Is VMWare capable of Vista?

I've did a little research on this forum about Fusion for Mac. Right now i currently run windows xp on mac via bootcamp. I love it excepts the fact that i have to reboot to switch between the systems and the files can't be edit between both windows.

I know using Fusion would allow me to access and edit files between the two OS but can it handle gaming?

I read that it's not fast enough to run hardcore games on Fusion. I currently have Steam games on bootcamp and want to use on Fusion and other games like Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 that are coming out. I hate to switch back and fort between the OS and just want both on same screen.

I guess my question is "Can Fusion handle window Vista and games from Steam and Blizzard?"

Reason why i ask is because i want to get rid of Windows on bootcamp and also i can get VMWare Fusion and Vista really cheap through my school.

If your host machine (Mac) is powerful enough, it should be able to run Vista inside VMWare without any problems. However, any level of gaming is going to be limited in this environment with access to the 3D functionality.

You'll have better luck with Crossover Games to play games directly in Mac. For pure gaming though, there's no replacement for running it natively on the OS as opposed to through any virutalization software..

Regards

Here's the specs of my machine:

MBP 15"

2.66GHz
4GB
320GB 7200RPM
9600M and M GT shared 256MB GDDR3

I guess Fusion can't handle gaming but can handle stuff like MS Office?

I wonder if Steam can be use under Mac OS X and would Blizzard come out with Starcraft 2 and Diable under Mac OS? I heard Mac games are more expensive than Windows version?

The virtual machines are a software program running inside the Mac OS - they don't natively access your video hardware. They are very fast in terms of CPU usage, but because they access a "virtual" video adapter, don't perform like a program booted natively into Windows in a Boot Camp installation, which will use your video card exactly like any Windows system with the same hardware.

Make sense? That's why VM's are great for productivty applications but not as good for games that require native hardware access.

As a result, generally speaking, for games Boot Camp will work better. For productivity applications, the VMs work great. You can, however, have it both ways - if you install Vista via Boot Camp, Fusion will recognize it and offer to create a virtual machine for you as well -- that way, you only have to reboot when you need to.

Fusion will do that with XP as well, but there are some issues when using the Boot Camp installation to create a VM; sometimes the boot sector gets corrupted. But that's not an issue with Vista or Win7. So, if you're planning on installing Vista, that's what I'd recommend you do - install it via Boot Camp and create a VM from it as well.

Cheers

aznmixer01 said:

I guess my question is "Can Fusion handle window Vista and games from Steam and Blizzard?"

Click to expand...

Not a hope. 3D support in virtualization products is sketchy at best, not to mention the excessive overhead you would experience even if you did get it done. If you want to play 3D games, Boot Camp is your only realistic solution at this point in time.

Thanks for the inputs guys. I will be installing Vista on Bootcamp and running in VM Fusion as well.

I also heard if you active the key in VM it will lock it in Bootcamp is that true?

Should be fine. I would install/activate Vista under Boot Camp. Then, be sure the VM Ware Tools are installed and updated. If you still can't activate inside the VM, just call Microsoft. Won't be an issue.

Cheers