Getting my first Mac. A Few of Questions.

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First let me start off by saying that I didn't see a "help/support" area of the forums so I decided to post here. My apologies if this isn't the right spot.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll be picking up my first Mac. I'm 19 years old and I've been a PC user since I was about 4. I've decided to switch to Mac and I have a few questions. The Mac I'll be getting is the 13.3" MacBook Pro (2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Nvidia 9400M).

1. I'm planning to install a secondary operating system (either Vista or Windows 7) on my Mac, not right away, but a bit down the road. I don't plan on using the Windows OS very often, but there are a few Windows only applications (ex. Project 64 and a few Windows based games) that I would like to continue to use. Do you think I should stick with Windows Vista (what I've been using for the past 3 years) or go to Windows 7? And if I decided to go the Windows 7 route, should I wait a while for the bugs to be worked out?

2. Doing a bit of research, I know there are 2 ways to go about running Windows on an Intel based Mac. Boot Camp or (Parallels/VM Fusion). I assume running Windows through Boot Camp is running Windows natively and would give it the best performance, especially for running my games (FEAR, Half-Life). Running Windows through Parallels or Fusion however would be more convenient because I wouldn't have to leave the Mac OS to access Windows. I'd prefer to use Fusion or Parallels but I'm worried it won't run my games as smoothly. Is this true?

3. If it is, then I'm wondering if I can do both with one copy of Fusion or Parallels and one copy of Windows. I'd use boot camp when I want to play the games and parallels for basic Windows applications. So can you do both?

4. How will running Windows on my Mac affect battery life? I know one of the benefits of having a Mac is the greater battery life over PC based laptops but can I still expect to get at least 4 or 5 hours out of the battery when running Windows? And what will the battery life be like when I use Windows and Mac together (Fusion or Parallels)?

5. Would you recommend Fusion or Parallels(which one)? Why?

6. If I run Windows on my Mac, will I need to run an antivirus to protect my computer?

7. Last Question. A few Blu-ray movies I've purchased a few months ago had the digital copy from iTunes available. So I downloaded those my PC. My PC crashed and I lost everything on it. So is there a way to re-download those movies through iTunes on my Mac when I get it, even though I've obviously used the codes?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks in advance for any input you may have.
 
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im not sure of what your saying man!

Mac is a religion, putting windows in your mac is sacriledge! dont do it! stop using games, or use the old comp as a game PC

if you do put windows, youll need a antivirus, not that it will actually save you from them and from millions of crap programs entering your sanctuary....

youll have to ask itunes about the movies....hope you can get them
 
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todd51

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If your wanting to play games on your MBP, then definitely go with Boot Camp. You can always try CrossOver (google it) becuase I think that would work better than VMWare or Parallels. It still isnt' native though like Boot Camp though. I have a 3 year old MBP and was able to run Half-Life 2 on it just fine. I do know with the most recent version of VMWare that you can use it to boot into your Boot Camp partition, but I'm not familiar with Parallels.

The battery life all depends on how many applications your running. If you have a USB flash drive plugged in, you'll get lower battery life just becuase it's giving power to it. If you want great battery life, just have open only applications you need at the time. Keeping bluetooth and wireless off when you don't need them will also help you conserve battery life.

If you use Windows on your Mac I would recommend some sort of antivirus program such as AVG. If you do get a virus, don't worry, it won't affect your Mac install, just Windows OS.

Not sure about the digital copy of the blu-ray movies.
 
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First let me start off by saying that I didn't see a "help/support" area of the forums so I decided to post here. My apologies if this isn't the right spot.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll be picking up my first Mac. I'm 19 years old and I've been a PC user since I was about 4. I've decided to switch to Mac and I have a few questions. The Mac I'll be getting is the 13.3" MacBook Pro (2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Nvidia 9400M).

1. I'm planning to install a secondary operating system (either Vista or Windows 7) on my Mac, not right away, but a bit down the road. I don't plan on using the Windows OS very often, but there are a few Windows only applications (ex. Project 64 and a few Windows based games) that I would like to continue to use. Do you think I should stick with Windows Vista (what I've been using for the past 3 years) or go to Windows 7? And if I decided to go the Windows 7 route, should I wait a while for the bugs to be worked out?

2. Doing a bit of research, I know there are 2 ways to go about running Windows on an Intel based Mac. Boot Camp or (Parallels/VM Fusion). I assume running Windows through Boot Camp is running Windows natively and would give it the best performance, especially for running my games (FEAR, Half-Life). Running Windows through Parallels or Fusion however would be more convenient because I wouldn't have to leave the Mac OS to access Windows. I'd prefer to use Fusion or Parallels but I'm worried it won't run my games as smoothly. Is this true?

