Windows MCE on Parallels

gijoe · Jul 10, 2006

I am trying to run Windows Media Center Edition on a Macbook using Parallels. I bought the macbook over the weekend and I am waiting for my ram upgrade. I installed and everything appears to be running pretty well. I wanted to go into media center and it gave me a graphics error, then it went into media center which was very sluggish. I am assuming the sluggish performance is from the ram deficiency which will be fixed soon. Is this graphics error something that can be fixed by a driver? When I try to play recorded tv that I have on the network is it going to be visible on my macbook using parallels? Please let me know if anyone has any experiences with MCE on Paralles or can help me with my first mac. I love everything else about it so far!

kaidomac · Jul 10, 2006

Parallels has an 8mb emulated video card. It's very weak for doing anything serious with graphics, but it will get you by for most apps (like Word or Firefox).

gijoe · Jul 10, 2006

Thank you for the reply, I will give bootcamp a try tonight.

Mr Bobbins · Jul 10, 2006

If you want to be doing things that involve using the graphics card then boot camp is a better option. I have an intel Mac mini which my son uses for playing computer games on under Windows XP, works fine with all the games that I've tried on it so far.

D3v1L80Y · Jul 10, 2006

gijoe said:
Thank you for the reply, I will give bootcamp a try tonight.

You will not be able to use Windows MCE with Boot Camp.
You will have to use Windows XP with SP2:

Boot Camp System Requirements said:
To use Boot Camp Beta, you need:

An Intel-based Macintosh computer with a built-in or USB keyboard and a built-in trackpad or USB mouse
Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later
The latest firmware update available for your Intel-based Mac
At least 10 GB of free space on your startup disk (single partition)
A full, single-disc version of Windows XP Home Edition or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later

Mr Bobbins · Jul 10, 2006

Also Boot camp will expire September 2007 which will mean that you'll have to buy Leopard (the follow up to 10.4) or install the open source version which can be found here:

http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Main_Page

gijoe · Jul 10, 2006

D3v1L80Y said:
You will not be able to use Windows MCE with Boot Camp.
You will have to use Windows XP with SP2:

The only reason you cannot use MCE w/ Boot Camp is because it is on two cd's. If you combine it to one dvd or use an external drive everything is fine :doctor: