MT4 (Metatrader) installation instruction for Snow Leopard 10.6 Mac

1. (1) Download and install Crossover 10.0.1 - http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/

1. (2) Run Crossover application.

1. (3) At the menu bar (header at the top of Mac OS X) select Configure > Install Software. In the Select application to install Finder, type Metatrader or navigate to Community Supported Applications. Choose Metatrader 4 and click Install. NOTE: Do NOT select anything that says automatically launch when finished.

1. (4) After MT4 installation completes, open Finder and navigate to [User]/Library/Application Support/Crossover/Bottles/Metatrader 4

1. (5) Copy all files from your Windows MT4 installation and paste (replace) them in the Mac folder noted in Step 4.

1. (6) Run MT4 by double clicking Terminal.exe in the Wine Bottle directory. You may use Programs > Metatrader 4 in the menu bar.

Helpful Tips & Information:

 

1. When MT4 is running, you may add it to the dock by using the right click sub-menu.
2. Any sub-windows (Market Watch, Data Window, ect.) that become free floating cannot be reattached to the platform, at least not to my knowledge. My recommendation is to arrange the platform how you like it in the Windows MT4 installation before copying over the files to the Mac MT4 installation folder.
3. Contrary to what I expected, emulating MT4 is not anymore efficient than running MT4 in a virtual machine. In fact, so many Wine processes are needed to run MT4 with Crossover, that I have concluded that it is actually slightly more efficient to run MT4 in a Windows VM. This is in regards to both HEAT and BATTERY LIFE, but more thorough testing has yet to be done.

At this time, I prefer using MT4 in a VM because there are no surprises with features not working and I have already bought Windows 7. But if I had not already purchased Windows, I would seriously consider Crossover as an option to run MT4. A VPS may be another option to run MT4 more efficiently, but it's doubtful.

With Windows 7 (basic theme, no Aero, ect.) running 2 MT4 platforms in Coherence mode (one platform on 21" external monitor) along with Skype, Firefox and Postbox, I get readings of 47 C CPU Core 2 (Temperature Monitor App) and 43 C (SMCfancontrol) @ 3600 RPM fan setting.

MBP 13" Snow Leopard

Hey Smashin,

Great guide! Good work.

Did you try running mt4 using wines? http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/

This is what i do and it uses little resources. I usually have 1 or 2 mt4's open, safari with a few tabs,excel 2011, itunes, skpye, mail, & a few other light apps, with fan at the 1800 rpm minimum, 52˚C cpu and about 5-15% usage of, and memory as in the pic below. There aren't any issues with floating windows, and i find it works really smoothly, i tried with windows 7 on vm but it took more cpu, and virtually all my ram.

MacBook White, 4GB, 2.4GHz, 13" + 23", mac os x 10.6.6


[edit] ...sorry, i should add, installation is not so straight forward, if you want to try it pm me and i can explain over skype or something...

im very interested in finding the most stable and least intensive method to run mt4 on my future macbook. i also want to be able to run it within the mac os. and it would definitely be better if i didnt have to install windows at all or require a license key for it.

Hi Rooicol,

I am interested in your add. I have tried to install MT4 platform on Mac via Winebottler. But, it still couldn't work well. It always got stuck and could not finish installation.

Could you please guide me how to do?

On the other hand, I have copied mfc42.dll from windows into System 32 of winebottler, it could not accomplish. Furthermore, I tried to copy all the installed files of MT4 from Windows to use on Mac, ultimately I could not.

Please help me and guide me.

Best regards,

KL

1) Go to your utilities folder (/applications/utilities) and check that X11.app is present, if not install this first using the Mac os install discs that came with your mac

2) Go to software update and check your mac is fully up to date.

3) Go to: http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/ and download wine bottler.

4) Open the downloaded disc image and drag Wine.app and WineBottler.app to your applications folder.

5) run Wine.app, go to Preferences>Check for updates, install updates and relaunch.

6) run WineBottler.app, go to Preferences>Update>check for updates, install updates and relaunch.

7) Download this file: http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=635373 , unzip it, and place the "MT4 Prefix" folder in your home folder, (under the directory: /Users/[username]/)

8) Click "Change Prefix..." from the Wine menu in the menu bar.

9) Click the circular arrow at the bottom left of the "Wine - Change Prefix" window to update the prefixes, the "MT4 Prefix" folder should appear. close this window.

