Running Windows on a Mac: A Switcher's Guide

[cwa107]

Hi guys sorry if this question is a lil stupid but I'm lil slow learner and not a comp savy . I have a new macbook pro and want to run windows operating system just for games. what version of boot camp i need? what i instal first windows or boot camp? thank you

Boot Camp is already installed on your computer. You can kick off the process (assuming you have a valid Windows disc - see the notes in the first post in this thread) by running "Boot Camp Assistant", located in Applications => Utilities.

When you do so, you will be prompted to print the Boot Camp documentation:

(outdated link removed)

Don't proceed any further without printing out this guide. If you are not savvy, you will absolutely need to follow this guide carefully - and at times during the process, your computer will be offline, so it's important to have this guide in a hard copy.

 

[myafed]

Thank you very much

 

[jonsmith77]

Running Windows on a Mac: A Switcher's Guide​

Here at Mac-Forums, we get a lot of questions in regard to how best to run Windows software on your Mac. As there are a growing number of solutions to this particular problem, I thought it would be helpful to put together a summary of the options available to Mac users, as well as the pros and cons of each solution.

Note that all of the following solutions work only with Intel-based Macs, these include any Mac Pro, MacBook or MacBook Pro model. They also include newer Mac Mini and iMac models, but they must be powered by an Intel CPU. If you are unsure as to whether you have an Intel or PPC Mac, click on the Apple menu, choose “About this Mac” and look under Processor. If you have a PPC Mac and wish to run Windows on it, your best bet is to look into either iEmulator or Microsoft Virtual PC (no longer actively developed).

Now, if indeed you have an Intel Mac, you have a number of different choices in running Windows applications...

CrossOver for Mac & DarWINE

Perhaps the least expensive and fastest way to run a Windows application is through “WINE”. In plain English, WINE acts as a translator to allow some Windows software to run in UNIX-like environments (like Mac OS X and Linux). With WINE, there is no need to install Windows, your Windows applications will simply install within a set of directories in your home folder. Two variations of WINE exist on the Mac; DarWine is an open source port to Mac OS X and Crossover for Mac, which is a commercial product that is developed by CodeWeavers. In either case, be aware that applications support is fairly limited as there is simply no way to tune WINE to work with every piece of Windows software out there - but in general, many popular applications like MS Office will run on it.

Boot Camp

Another option for running Windows on your Mac is Boot Camp. Boot Camp was initially released as a public beta for OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and has since matured into the full version available in OS X 10.5 (Leopard). If you still use Tiger, you’ll need to upgrade to Leopard to get this functionality.

It’s important to understand that Boot Camp is not actually a program that runs Windows, in fact, it’s a set of utilities to ease the process of installing Windows directly on your Mac on a separate partition. Boot Camp splits your hard disk into two volumes, one for your existing installation of OS X and one for Windows. After you’ve installed Boot Camp and Windows, you’ll be able to choose which Operating system you prefer to start your Mac in.

The primary advantage to Boot Camp over other solutions is that when you run Windows under it, Windows has full access to the resources of your system. So, Boot Camp is the ideal solution to playing games or running 3D intensive software like CAD, where your hardware will be taxed.

The primary disadvantage to Boot Camp is that you can only run Windows software when you start your computer in Windows. With other solutions, you can actually run Windows software simultaneously within Mac OS X. Another potential pitfall is that within Windows, you can not access your Mac OS X partition without a 3rd party program like MacDrive. Additionally, if you choose to format your Windows partition in NTFS (the default for Windows XP and Vista), your Windows partition will be read only under Mac OS X. Again, you can get around this limitation by either choosing to use FAT32 as the filesystem for your Windows partition or by using a program like Paragon NTFS for Mac or MacFUSE & NTFS 3G(which can be cumbersome to configure).

Important note: Boot Camp is only compatible with specific editions of Windows. Those include:

* Windows XP Home or Professional with SP2/3 integrated.
* Windows Vista (any non-upgrade version).
* 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").


Virtualization products (Parallels Desktop, VMWare Fusion and VirtualBox)

The most flexible solution for running Windows on a Mac is probably a Virtualization product. Virtualization tools work by creating what is known as a “Virtual Machine” (or VM for short). In the past, virtualization techniques were used to emulate other types of hardware on the Mac, but since Apple switched over to Intel processors, this CPU emulation is no longer necessary. Virtualization products now run Windows and other OSes as quickly as they would run in the real world.

