32 bit or 64??

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I need to run Quicken & Quickbooks on my iMac. Best combination for Windows 7..... Bootcamp, Parallels, or VMware Fusion. Quicken for Mac sucks and I just bought Quickbooks Pro 2011 so I'm not about to take a chance on the Mac version.
 

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Unless you intend to play Windows games or need the full power of 3D graphics in Windows, I would install Windows 7 x 32 bit using VM software. You have your choice of Fusion, Parallels, or the free VirtualBox from Oracle.

My personal preference is Fusion. You can download a trial version of Fusion or Parallels and try them out. VirtualBox is free but it's no frills VM software. The advantage of using VM software over that of a Boot Camp installation is that you do not need to reboot the machine to run Windows and your favorite Win programs.
 
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Thanks..no games for me. My Dell laptop is getting old and senile so I thought I'd just put it all on the Mac. Any advise as to how much room I should allow for the partition to accomodate W-7, Quicken & Quickbooks?
 

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If you use virtual machine software such as Fusion or Parallels, it will adjust the size of the VM file to accommodate the amount of space it needs. Fusion automatically set my VM up as 40 GB but later adjusted it lower since that was way too much for the few Windows apps that I run.

Using Boot Camp is a horse of a different color. It leaves the space option up to you. If you go the BC route with Windows 7 x 32 bit you should probably give it between 30 and 50 GB according to the apps you have. Adjust that upward if you go with the Windows 7 x 64 bit version.
 
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For what you describe, a virtual machine will more than suffice and it is much easier to create and manage. Also consider using Sun's VirtualBox - it is free (Fusion and Parallels are great but cost $$) for your Win7 installation.

Cheers
 
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I couldn't see needing 64-bit Windows7 if you will be running it on a VM and using less than 4GB of RAM. I'm running 32-bit Windows7 on a 2010 MBA via Fusion with 2GB of RAM dedicated to it and having no issues. I don't play games on it, but do run things like Visio and SAP.
 
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If you use virtual machine software such as Fusion or Parallels, it will adjust the size of the VM file to accommodate the amount of space it needs. Fusion automatically set my VM up as 40 GB but later adjusted it lower since that was way too much for the few Windows apps that I run.

Using Boot Camp is a horse of a different color. It leaves the space option up to you. If you go the BC route with Windows 7 x 32 bit you should probably give it between 30 and 50 GB according to the apps you have. Adjust that upward if you go with the Windows 7 x 64 bit version.

Does Fusion really adjust the size of the VM file? I use Fusion to run Windows XP from a Bootcamp installation and I haven't noticed any change in size. Maybe it only adjusts the VM if the guest OS isn't in Bootcamp?

Neil
 
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I believe the Bootcamp image is basically static as it is a partition of the disk instead of a large image file on a disk, in a file system.
 

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Does Fusion really adjust the size of the VM file? I use Fusion to run Windows XP from a Bootcamp installation and I haven't noticed any change in size. Maybe it only adjusts the VM if the guest OS isn't in Bootcamp? Neil

Correct. If you're using the BC partition as a VM, the size will not adjust since that has already been set by the partition you created with Boot Camp.
 
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Thanks for all of the help guys...looks like VMware and W7-32.
 
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what ram are you running on ur imac because windows 7 only supports 3.12gb of ram so if you got more than 3gb of ram when using windows 7 you wont get all your ram, would make more sense to install 64 bit for speed and reliability
 
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I have 4 gigs. I don't know much of anything when it comes to 32 vs 64 bit. I just need to make sure the two programs I need to run will in fact run with either 32 or 64 bit.
 
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With 4 gigs, in a VM you would not allocate more than 3 GB to Windows anyway, so the 32-bit will be just fine. And for productivity applications, you wouldn't notice much of a difference between the 32 and 64 bit flavors anyway, IMHO.

Cheers
 

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