10) Download the mt4setup.exe installation file from your broker (see note B).

11) Run this file (double click). From the Wine window that will appear, select "Run Directly In: Users/[username]/MT4 Prefix".

12) Complete the installation. At the last step, uncheck the "launch mt4" then click finish.

13) Open the downloaded "MT4 Prefix" folder and navigate to: "/Users/[username]/MT4 Prefix/drive_c/Program Files/[Broker name - MetaTrader4]/terminal.exe", run this file. From the wine window that will appear, select "Run Directly In: Users/[username]/MT4 Prefix". You can check the checkbox "Don't show this dialog again", if you like. You can also make an alias of the "terminal.exe" file and place it in the dock or desktop if you like.

Note:

A) if you change the directory of the MT4 Prefix folder, you will have to repeat step 8 and 9 above.

B) Alpari's mt4 doesn't work with this method, don't know why. if you trade with Alpari, install another brokers mt4, and then replace the .srv file in the config folder with alpari's server file. Alpari's mt4 is the only one i am aware of that doesn't work, but there may be others. It doesn't matter which broker's mt4 you install, so long as you have the right .srv file in the config folder.

C) when quitting MT4, go to the MT4 menu > File>Exit, then quit X11 after MT4 has quit.

D) if you want 2 or more copies of mt4, you can install them all in the same prefix, best not to use multiple prefixes as it can get confusing. Also, you can just duplicate the current mt4 folder in the program files folder, this will also allow you to run two copies at once

E) some features such as DDE server, and DLL imports may not work as normal, although i am not aware of any issues.

i got crc error when unzip

using mt4 build 392

please help

okay, it's run with no problem

Thanks

I don't know what crc error is, you mean you couldn't unzip the file or couldn't run mt4 after it was installed?

Which Broker's MT4 setup did you use?

Thanks rooicol, that saved me a lot of trouble.. funny how many people tried only today to install MT4 on Mac

yes, i couldn't unzip the file, the ziped file is error.
i already tried with winzip for mac and zipeg.

i use IBFX.

thanks

Strange, i just downloaded it and unzipped it no problem. Did you try unzip it simply with finder (just double clicking on the .zip file)?

Can you zip and unzip other files okay on your mac okay, what happens if you right click on any file and click compress?

i can upload it as a .dmg otherwise, but can't see why it won't unzip for you

Alarska: you completed the installation successfully?

Yep, it worked perfectly. I think Winebottler isn't necessary though, or am I wrong?

However, maybe you guys should download the zip again, I had no problems unpacking it..

yes, unzip perfectly with finder.
strange, why zipeg and winzip for mac give me error?
follow your instruction, meta trader run with out problem

honestly, i'm running mt4 with vmware fusion, just want to compare the result.
launching mt4 using wine is really fast, but it's reliable?
i don't use EA.

Thanks

Yes. The only thing that wont work is setting dates in the strategy tester due to some strange bug in MT4 (not in wine). Everything else works reliable.

Wine itself (as a platform) can be considered more stable than any version of Windows because its only a thin API layer on top of a decent and rock solid operating system.

For these exact instructions, you don't need wine bottler, but that is just because i inclueded the custom made prefix for mt4. If you wan't to make your own prefix you will need wine bottler. However wines is currently havings issues with making custom prefix for mt4, so i included it for you.

Thank you, Rooicol,

I followed you insightful instruction to run MT4 platform on Wine/wine bottler, it works well.

Just to share the my first mistake that I could not run MT4 was that I did not update the wine app. When I updated it and reinstalled, it fantastically worked well.

Wine is not only the supporting application for MT4, but also for other exe files, such as dictionary, games, and others.

Best regards,

KL

I'm not familiar with the underlying workings of wines, all i can say is that i have been using it for several months now and find it perfectly reliable, for me more reliable than running a windows 7 virtual machine, as i often run a few other programs at the same time, and overloading the cpu and ram causes general problems

rooicol thanks for this systematic way to install MT4 using wine. I've followed all the instructions and all seemed to be well, MT4 is installed but when I try to load a chart I just get the message 'waiting for update' in big characters in the chart window. Any ideas of what could be wrong?

Thanks in advance if you have any ideas!

Thanks rooicol, I'm with Dukascopy but still use Alpari UK mt4 for charting, I installed and updated & restarted it just now seems to be working fine.

thanks.

I always get the message : a debugger has been found running.... when I try to start the MT4. Can you help me with that?