That said, both emulators are fast enough and compatible enough for quick forays into the Windows world. Unfortunately, our lab testing made one thing abundantly clear: if you need to run resource-intensive Windows software, emulators aren't for you see ' Emulation in the Slow Lane '. But depending on the application, you may be able to use a software emulator running on your Mac rather than having to use an actual PC. Like it or not, because much of the software that's available for the PC lacks a Mac counterpart, you occasionally need to turn to Windows applications to get your work done.