While all three of these products bring their own unique features to the table, each of them use the same underlying technology to run Windows. While this FAQ won’t focus on the relative merits of any one of the three products, it will attempt to explain the fundamental differences between the VM approach and the others.

As mentioned previously, running Windows is a VM allows for quite a bit of flexibility. Not only will you be able to run Windows within a window on your Mac desktop, but you can also have it run in “full screen” mode. In addition, most of the VM products have support for the following features:

* “Coherence” or “Unity” modes - Windows applications appear to run on your Mac desktop, and you have the ability to pick and choose whether to use Windows or Mac applications to open your data files.
* Seamless file transfers between your VM and your Mac desktops. Drag and drop files between the two environments.
* Shared Internet/network access. Access your VM as though it were a physical machine on your network.
* Dynamic virtual hard disk - your hard drive in Windows is really just a file sitting on your Mac’s hard drive. As such, it can be dynamically resized to suite your needs.
* Access your Boot Camp partition in a VM. If you already have Windows installed via Boot Camp, you can make use of that partition within a VM.
* Linux and alternative OS support - easily put most of the popular Linux distros in a VM. Also, older versions of Windows (prior to XP) will run just fine in a VM, whereas they are unsupported on Boot Camp.

The primary disadvantage to VMs is that they don’t allow Windows to access your hardware directly, meaning that although Fusion and Parallels have some limited 3D support, you’ll find that most intensive games either won’t run, or run too slowly to be playable. With that said, most any application that doesn’t require a heavy duty video card will run just fine.

Hi there,

I am new to Mac.

Bought my wife a:

Macbook,
Mac Os X
Version
10.6.8
processor 2.4ghz Intel Core 2 duo
Memory 2gb 1067 Mhz DDR3
Snow Leopard (I think ???).

She wants Microsoft Office on it.

I ve seen on On Amazon,
Office for Mac 2011, Home & Student (Family Pack - 3 Users, 3 Macs) £87.60p free P&P
Platform: Mac OS X Intel

I take it, the Intel on Platform Mac OS X Intel means the processor.

Can I just clarify, that a) this software is fine for our macbook, and b) once I load software onto the mac, thats it, we dont need to worry about learning what boot camp is etc etc, we just click on word and up it pops, likewise for excell and or powerpoint ???

Thanks in advance for your help.
ps
as you can read from this email, please spell out replys in layman terms with simple instructions.

Many many thanks for your time

Best

Jon

 

[alwaysMac]

Hello guys, not sure if this is the right forum for me to understand more on iMac Finders vs Windows Explorer? For those familiar with Windows Explorer, you will notice that the directory/file viewer can be set to also list system and hidden files, is there a similar feature in iMac Finder? I am asking this because I was trying to backup my Garmin GPS files onto the iMac and I realised that the system files (under a folder .system/) are hidden.

[After note: managed to find the answer to the above, which is:

Use Terminal and copy/paste following:
- defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder
and to revert to default setting, use following:
- defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE; killall Finder]

Another question I have is what is the best solution to run some Windows based application in iMac - not games related that draws plenty of resources but a map editing software (Mapedit) and occasionally, to run exe files to extract map upgrade files for copying into the GPS?

Many thanks for your assistance.

 

[MikeV99]

Another question I have is what is the best solution to run some Windows based application in iMac - not games related that draws plenty of resources but a map editing software (Mapedit) and occasionally, to run exe files to extract map upgrade files for copying into the GPS?

Many thanks for your assistance.

I installed Parallels 7 on my MacBook Air and put the Windows XP system virtual machine on an external drive. I run Money Sunset, ListPro, IE, and so on it. Very slick solution for me.

HTHs,

Mike

 

[alwaysMac]

I installed Parallels 7 on my MacBook Air and put the Windows XP system virtual machine on an external drive.....
Mike

Thanks Mike for the quick response. Will probably do the same. Presently I have an external drive hooked up mainly for Time Machine backup, so I guess the XP can be installed there?

 

[MikeV99]

Correct. I use an external 1TB USB drive for both. I only connect it when I want to back up or use Windows.

