opening exe file

Files with the suffix .exe are Windows executable files and will not open on a Mac unless you also have Windows installed.

Is there a downloadable program out there that opens this without using windows?

Yes; CrossOver Mac will, but it and CrossOver Games are the only applications which will on a Mac.

(47523)

If this professor teaches computer science, I'd find a new instructor, FAST!

Then only .exe files you can open on a Mac are .zip files that were changed to a self extracting .exe archive. The free Stuffit Expander for Mac can recognize these and will extract any files in them. Otherwise, if they are a compiled program, you must have Windows on your Mac in some way to use them.

Then only .exe files you can open on a Mac are .zip files that were changed to a self extracting .exe archive. The free Stuffit Expander for Mac can recognize these and will extract any files in them. Otherwise, if they are a compiled program, you must have Windows on your Mac in some way to use them.

CrossOver Mac, which I linked to above, will run some Windows applications on a Mac without Windows. The professor may be right; you and Klaus1 are wrong.

(47524)

CrossOver Mac, which I linked to above, will run some Windows applications on a Mac without Windows.

Without Windows itself, but it's still an emulation. It has to fool the Windows application into thinking it is in the Windows environment by emulating the Registry, numerous necessary .dll libraries and other critical objects. While you may not have purchased an actual copy of Windows with CrossOver Mac, you have purchased what is essentially a reverse engineered portion of it. Do note that not a whole lot of Windows apps will run well, or at all with CrossOver Mac. It's use is pretty limited.

Anyway, the professors comment was that you didn't need Windows at all. This is wrong. As CrossOver Mac does, it has to be at least emulated to a degree for any Windows app to work.