Running Windows on a Mac: A Switcher's Guide

Joined
Jan 18, 2009
Messages
13
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Has anyone ever heard of crossover? I tried the 7 day trial and it works well for steam. Any feedback about it would help.
 

zup


Joined
Jan 25, 2009
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hi there,

I am a new Mac user. My mac is MBP 17", 2,5, 4GB of ram.
I need AutoCad for my work.
Installed Parallels with winxp and acad 2009 but had a lot of troubles with mouse and function keys.
Instaled xp in bootcamp. Acad work great now (both mouse and function keys), BUT I dont like to have two systems and boot every time I need Acad or take a break and go to OSX...

Ive read something that parallels or VMWare can run xp and applications from bootcamp XP, but I was unable to install VM from bootcamp even in VMWare even in Parallels.

I would like to do this, so I can do something quick (print or view files in acad) but not boot. I assume I will have troubles with mouse again in VMW or Parallels, but it is just for quick jobs. And dont want to have two xp+two acad installed, one in bootcamp one in parallels.

my bootcamp partition is ntfs formated.

Thankyouforyourhelp
Zup
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2007
Messages
274
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Location
New England
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac Retina 5K/3.4GHz Core i5/256GB SSD/40GB DDR4/Logitech MX Master 2S/
I'm about to make this leap of faith and put VMFusion on my iMac. I have purchased Vista and I have a couple of nagging questions.

1. Will Vista suck up my mac's resources to the degree that it will feel sluggish when the Vista window and MS programs are running?
2. I have a Lacie 1TB disc with plenty of room on it, and its using my firewire 800 connection. Should Vista be installed on the Lacie, and if so, is that difficult to set up? I only ask this because of my worry about viruses. And of course... would this make it sluggish?
3. I still have my "old" Shuttle PC running XP Pro, and I was wondering if its possible to simply move over the OS and the 2 or 3 programs to the Lacie drive. I ask this because of the resource issue (XP over Vista), but I know that MS will not support XP sometime in the future.

But as I understand this miracle (LOL), I will be able to open a XP/Vista window within the Mac desktop, and then run my Corel programs. Lets say I create some graphics and then export that graphic as a TIFF file which could then be used in my mac's photoshop? And yes... I hope to wean myself off of these windows programs and learn illustrator and a few others. I have already dumped MS Office for iWork '09 and I'm getting by just fine.
 
OP
cwa107

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
I'm about to make this leap of faith and put VMFusion on my iMac. I have purchased Vista and I have a couple of nagging questions.

1. Will Vista suck up my mac's resources to the degree that it will feel sluggish when the Vista window and MS programs are running?

Yes. Your virtual machine will share resources with Mac OS X while it is running. When you turn it off, the resources will be released. If you have adequate memory for both OSes to run at the same time, it shouldn't make it sluggish. For example, OS X runs well in 1GB and Vista runs acceptably in 1GB. So, if you have 2GB, it should be fine.

2. I have a Lacie 1TB disc with plenty of room on it, and its using my firewire 800 connection. Should Vista be installed on the Lacie, and if so, is that difficult to set up? I only ask this because of my worry about viruses. And of course... would this make it sluggish?

When you set up your VM, you'll create a virtual hard disk file. That file will grow as your storage demands increase. You can put the file anywhere you wish, but if you put it on an external, you may notice a degradation of performance. If you're going this for security purposes, your plan is misguided. The VM is completely sandboxed, so if you had a virus in a VM, it would be contained to the VM, unless you open up VMWare to allow the VM to see your Mac's drive/home folder, etc.

Frankly, I don't even run AV in my VMs. I just keep a backup copy of the hard disk file. If I were ever to become infected, recovery is as easy as shutting the VM down, deleting the existing hard disk file and replacing it with the backup. I'd be back up in seconds, malware free.

