Bootcamp vs Virtual PC

Can anyone please explain to me the difference between Bootcamp which I believe to be Apple software and Virtual PC which is Microsoft?

They're not even in the same family. Boot Camp which comes with both the Leopard and Snow Leopard operating systems is actually a utility which partitions and prepares the hard drive for a dual boot installation of Windows.

Microsoft Virtual PC is VM software - similar to Parallels and VMWare Fusion. Here's the WiKi definition and explanation. LINK

Regards.

More importantly VirtualPC was intended for PowerPC based Macs (i.e. prior to 2006) to be able to run Windows by emulating the Intel chipset (very slowly I might add).

For a modern Mac, if you're looking to run Windows, you can do so natively using Bootcamp, in which case you Mac will behave exactly like a Windows based PC, or you can use a virtual machine such as Parallels, VM Fusion or Virtual Box.

In Short.

Virtual PC = A way to have windows on your PPC (not intel) Mac through the power of virtualisation. Or a virtual windows desktop in your OS X desktop. Terrible software producing poor results at best.

Bootcamp = For intel Macs only. Since intel Mac hardware is really similar to Intel windows box hardware. With bootcamp you can natively run windows on your Mac. And for all intesive purposes it is exactly like a windows box. Viruses and all. Mind you any windows viruses will not ever enter the OS X part of your hard drive.

Virtual PC is nice if you want to use Windows with OS X seamlessly. You will see a performance hit on the Windows side because any virtualized OS will be slow compared to it running natively on the hardware.

If you are doing minor things in Windows it maybe nicer to run a virtual setup (Parallels, VMware, etc).

It depends on the situation

Virtual PC vs Bootcamp

Thanks everybody. The key is the fact that I have Intel so only Bootcamp will do the job.

Would I be protected from Windows viruses if I disconnected from the Internet when using Windows or is Windows still running in the background?

No, you can use VirtualBox or VMWare or Parallels still with an Intel chip. The virtualization is much faster because you already have an x86-64 architecture chip.

Anyway, if you're not connected to the internet at all on Windows then you'll be fine. If you are, get some AV. It will not run in the background if you dual boot. If you set up a virtual machine though, you can restore to a snapshot of your machine every time you boot it up, so even if you manage to acquire a virus, you will restore to a clean slate.

Alwyn said:

Thanks everybody. The key is the fact that I have Intel so only Bootcamp will do the job.

Would I be protected from Windows viruses if I disconnected from the Internet when using Windows or is Windows still running in the background?

Click to expand...

I run VirtualBox with Windows on my Intel MB and it runs like a charm. Simply because BC is for Intel processors doesn't mean you can't virtualize.

Windows does not run in the background if you use BC and if you virtualize, it's only open when it's open. In other words, it's not open in the "background". As for security, you're running Windows so take the same precautions that you would if you were running Windows on another PC.

When I transferred some of my PC progs over to my mac, both my mac and parallels had virus scanner on it (this was a few years ago, I had tried a few different scanners on the PC and Kaspersky on the Mac/Parallels) and Kaspersky found a few viruses during transfer.. My MS/Parallels is not connected to the net.. So yes you should take precautions.

Alwyn said:

Thanks everybody. The key is the fact that I have Intel so only Bootcamp will do the job.

Would I be protected from Windows viruses if I disconnected from the Internet when using Windows or is Windows still running in the background?

Click to expand...

Aqua said:

When I transferred some of my PC progs over to my mac, both my mac and parallels had virus scanner on it (this was a few years ago, I had tried a few different scanners on the PC and Kaspersky on the Mac/Parallels) and Kaspersky found a few viruses during transfer.. My MS/Parallels is not connected to the net.. So yes you should take precautions.

Click to expand...

I was working on an in-law's laptop the other day to clean up some junk his soon-to-be-ex had loaded it up with. He has Kaspersky running and currently updated. Despite that, he still had active viruses running. Oh Kaspersky had a log indicating they were found, but they weren't quarantined or anything. I was utterly dumbfounded. Another in-law's computer is currently unusable due to a virus infestation, despite them having AV software. I just don't know if the AV vendors are incompetent, overwhelmed, or the users just don't pay attention to the warnings. Probably a bit of all three.