 

[alwaysMac]

Mike, understand that we have to install Parallels in iMac first and system will prompt for the Windows XP system disk. I supposed the Mac will pick up only the necessary XP files during this stage to run Windows applications and the complete XP will not be installed?

Windows has overtime, introduced patches/updates for its OS etc and in this instance, do we have to download all these patches when installing the Parallels/Windows XP or these updates are of no significance for our purpose?

Thank you.

 

[MikeV99]

Parallels is the control program for any of the virtual machines you may wish to install. You can install any numbers of OSs, each in its own virtual machine. After installing Parellels I told it I wanted to install a Windows XP virtual machine on an external hard disk. It set up the virtual machine then asked for the source for the XP system (I used a CD) and then did a complete install of Windows XP.

Although the Windows system wants to go out and get updates, I do not get them. Since I am using it only periodically for a couple of apps and rarely connect to the Internet it is not worth the effort.

Regards,

Mike

 

[alwaysMac]

Thank you, Mike. Appreciate your clarifications.

Just to understand a little more on those hidden files (names with a dot in front like .Spotlight-V100 .fseventsd etc) that Mac created in folders, will these still be created when working on files or applications under the Windows environment?

I need to know this as I understand those Mac created and hidden files may interfere with the proper operation of certain GPS units when updating map files to the GPS under Mac environment.

 

[MikeV99]

Not sure about the dot files. You can download and try it out. That might be something to test.

 

[Sue de Nimes]

OK - I will be installing Bootcamp (for games) and also some sort of virtualisation programme.

I need to have Internet Explorer for a webapp I need for work. Am I better with Parallels or VMWare Fusion for this?

 

[cwa107]

OK - I will be installing Bootcamp (for games) and also some sort of virtualisation programme.

I need to have Internet Explorer for a webapp I need for work. Am I better with Parallels or VMWare Fusion for this?

It really comes down to personal preference. Being an IT professional who works with VMWare products in a large scale enterprise environment, I tend to favor VMWare Fusion. I did use Parallels before Fusion was released and it was OK, though not quite as stable. I've heard it's improved over time.

Of course, being that they both have free trials, you can just download both and see which one you prefer.

 

[SammySlim]

If all you using is Explorer, then try Sun's Virtual Box instead of either VM Ware or Parallels. It is free - and for just using the MS browser, probably the simplest thing to do. The VB VMs are very stable and work great. Definitely save the $$ if that's your plan. Just my two cents. No knock on the others - I have used both myself.

Cheers

 

[Sue de Nimes]

It really comes down to personal preference. Being an IT professional who works with VMWare products in a large scale enterprise environment, I tend to favor VMWare Fusion. I did use Parallels before Fusion was released and it was OK, though not quite as stable. I've heard it's improved over time.

Of course, being that they both have free trials, you can just download both and see which one you prefer.

Cheers - thanks.

Just one final thing. Will OSX write to a Windows Samba share?

 

[cwa107]

Cheers - thanks.

Just one final thing. Will OSX write to a Windows Samba share?

Yes, OS X has Samba built in, and will write to a Windows share, using SMB.

 

[Sue de Nimes]

Brilliant!

I think it is looking like Mac time when the new iMacs come out.

Assuming they don't get changed into something weird.

 

[muen7524]

Installing Windows XP Pro. Svc Pk 2 on iMac

The comments seem really informing. HOWEVER, I am really a newbie. Too many choices for me to understand.

All I want to do is install Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 on my intel iMac desktop. I need for the solution to be relatively simple. I would prefer to be able to switch back and forth. I will only be using Windows for office applications and hopefully picture editing in Picasa 3.

Any hope? Thx

 

[MikeV99]

I use Parallel 7 on my laptop & desktop. Very straightforward and easy to use. I run Money 2008 and store my database on Dropbox. My neighbor does the same and he is not a computer expert.

 

[chscag]

All I want to do is install Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 on my intel iMac desktop. I need for the solution to be relatively simple. I would prefer to be able to switch back and forth. I will only be using Windows for office applications and hopefully picture editing in Picasa 3.

A better solution is to run the Mac version of both. Since Picasa (Mac and Windows version) is free you've nothing to lose by trying it. Office 2011 for the Mac is fully compatible with Office for Windows. You can buy the Mac version of Office 2011 (Home and Student single install) for as little as $90 from several web retailers.