Running Windows on a Mac: A Switcher's Guide

Hi -

I read the first post in this thread, and tried to download Darwine from here:

Darwine - Download

But the link does nothing. Has Darwine activity been suspended?

Thanks.

Bootcamp problems

Pls HELP me!

Re - Installed Mac OSX, got 10.5.8 now,
updated everything, made a partition, than when i get the screen with the
button "Start Installation" i press it and i get the message:
"The installer disk could not be found"
tried with 2 different windows - XP PRO SP2 and XP HOME SP2
the cds are inside of course...

Any suggestions?
thank you in advance!

What Mac do you have? Are you using Bootcamp within OSX to make your partition for windows?

new to mac

I'm considering buying my first laptop, macbook pro 2.54 ghz i5, 4 gb ram, 5000 gb HD 7200 rpm. I need to add windows because I need to use IE to access, work on, and then save files using IE-based programs for work. (I tried accessing them on on safari and firefox, but they didn't work.) Which would be the better choice parallels, win 7, XP, bootcamp? I read something about WINE? I'm not very computer literate so what would be the better choice? (I do have a desk top PC which is currently running XP media center service pack 3, norton internet security and geswall.)

If you are just using office productivity applications (such as Internet Explorer) and not graphics intensive programs like heavy Windows games or CAD-CAM programs, video editing, etc. then a virtual machine environment would be simplest. You will still need to purchase a copy of Windows (either XP or Windows 7 would work, I would go with Win7). The virtual machine is created by software like Parallels, VMWare Fusion or Sun's VirtualBox. For a single user installation of Windows, VirtualBox will do it for you and the price is right - that one is free. The other two have more features including better video, but for the basics VirtualBox will do just fine. That's what I'd do.

The rest of this sticky and the other one should answer most of your questions.

Cheers

OK, I made a stupid mistake with BootCamp

How can I put bootcamp on my iMac? I foolishly wiped it out a month ago figuring I'd never need it. Now, I do need it and cannot find the best way to download the program. I really am smarter than this. Ugh

Boot Camp is not a program so much as it is one of the utilities that come with Snow Leopard; it's part of the operating system. It cannot be downloaded. Check your utilities folder. If you can't find it there, insert your OSX disk and look for it there.

I'm interested in playing Empire Total War on my 27'' Quad Core iMac. What would be the best solution to achieve this? Are there copies of Windows XP or Vista still available? I really don't want to have to pay for Windows 7. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Drewfields88 said:

I'm interested in playing Empire Total War on my 27'' Quad Core iMac. What would be the best solution to achieve this? Are there copies of Windows XP or Vista still available? I really don't want to have to pay for Windows 7. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

Either way you're going to pay for it. Windows 7 is probably the cheapest solution, with upgrade versions around $100 or less online.

But to answer your initial question, the best way to do it would be through Boot Camp.

spavor are

cwa107 said:

Either way you're going to pay for it. Windows 7 is probably the cheapest solution, with upgrade versions around $100 or less online.

But to answer your initial question, the best way to do it would be through Boot Camp.

Click to expand...

Upgrade versions? Can that be used? I don't have any other version of Windows.

Drewfields88 said:

Upgrade versions? Can that be used? I don't have any other version of Windows.

Click to expand...

Well, technically speaking, yes you can. But to be completely honest, the end user licensing agreement requires that you have an existing copy of Windows. Regardless, they will work. Just don't run product activation when prompted, skip it and activate once Windows is fully installed and the Boot Camp driver package is installed.

So, for clarification, i can purchase windows 7 upgrade and install it on my mac without any previous version of windows? And it'll work without issue? Thank you for your reply.

Drewfields88 said:

So, for clarification, i can purchase windows 7 upgrade and install it on my mac without any previous version of windows? And it'll work without issue? Thank you for your reply.

Click to expand...

Yes, that is correct.

Want Max mini running Windows XP to output sound on a TV through a HDMI cable.

I am new to this forum so please forgive me if I post at the wrong place or mis-use the forum features.

I posted this question before, outside of this thread and received no response, until I came across this thread and really learned a lot here. I hope you can shed some light into this. I suspect it has to do with the configuration inside Window XP but I didn't know how.


I just got the latest model of Max mini that came with a HDMI port. I have no problem to divert the sound from the computer's speaker to my TV while I am running the Mac OS via the HDMI cable. But due to some applications that only Window XP supports, I installed Boot Camp and set up the Mac Mini to run Windows. Every things works fine except I could not divert the sound from the computer's speakers to the TV. I know that I can use a separate Audio cable to make this work, but I am curious if there is a way that I can configure Window XP so that it uses the TV speaker with only the HDMI cable alone. If the answer is no, then I shall not waste any more time in pursuing this. Thanks.

BTW, I am using Windows XP with SP3.

Geekyu said:

I am new to this forum so please forgive me if I post at the wrong place or mis-use the forum features.

I posted this question before, outside of this thread and received no response, until I came across this thread and really learned a lot here. I hope you can shed some light into this. I suspect it has to do with the configuration inside Window XP but I didn't know how.


I just got the latest model of Max mini that came with a HDMI port. I have no problem to divert the sound from the computer's speaker to my TV while I am running the Mac OS via the HDMI cable. But due to some applications that only Window XP supports, I installed Boot Camp and set up the Mac Mini to run Windows. Every things works fine except I could not divert the sound from the computer's speakers to the TV. I know that I can use a separate Audio cable to make this work, but I am curious if there is a way that I can configure Window XP so that it uses the TV speaker with only the HDMI cable alone. If the answer is no, then I shall not waste any more time in pursuing this. Thanks.

BTW, I am using Windows XP with SP3.

Click to expand...

Just a guess, but I'd say the Windows drivers for the sound card don't support HDMI audio (yet?). Did you check the audio settings in Control Panel?

Thanks for the quick response!

I think you are right. I search every where in the Sound department inside the Control Panel but didn't find any thing related to HDMI. I did found some selections for external Monitor Speakers, 5.1 sound systems, etc., but I guess all these still needs the Audio cables.

I am glad I found this forum/thread. I am sure that I will have a lot of questions since I am new to the Mac world, and I am liking it more and more.

Thank you very much for helping us out.

3ds Max and windows7 in mac

hello,

well I 'm new to all these and I hope I 'll not to make you bored,asking the same things.

I'm really interested in bying apple imac 21.5-inch:3.2GHz Intel Core i3
1920-by-1080 resolution
4GB(two 2GB)memory
1TB hard drive
8x double-layer SuperDrive
ATI Radeon HD5670with512MB
and I need to know if windows7 can work with it and also if it is a good choice to do so, because I have to work with 3d studio Max which hasn't got a mac version.
Thanx anyway!

Did you read the thread in which you posted? It answers your questions. Short answer is yes, win7 is fine and would work under Boot Camp for your application.

Hello,
I seem to have quite a lot problems with my new imac! Firstly, I cant run Bootcamp from apple support : it is downloaded but then it does not run or open or go to the right place (utilities folder),when I try to open it looks as a note file in chinese! And also generally it seems as if it doesn't run any new download! Have any ideas? Thanks.

Also, when I AM DOING THE INSTALLATION OF WINDOWS 7 ON I Mac, at the stage that the partition has been made and there is the option of starting windows downloading should I make restart and afterwards select the option key from the mouse in order to select the windows disk and then make the installation of Windows?