Questions and answers

Yes. Harbor is free and open-source software under the MIT licence, made by Built by Argo. You can support its development on Ko-fi if you like; donations are optional and unlock nothing, so every feature is for everyone.

Harbor runs Windows games and game launchers on a Mac. It uses Wine, which provides the parts of Windows that programs rely on, and a renderer that translates the games' DirectX graphics to Apple's Metal. Harbor sets all of this up for you, recommends settings per game, and keeps your games in a library.

No. Wine is not Windows and needs no Windows licence. You only need the games themselves, from Steam, EA, Ubisoft or elsewhere.

Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or later) running macOS 14.6 or later. Intel Macs are not supported. Harbor also needs Rosetta, which it tells you how to install if it is missing.

A bottle is a separate Windows environment with its own programs, settings and renderer. Harbor keeps each launcher, or a game that needs different settings, in its own bottle, so they don't affect each other.

Many Windows games using DirectX 9, 10, 11 or 12 can run, but every game is different. Harbor has been tested most with Assassin's Creed III Remastered through Ubisoft Connect, which plays through missions at about 60 fps on an M4 Pro. Games with kernel-level anti-cheat do not run.

Steam, the EA app and Ubisoft Connect are set up in a few clicks. Any other Windows installer (.exe or .msi) can be run in a bottle with Install from File.

Games with kernel-level anti-cheat, such as EA Sports FC and Battlefield, do not run under Wine, in Harbor or elsewhere. Some online games also don't allow Wine in their terms, so check a game's rules before playing it online.

Usually the one Harbor recommends: it reads each game's files and suggests DXMT for most 64-bit DirectX 11 games, D3DMetal for DirectX 12, DXVK for 32-bit DirectX 10 and 11 games, and Wine's own renderer for older games. The renderer applies to a whole bottle. How the renderers compare.

Yes. Harbor recognises Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and most other controllers through SDL and shows them to games as an Xbox controller, which most games expect.

That depends on the game, the renderer and your Mac. Harbor records the average and low frame rate of every session you start from its library, so you can compare renderers. MetalFX upscaling can help in demanding games.

Harbor is not notarized by Apple yet. Open System Settings, then Privacy and Security, and choose Open Anyway next to the message about Harbor. After that it opens normally.

Harbor contains only its own code and downloads Wine and the renderers from their makers' public releases on GitHub, checking each download against a published SHA-256 checksum. Launchers come from their publishers and Windows components from Microsoft. Bottles keep Windows programs apart from each other and away from your Mac's own folders, but they are not a security sandbox: only run Windows programs you trust.

No. Harbor has no account, no analytics and no tracking. It connects to the internet only to download what you ask for and, when you open Component Updates, to ask GitHub what is new. See the privacy page for details.

Inside your bottles, in the Harbor folder in your Library: ~/Library/Application Support/Harbor. Save backups you make go to Harbor Backups in your Documents folder.

Move Harbor from Applications to the Trash. To remove your bottles and games too, also move ~/Library/Application Support/Harbor to the Trash.

Email builtbyargo@proton.me, or in Harbor choose Help, then Email Built by Argo Support. For a problem, attach a report from Diagnostics, Export diagnostics, and say what you were doing.

By telling others about it, reporting problems, and if you like, a donation on Ko-fi. Donations are optional and unlock nothing.