Windows OS in Macs

...or via BootCamp on the Intel-based Macintosh computers.

Of course, you would still need to install a valid, licensed version of Windows XP (or Vista, or 2000, or...) just like you would need to on a regular Windows PC if you wanted to run Windows programs.

Parallels (or VMWare Fusion) allows you to install the Windows operating system into a virtual hard drive, then run that Windows installation alongside the Mac OS, so you're effectively running two operating systems at once on you Intel-based Macintosh. The upside is that there is no need to reboot between OSs.

BootCamp allows you to install Windows as well, but you would need to reboot between OSs in order to use them -- they don't run at the same time like with virtualization software (Parallels, VMWare).
 
Whats the Ups n Downs for both BootCamp and Parallels? i.e. Is it safer to boot before using the 'other' OS or having both OS's running 'parallel' with each other wont affect the 'host'
 
Parallels works inside OSX so NO need to restart the computer to go between OSX then Windows. BootCamp you have to restart to get to either OSX or Windogs each time
 
Also with Fusion you have the virtual OS.. Windows will take little space as it will only expand as much as needed (and you set the maximum space it can take). The virtual os loads very fast, and as said you have no need to reboot the system to use Windows applications. Furthermore all drivers that work for Mac will work on the guest OS, and if you have anything that will need Windows drivers to work, you can use those devices under the guest OS.

If you make a Boot Camp partition for Windows, it's a fixed size and you can't use Mac applications on the same time. If you decide it's 20 GB it's 20 GB no matter what. But in VM it's the maximum space you decide - and it can take 2 GB only if all your files and vm system fit in that. Both in Fusion and in Parallels you can use Boot Camp existing partition and system too.
 
Giaguara said:
Also with Fusion you have the virtual OS.. Windows will take little space as it will only expand as much as needed (and you set the maximum space it can take). ....
Click to expand...
Don't forget that with Boot Camp, your computer is a Windows computer with an Apple logo. It is subject to all of Windows's security issues. OTOH, if one of the virtual solutions becomes corrupted, then you more protection and easier recovery.
 
I have not used virtual machines on Mac (I still have Powerbook G4), but
what have I used, they (mainly VMWare) are on some cases (like net)
almost as fast as real thing, but on some cases they are quite slow.

There is some funny stuff with VMWare running Windows on Windows: on some cases the clock runs slower, upto days. This makes programming quite hard, since the IDE does not know what files are changed. Also it mixes some databases quite funny.
 
Artov you could run Workstation on your Winbox, run a Linux of your choice in it, and inside Linux use Player to run the other Windows you need...

I tried to install Workstation in Windows VM of Fusion (to run something else there.. Linux etc), but it gave me an error telling it can't nest emulators :D
 
fryke said:
What's "Workstation"?
Click to expand...

I think she means VMware Workstation. However, it's not free. VMware Server is free. However, it's not as extensive in features as VMware workstation (Server free version only allows one snapshot per guest image, while Workstation allows for multiple snapshots).

The cool thing you can do with VMware Server is connect to a remote VMware Server host computer and run the VMs located on that computer. I've done that from home through a VPN connection to my work PC using my Ubuntu laptop, both of which had VMware Server installed.
 
I have not used virtual machines on Mac (I still have Powerbook G4), but
what have I used, they (mainly VMWare) are on some cases (like net)
almost as fast as real thing, but on some cases they are quite slow.

There is some funny stuff with VMWare running Windows on Windows: on some cases the clock runs slower, upto days. This makes programming quite hard, since the IDE does not know what files are changed. Also it mixes some databases quite funny.
 
artov said:
I have not used virtual machines on Mac (I still have Powerbook G4), but
what have I used, they (mainly VMWare) are on some cases (like net)
almost as fast as real thing, but on some cases they are quite slow.

There is some funny stuff with VMWare running Windows on Windows: on some cases the clock runs slower, upto days. This makes programming quite hard, since the IDE does not know what files are changed. Also it mixes some databases quite funny.
Click to expand...

Deja vu??

(This is the same post from a few lines up!)
 
MisterMe said:
Don't forget that with Boot Camp, your computer is a Windows computer with an Apple logo. It is subject to all of Windows's security issues. OTOH, if one of the virtual solutions becomes corrupted, then you more protection and easier recovery.
Click to expand...
just wondering, if i run Windows in Mac, will my Mac be exposed to potential virus(es) associated with PC based Windows??
 
...unless, of course, you're running Windows via BootCamp -- then, as said earlier, your Mac is a Windows computer and is susceptible to any damage (software and/or hardware) that would have occurred had you been running Windows on any other computer and been infected with a virus.

If you run Windows in an emulated/virtualized environment, like with Parallels or VMWare, then the damage done by a virus would be limited to the virtual installation of Windows, and would not affect anything outside of that emulated/virtualized environment.

OS X, in either case, is pretty immune to Windows viruses, since Windows is always separated from Mac OS X either by a partition on the hard drive (BootCamp), or a "hard disk image" file (Parallels/VMWare).
 
Another point to make: Be careful what you share between the virtualized MS Windows and OS X. If you share folders containing important files and get infected by a virus or worm, it could write copies of itself in your shared Mac OS files, corrupting them. Accessing those files with OS X wouldn't spread the virus because it wouldn't work in OS X. But you might end up with corrupted files.

Doug
 
Running XP Pro SP2 under Parallels with my MBPro 2.33 is anything but slow. The only downside is the 20 to 30 second wait for "booting" up the virtualized environment. Nothing like Virtual PC was.

Autocad supposedly runs pretty well under Parallels according to users on their forum. http://forum.parallels.com/thread2867.html
 
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