3. If it is, then I'm wondering if I can do both with one copy of Fusion or Parallels and one copy of Windows. I'd use boot camp when I want to play the games and parallels for basic Windows applications. So can you do both?

4. How will running Windows on my Mac affect battery life? I know one of the benefits of having a Mac is the greater battery life over PC based laptops but can I still expect to get at least 4 or 5 hours out of the battery when running Windows? And what will the battery life be like when I use Windows and Mac together (Fusion or Parallels)?

5. Would you recommend Fusion or Parallels(which one)? Why?

6. If I run Windows on my Mac, will I need to run an antivirus to protect my computer?

7. Last Question. A few Blu-ray movies I've purchased a few months ago had the digital copy from iTunes available. So I downloaded those my PC. My PC crashed and I lost everything on it. So is there a way to re-download those movies through iTunes on my Mac when I get it, even though I've obviously used the codes?

Sorry for all the questions and thanks in advance for any input you may have.

Hello and welcome to the forums! I'll see if I can answer your questions!

1. I think you'll be fine with Vista for now (it's what you're used to anyway!). Windows 7 is looking pretty sweet, so wait and see how that goes. It is possible to triple boot, so you can have vista and win 7 on there at the same time, though I don't recommend it for HDD space saving reasons. Multiple OS's can eat HDD space like no other.

2. From personal experience, I can assure you that gaming wise, using windows via bootcamp is the way to go. You'll get far greater performance. It's really not too much of a hassle anyway. You'll be happier in the end. Parallels is good for some programs, but still sucks in the gaming department. Just do yourself a favor ahead of time and use bootcamp.

3. You can do both! If I remember correctly, you can even use parallels to access your bootcamp partition. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong!) So if you want to use simple applications on your mac side, you could still do that. If what I said isn't possible, then you will have to install Windows twice which means twice the HDD space taken up by Windows.

4. I'm not going to lie. Battery life in Windows sucks on a mac just as bad as it does on any computer. You'll get about 1.5-2 hours on your windows side (using bootcamp). You might get a little bit better battery life using parallels, but any intensive program is going to cut battery life, even on your mac side.

5. I've only ever used parallels. It worked pretty well. I've heard good things about fusion as well. Try them both and see what works best for you! I'm sure other people on these forums have opinions either way.

6. I've never used anti-virus on my bootcamp side. Keep in mind though, Windows on a mac is just as vulnerable as Windows on any other machine. As long as you aren't being dumb though and going to weird websites and such, you should be fine. I've never had a problem in the 3 years I've used bootcamp.

7. Not sure about this one...I'm sure someone else might be able to help you though.

Hope that helps! Don't worry though! Putting windows on your mac isn't sacrilege. Some people are very passionate about brand loyalty, but if you need it, use it. Macs should be functional, not a status symbol. Take care and welcome to the forums!

Trent out
 
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im not sure of what your saying man!

Mac is a religion, putting windows in your mac is sacriledge! dont do it! stop using games, or use the old comp as a game PC

if you do put windows, youll need a antivirus, not that it will actually save you from them and from millions of crap programs entering your sanctuary....

youll have to ask itunes about the movies....hope you can get them

I have a mac, and I have put windows on it for gaming and it's great!!

It's so great, that every time I start up windows, I go...wow! this is great!!;D

7. Last Question. A few Blu-ray movies I've purchased a few months ago had the digital copy from iTunes available. So I downloaded those my PC. My PC crashed and I lost everything on it. So is there a way to re-download those movies through iTunes on my Mac when I get it, even though I've obviously used the codes?

I believe if you purchase a download from iTunes, it's for a lifetime... you just have to authorize your computer again, with a restriction of 5 times. (I think)

hope this helps:)
 
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Alright cool, thanks for the help guys. It was only two Blu-ray movies that I've used the DC for so far, so if I have to lose them it's not the end of the world. I have about 10 more that I haven't used yet because I knew I'd be getting a Mac soon.

I guess I'll use bootcamp for the gaming aspect but I really would liked to use Fusion/Parallels for simple applications. I hope you're right about being able to use both. If anyone has used both before and can confirm it for sure, I'd be very greatful.

Also, thanks for the warm welcome guys!

5 more hours to go... :Shouting:
 
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Of course you can't use bootcamp and parallels/fusion simultaneously, but I can't see a reason why it would'nt work.

