uTorrent, which is incidentally in the developer’s plan of action.
Have you tried running uTorrent in OS X? Do you think it’s worth the trouble? We want to know.
Previously: TorrentPod Episode 5
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uTorrent was the first and only Windows app I could even think to try and run on my Macbook once I saw the release of Crossover. A few quirks, but it works like a charm.
As a heavy bittorrent user, utorrent lover and, soon, a switcher to mac os x i would definitely be glad to run utorrent on my brand new macbook pro.
The best solution is no doubt the utorrent port to a universal packet. Second solution … well .. actually i think there’s no second solution. CrossOver’s memory hog isn’t a good thing, and running windows through Parallels just for utorrent seems stupid to me. I prefer to get along with Azureus or even Transmission. :)
Good article though. Let’s send a lot of apples to Lude and hope he like it … :P
That’ a good choice! uTorrent is one of the best torrent clients around. I’m sure it works good in Mac OS X as well.
The best part about running uTorrent on MacOSX is uTorrent allows you to encrypt and use random ports thus sometimes faking out your ISP and not throttling down the speeds you can get on common torrent ports.
I run uTorrent on both Crossover and Parallel and get far better performance then using any of the other Mac based torrent programs.
My 2 cents.
I really don’t know if it’s a good idea but I don’t have an Intel Mac to test. Anyway, there are some pretty good BT apps for the Mac like Transmission and BitRocket. Furthermore, XTorrent is in the works and it’s definitely a must-have..
I’m kinda confused. There are some mixed feelings about doing this Crossover thing for uTorrent. I have an Intel-based Mac (Mac Mini to be exact) and I don’t know if I should or should not do it. Lot’s and lot’s of people said that they preffer uTorrent over anything else and I’ve been itching to use it as well. Can someone tell me if this is a practical and more importantly, safe, method of getting uTorrent on a Mac?
Well I recently switched to Mac and what i missed the most was uTorrent. I just tried this method and i don’t think it is a good solution. When downloading torrents at good speed Crossover is using 90% cpu (90% of one core). That’s not usable. But thanks for the tutorial :)
yea i just downloaded this for my macbook pro.. it downloaded fine and i opened it and everything.. but my torrnet won’t actually download.. i’m not sure why. i don’t use uTorrent as my primary torrent thing, but i really need this software and i can only download it through this.. so if anyone has suggestions.. let me know!!
Do anyone know how to pretty up the interface to aqua because it is pretty odd looking like windows 98?
please reply
thanks
I use http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/, works great and has a simple interface. I guess if you’re coming from windows and like to “tweak” everything then you might be dissapointed. It does however have one of the best interfaces and works like a charm. Free while in public beta.
For me work great. i use utorrent on my windosyp computer and i like it in my mac..THANKS for this release i enoy download torrent now on my mac!
USE TRANSMISSION FOR MAC OS X> ITS THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m currently using Xtorrent, and it works like heaven, even though uTorrent is definately the best client around, unless they do a port to Mac, it’s not really worth the amount of CPU :S
Hi. I have downloaded crossover and everything seemed to go well. Then I downloaded the utorrent exe file and tried to open it. When I open it I get a message saying that the file is broken. Any ideas?
http://www.blogger.com/profile/17277354392047923200
hsjan…jsi#sda+edas#da
so i downloaded crossover and utorrent, but i cannot get anything to download on my macbook pro? it wont seed, i have azeurus and anytime i go to download a torrent, it automatically saves that torrent to my hardrive as an azureus file, but even when i try to change it, it wont let me…any help?
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