Any suggestions for a new Boot Camp user?

[Rod]

Hi everybody, I decided to broaden my knowledge of things Mac by installing Windows 10 into a small partition via Boot Camp on my 2015 MBPr.
Windows is working well and I downloaded and installed Avira Anti Virus (cause it's free) and apart from adding a few bookmarks in Edge and adding email accounts (not my iCloud account) to Outlook I have just been playing around with the new environment.
I have been reading through this forum and noting various problems experienced by other OP's and notice many are using parallels and see suggestions for Paragon software etc.
What I was wondering is are there any specific things this forum would advise I do (or not do) in the early setup of this OS? eg Settings, Preferences or anything that may make windows work well on a 13" MBP. eg. I find the suggested display setting is way too small, what is the best for a 13" display?
Bear in mind I know very little about using Windows and my most recent experience was with XP in my old workplace.

 

[Rod]

PS I have read the stickies on this forum, I did backup prior to install and I read all the Boot camp Instructions, particularly how to Uninstall.

 

[harryb2448]

Rod this is probably not want you want to hear. After using BootCamp for Windows NT, XP, 7 Pro and 10 Pro, with problems with drivers for wireless keyboards, mice and trackpads, I finally purchased a Dell Latitude E series laptop for a couple of hundred bucks and use that. BootCamp is just, and I repeat just, a way of handling Windows on your Mac and nowhere near as fast, efficient or trouble free as on a PC. I have never tried Parallels.

 

[ferrarr]

I use these apps for security and maintenance on all the Windows boxes in this house;

Windows Defender
Ccleaner
Recuva
Malwarebytes Anti Malware
Malwarebytes Anti Exploit
System Explorer

This is for my wife and kids pc's, daily users that don't care what they pickup. Once a month, or so, I go through and clean/maintain them. I run software update for each machine, run ccleaner, and malwarbytes, also.

 

[Rod]

Rod this is probably not want you want to hear. After using BootCamp for Windows NT, XP, 7 Pro and 10 Pro, with problems with drivers for wireless keyboards, mice and trackpads, I finally purchased a Dell Latitude E series laptop for a couple of hundred bucks and use that. BootCamp is just, and I repeat just, a way of handling Windows on your Mac and nowhere near as fast, efficient or trouble free as on a PC. I have never tried Parallels.

You're right that's not exactly what I wanted to hear but I accept this is a second hand way of trying windows and I only created a fairly small partition. I also took close note of the uninstall instructions.
It was really just a way of learning how to help others who had done the same thing. Difficult to troubleshoot with no personal experience but we will see how it goes. If it turns into a disaster, well that will be a learning experience too.

 

[harryb2448]

The main error is not setting up the partition in BootCamp. Next comes not downloading drivers etc. and third on the list comes choosing the wrong partition to set up as NTSL. Very easy to set up Mac OS X partition and zap OS. Also what leads to troubles is using DU to enlarge/decrease partition size, not possible, and using DU to remove the BootCamp partition. That last one seems to kill everything!

 

[Rod]

Well, big star for me, all my pre reading has paid off so far in avoiding all of the initial pitfalls you mention, as for uninstallation I read that part of the Boot Cmp instructions very carefully (twice) then printed it all out just in case. So far so good.
Not being a Widows user for some time the novelty of Windows 10 has not worn off just yet. There are of course, as I was already aware, many noticeable differences between this and XP as well as the macOS of course. I already miss the easy access to preferences both for the system and some apps (programs).

 

[harryb2448]

Ahh well good luck, as an associate doing a PP presentation said 'Widows of opportunity are readily available in Windows 10!"

 

[Rod]

OK, one more question, what is the best way to backup this partition in Boot Camp and create a bootable clone of the Windows OS? Will a disk image to an external HD be sufficient?

 

[chscag]

OK, one more question, what is the best way to backup this partition in Boot Camp and create a bootable clone of the Windows OS? Will a disk image to an external HD be sufficient?

Nope. Payware = WinClone. Best software to clone and backup Boot Camp partitions.

Getting tired, see you tomorrow or whatever day it is in Bali.

 

[Rod]

It was 1526 Hrs Monday afternoon when you posted that reply. So I guess you wont get this till tomorrow, hope you slept well. looks like WinClone Standard for me. It's not cheap but I suppose you get what you pay for.

 

[ferrarr]

Freeware = Clonezilla. I used it on my sister-in-laws laptop, when she was having issues with her hard drive.

 

[harryb2448]

Windows 10 has File History, a backup system, installed:-


https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17143/windows-10-back-up-your-files

 

[Rod]

Thanks guys, this really is an acedemic issue for me as I will not be keeping anything important or that I do not have stored somewhere else on the Windows partition. I was merely trying to get an understanding of what would be necessary for those people who use Windows via Boot Camp as their primary system.
In my gullibility or ignorance I thought that would be something like CCC that would clone the Windows partition but I did not take into account that the Boot Camp partition itself needs to be backed up too. As suggested WinClone will do this but it's pretty expensive.
So I agree with harryb, this is, although a wonderful feature of macOS not the ideal or simple way to use Windows. It does however allow me to run a few Windows programs that I could not have used without a device to run Windows natively.
I did not understand how Boot Camp worked in the beginning and I admit I am only now starting to see what it does and how inextricably linked it is to the NTFS partition it creates for the Windows.
It is a fascinating process of learning for me and hopefully I will be of help to others in this forum who are having problems with this process. In the meantime I can finally play some games that were previously unavailable to me.