As far as yor Mac OS is concerned Fusion or Parallels is just another app. and BootcampWindows runs nativly, so yes, you can actually use both.

As far as the welcome is concerned... just be sure to visit on a regular base, the more the merrier...;D
 
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Okay, cool. If you don't mind me asking, how would I go about installing everything so that I'm able to use both. Is there a tutorial on how to do so?
 
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I use parallels for my macbook and it works and looks great. You should really google it and check out all the cool features it has. I really enjoy using parallels. I personally only use for Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint for school but I have never used it for games but I don't think using parallels for games would affect the performance of the game.
 

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Okay, cool. If you don't mind me asking, how would I go about installing everything so that I'm able to use both. Is there a tutorial on how to do so?

They are separate and independent from each other. Boot camp requires that you partition your Hard drive to install Windows. Parallel/Vm Ware and other Virtual Operating systems work from the Mac side of HDD.
 
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Well, I just got the Mac a few hours ago. Loving it so far. Don't think I'll ever be switching back to a PC any time soon. Maybe you guys can help me out with something else. How do I set up my Apple Mail to retrieve my Windows Live Mail (hotmail) like I did on my iPhone?
 
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I've been trying to do that as well, so far no luck...

I've heard that it takes a certain amount of fiddling.

I'll be keeping an eye on this one...:)
 
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Oh, I see. Send me a message or update the thread if you have any update on that. :] I'll keep an eye out aswell. I was able to get my Blu-ray movies downloaded again because it is linked to the Apple ID you originally downloaded them with. So far, everything's great!
 
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Thanks alot, I'll be trying that as soon as I have the opportunity...

Keep it up!:)
 
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I was able to get my Blu-ray movies downloaded again
Wow I didn't know you could download blu ray movies with itunes? Where have I been lately LOL

That is cool I wonder how well it would look on my 55 inch sony LCD TV via my macbook sending the picture out from mini dvi, then dvi to HDMI cable to the TV.
 

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There are no Blu-Ray movies on iTunes. They do have HD content - all in 720P, not 1080P and fairly compressed. Most 1 hr TV shows are only 1GB in size, a far cry from the 10-15GB it would take for a Blu-Ray 1 hour show. They look good, but far from a good B-R disk.

There is also, "still" no software that will play Blu-Ray commercial disks on the Mac platform.

edit: for Deathcloud - it looks pretty good - I keep a DVI to HDMI cable that stays attached to 2 of my TV's and an optical cable to the receiver in each location for when I want to hook up the MBP for watching something.
 
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Hello and welcome to the forums! I'll see if I can answer your questions!

1. I think you'll be fine with Vista for now (it's what you're used to anyway!). Windows 7 is looking pretty sweet, so wait and see how that goes. It is possible to triple boot, so you can have vista and win 7 on there at the same time, though I don't recommend it for HDD space saving reasons. Multiple OS's can eat HDD space like no other.

2. From personal experience, I can assure you that gaming wise, using windows via bootcamp is the way to go. You'll get far greater performance. It's really not too much of a hassle anyway. You'll be happier in the end. Parallels is good for some programs, but still sucks in the gaming department. Just do yourself a favor ahead of time and use bootcamp.

3. You can do both! If I remember correctly, you can even use parallels to access your bootcamp partition. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong!) So if you want to use simple applications on your mac side, you could still do that. If what I said isn't possible, then you will have to install Windows twice which means twice the HDD space taken up by Windows.

4. I'm not going to lie. Battery life in Windows sucks on a mac just as bad as it does on any computer. You'll get about 1.5-2 hours on your windows side (using bootcamp). You might get a little bit better battery life using parallels, but any intensive program is going to cut battery life, even on your mac side.

5. I've only ever used parallels. It worked pretty well. I've heard good things about fusion as well. Try them both and see what works best for you! I'm sure other people on these forums have opinions either way.

6. I've never used anti-virus on my bootcamp side. Keep in mind though, Windows on a mac is just as vulnerable as Windows on any other machine. As long as you aren't being dumb though and going to weird websites and such, you should be fine. I've never had a problem in the 3 years I've used bootcamp.

7. Not sure about this one...I'm sure someone else might be able to help you though.

Hope that helps! Don't worry though! Putting windows on your mac isn't sacrilege. Some people are very passionate about brand loyalty, but if you need it, use it. Macs should be functional, not a status symbol. Take care and welcome to the forums!

Trent out

Windows 7 battery life isn't as bad as 1.5-2 hrs. I get around 3-3.5 hrs.
 

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