3. I still have my "old" Shuttle PC running XP Pro, and I was wondering if its possible to simply move over the OS and the 2 or 3 programs to the Lacie drive. I ask this because of the resource issue (XP over Vista), but I know that MS will not support XP sometime in the future.

VMware has a tool that can virtualize an existing PC. I haven't tried it, but as I understand it, this is exactly what it's designed to do.

As far as XP's longevity, keep in mind that Vista was not particularly well-received. XP still has the greatest marketshare, so it will be a very long time before support is dropped.

But as I understand this miracle (LOL), I will be able to open a XP/Vista window within the Mac desktop, and then run my Corel programs. Lets say I create some graphics and then export that graphic as a TIFF file which could then be used in my mac's photoshop? And yes... I hope to wean myself off of these windows programs and learn illustrator and a few others. I have already dumped MS Office for iWork '09 and I'm getting by just fine.

Yes and yes.
 
Joined
Sep 24, 2007
Messages
274
Reaction score
4
Points
18
Location
New England
Your Mac's Specs
27" iMac Retina 5K/3.4GHz Core i5/256GB SSD/40GB DDR4/Logitech MX Master 2S/
OK... I can now say "AHA!" because I've learned some interesting things. I will most likely install the VM on the iMac's internal HDD. With 4GB of internal memory... I should be OK as I only plan on running windows when I absolutely need to.

Is windows going to nag me to use OE and IE? And should I even be concerned about service packs beyond SP2? Will I be able to drag files from the VM into the mac environment or will I have to do something else? Along that same line of thought, I have a second 1TB USB drive (NTFS) that is used to store mostly image and document files, but it also has a few backed up DVD files on it. I just bought an Airport Extreme and with the USB connection, I was hoping that I could access that drive from the VM or the Mac environment. Will I be able to? Probably not the right thread to ask that.
 
Joined
Jan 25, 2009
Messages
41
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 9400M
Quick question: how well will XP work with the native 1280x800 resolution of my MacBook? XP doesn't support that resolution, right? Will it just try to stretch a 1024x768 to fit?
 
OP
cwa107

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
Windows XP does support 1280x800
 
Joined
Jan 25, 2009
Messages
41
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook Pro, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 9400M
OP
cwa107

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
OK... I can now say "AHA!" because I've learned some interesting things. I will most likely install the VM on the iMac's internal HDD. With 4GB of internal memory... I should be OK as I only plan on running windows when I absolutely need to.

Is windows going to nag me to use OE and IE?

Well, those will be the default apps to do email and web browsing within your virtual machine. But you can change them, just as you would on a regular Windows machine.

And should I even be concerned about service packs beyond SP2?

I would certainly keep your VM up-to-date on patches and service packs. Windows is still susceptible to worms regardless of whether it's run in a physical or virtualized environment.

Will I be able to drag files from the VM into the mac environment or will I have to do something else?

Yes. You can drag and drop between desktops. Also, you can put Fusion in "Unity Mode", where the Windows desktop disappears and all of your Windows software appears to run natively on your Mac (including having icons in the Dock).

Along that same line of thought, I have a second 1TB USB drive (NTFS) that is used to store mostly image and document files, but it also has a few backed up DVD files on it. I just bought an Airport Extreme and with the USB connection, I was hoping that I could access that drive from the VM or the Mac environment. Will I be able to? Probably not the right thread to ask that.

I wouldn't see why not.
 
Joined
Dec 19, 2008
Messages
45
Reaction score
1
Points
8
"* Windows discs that came with another computer may not be used with Boot Camp for both technical and legal reasons, although you may use a non-branded OEM disc (also known as "OEM for System Builders")."

OK... is the REALLY true and if so, exactly why?
 
OP
cwa107

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
"* Windows discs that came with another computer may not be used with Boot Camp for both technical and legal reasons, although you may use a non-branded OEM disc (also known as "OEM for System Builders")."

OK... is the REALLY true and if so, exactly why?

