finalized my Leopard/XP setup and thought i would share

i had been working on find the best setup to have XP running on my macbook and have been using VMware/Parallels for years now and i decided to sit down and make it how i want it.

i thought i would share what i did here:

specs:

- Aluminum Macbook 2.4 running 10.5.6 with 4GB ram
- VMware Fusion 2.0.1
- XP Performance Edition SP3 which is only 250mb

Vmware settings:

Sharing = complete ability set to read and write on both'

Processor = since i am running a lite version of XP i gave XP only 1 processor with 1048MB of ram

everything else = i pretty much left as default

once i had it all setup i run VMware in unity mode which works great.

System Resources Used:

i have installed iStat Menus so that i can keep an eye on how much this will put on my system resources because my goal is to just run it with XP on all the time.

With the following running all the time on OS X:

- iChat
- Mail
- Address Book
- iCal
- Safari
- VMware
- iTunes
- smcFan Control
- Bluetooth Mouse

i am usually running with:

-almost no noticeable impact on my processors while idle of course. as you can see in the second picture that i was doing some stuff on my other monitor when i took that picture and the temperature and processors were higher.

- smcFan Control set on "Higher Rpm" (usually around 4000 RPM's) i stay between 105F and 150F

- i usually have about 1GB of memory free

- about 3 hours battery life

cool tweaks in XP

to give XP a blended look and not noticeable see a big XP task bar across the bottom of my screen as well as smooth out open XP windows:

in XP

start>control panel>display>appearance

1. change it to Windows Classic style
2. go to the advanced button and you can then change the appearances of your task bar, windows, text in windows etc...

you will have to play around with these until you get what you are looking for. once you have it BE SURE to go back to the "Themes" window in display and save it and name it whatever you want. if you do not then when you restart XP it will go back to default classic and all your work will be lost.

i usually have a darker desktop wallpaper so i made few different them to match my favorite wallpapers.

anyway i will post a picture below and maybe someone will find this useful

Nice!

I've got a similar setup, but with a stock XP SP3 install that I've tried to slim down as much as possible. The whole thing is still a little slow, but I may need to throw more RAM in at some point (I have 2GB now).

i had a standard XP SP3 install and the small performance edition made a huge improvement. although i always recommend more ram you might want to try a smaller XP install as well.

you may already know this but you can really mess around with your XP image as well as incorporate your favorite programs right into your install disc by using something like nLite.

very nice

how you get them on the same desktop? looks good

Its VMWare fusion SKYE, it allows you to emulate operating systems on the same desktop as OS X.

fascinating....we can talk about all the modified versions of xp that we wanna install (xp also has a eula about not modding...) but we cant say or talk about HACKINTOSH????


very very hypocritical.....


dont get me wrong....i like saying telling off ms too....but not at the sake of hypocritical double standards.....

skye said:

how you get them on the same desktop? looks good

Click to expand...

in VMware Fusion you use "Unity" and it places the windows task bar behind the dock like the picture shows.

i really like that feature

The Lump said:

fascinating....we can talk about all the modified versions of xp that we wanna install (xp also has a eula about not modding...) but we cant say or talk about HACKINTOSH????


very very hypocritical.....


dont get me wrong....i like saying ef off to ms too....but not at the sake of hypocritical double standards.....

Click to expand...

i think the difference is:

1. XP is allowed to run on a Mac as it is not forced to be used on a particular machine or manufacturer. Hackintosh is OS X running on a non-licensed machine.

2. i have the legal version of XP with a valid license. you can easily make a performance edition out of it with the many guides found on the web. you are simply choosing to eliminate certain parts of the legal software that you do not need or want.

yes, but the fact remains, you are still modding it...same as one would to install hackintosh... both of which are technically against user agreements...



i love the multiple sets of rules on this forum.... no talk of anything illegal..unless its non apple...

MOD - i am upsetting The Lump can you please remove any reference to it being a performance edition in my post and simply make it XP hahaha

you have a great user name and sig by the way The Lump

no, i'm not upset with the fact its a modded version...it just ticks me off that references to hackintosh are deleted while modded versions of xp are allowed.


kinda like how it seems like i only get responses to my questions when i start to annoy other people...

From what I read it looks as though fletch installed some kind of patch to trim down his legal XP installation, just like some people do with OS X by removing unused services and languages. Microsoft may not like it, but that's not our concern, as long as its legal.

Please keep it on topic.

i am keeping it on topic.

i'm well aware of modded versions of xp. i've been a windows user since the days of windows 3.1.

its more than just a patch to trim down.


but hey, go ahead with the double standards.

And we're done here.