Legal: The OEM license is tied specifically to the system it was bundled with. Using it with another computer is forbidden by the End User License Agreement you agreed to abide by when you booted your system for the first time.

Technical: Many OEM discs are custom tailored for the hardware they were sold with. Often, OEM discs contain a hard disk image that is restored to your hard drive upon using it. This image contains specific drivers and software for the computer you purchased it with.
 
Joined
Apr 8, 2009
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I've been reading through this forum and some other tutorials...

What I basically want to do is be able to run XP alongside OSX to be able to have quick access to some windows applications. This lead me to download and install Parallels.

I have my XP w/SP3 disc image saved on my Mac. Unfortunately, I'm kind of stuck on where to go now...I need to burn it with my Mac, I'm guessing onto a bootable CD, but I have no idea where to find that kind of program, or where to start. Is that even the next step? What kind of file should be my XP that I'm putting on the disc?

Is this all even possible?
 
OP
cwa107

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
I've been reading through this forum and some other tutorials...

What I basically want to do is be able to run XP alongside OSX to be able to have quick access to some windows applications. This lead me to download and install Parallels.

I have my XP w/SP3 disc image saved on my Mac. Unfortunately, I'm kind of stuck on where to go now...I need to burn it with my Mac, I'm guessing onto a bootable CD, but I have no idea where to find that kind of program, or where to start. Is that even the next step? What kind of file should be my XP that I'm putting on the disc?

Is this all even possible?

Parallels can install directly from a disc image. When you create your new virtual machine, you simply specify the path to the disc image.
 
OP
cwa107

cwa107


Retired Staff
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
27,042
Reaction score
812
Points
113
Location
Lake Mary, Florida
Your Mac's Specs
14" MacBook Pro M1 Pro, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD
ISO is the most common type for CD/DVD images.
 

HAH


Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
20
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Denmark
I have VM Ware's Fusion and I have a couple of questions.

  • Until now I have run XP on a Boot Camp partition on my MacBook. When booting XP while in OS X is considerably slower than via Boot Camp... obviously. Will XP seem faster while in OS X if I reinstall it into a Virtual PC rather than Boot Camp? I thought I would play games more on my MacBook than I ended up doing, hehe
  • Could I test Windows 7 on a virtual machine in Fusion? My mum's considering getting a Win 7 machine when they come... I need to research to further backup my argument for her getting a MacMini instead ;)
 

HAH


Joined
Apr 6, 2009
Messages
20
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Location
Denmark
I have VM Ware's Fusion and I have a couple of questions.

  • Until now I have run XP on a Boot Camp partition on my MacBook. When booting XP while in OS X is considerably slower than via Boot Camp... obviously. Will XP seem faster while in OS X if I reinstall it into a Virtual PC rather than Boot Camp? I thought I would play games more on my MacBook than I ended up doing, hehe
  • Could I test Windows 7 on a virtual machine in Fusion? My mum's considering getting a Win 7 machine when they come... I need to research to further backup my argument for her getting a MacMini instead ;)

Well. I can now answer this myself. Windows seem to boot slightly faster from the virtual machine than if it's a Boot Camp partition booting in OS X. And Windows 7 installed fine on the virtual machine directly from the downloaded iso-file; didn't have to burn it onto a DVD :)
 

cdd


Joined
May 20, 2009
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I have a question about running paralles on my macbook.....

I am a student and I have to use WinSCP3. I know that this is a Windows program and I am prepared to run Windows on my Mac, but the class is a Photoshop Class...will I need Photoshop for Windows as well or will I be able use the Mac version of Photoshop while using Windows?

I hope this question makes sense ...
 
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hi I am running Windows Vista via Parallels on my MBP! How do I get Vista to recognize my webcame right now its saying I do not have any?
 
Joined
May 22, 2009
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hey, I've just bought a Mac Pro 8 core (early 09) and wanted to know if Windows xp sp3 32bit is able to utalise all 8 cores, and does it run smoothly?
Thanks!
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top