Installing Windows on a Mac
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2005
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From: Up there somewhere
Installing Windows on a Mac
Hi All,
I wonder if anyone can help I have recently purchased an Intel based Mac I am told that one can have say Windows Home Edition installed on a partition via a program called Bootcamp.
The reason I am thinking of this is that I have a few applications that only support Windows.
Has anyone any practical experience of doing this and could recommend or otherwise on this one.
I wonder if anyone can help I have recently purchased an Intel based Mac I am told that one can have say Windows Home Edition installed on a partition via a program called Bootcamp.
The reason I am thinking of this is that I have a few applications that only support Windows.
Has anyone any practical experience of doing this and could recommend or otherwise on this one.
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 794
Likes: 8
From: Wiltshire
My son has used it for a while - says no problem! http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
Joined: Jan 1997
Posts: 7,736
Likes: 1
From: UK
Choice time
bootcamp works, it's free and supports all the goodies like accelerated video for furtive windows gaming. Downside? Well, you have to shellout/reboot into Windows.
However, 80 bucks gets you Parallels Desktop for Mac: a system designed from the outset to upset tall sandwich
You get multi platform support while still in the mac operating system. If you've got the originals you can run every flavour of Windows including Vista, linux distros, BSD, Solaris, MS-Dos 6.22 even OS2
seamlessly.
Click on an application and it opens natively right there on your Mac desktop. Doesn't suport accel video yet though so said furtive gaming is out till next upgrade.
Saving on frigging about makes option 2 the one for the folks in my situation. We run our Boeing BLT and Jepp software faster on the Macs than the extremely expensive native Windows tablets on the flightdeck. Perfect for us but your mileage may vary.
Rob
bootcamp works, it's free and supports all the goodies like accelerated video for furtive windows gaming. Downside? Well, you have to shellout/reboot into Windows.
However, 80 bucks gets you Parallels Desktop for Mac: a system designed from the outset to upset tall sandwich
You get multi platform support while still in the mac operating system. If you've got the originals you can run every flavour of Windows including Vista, linux distros, BSD, Solaris, MS-Dos 6.22 even OS2
seamlessly.Click on an application and it opens natively right there on your Mac desktop. Doesn't suport accel video yet though so said furtive gaming is out till next upgrade.
Saving on frigging about makes option 2 the one for the folks in my situation. We run our Boeing BLT and Jepp software faster on the Macs than the extremely expensive native Windows tablets on the flightdeck. Perfect for us but your mileage may vary.
Rob
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 169
Likes: 3
From: Auckland, NZ
I use Bootcamp but have used Parallels on a mates machine.
I personally prefer Bootcamp (even with the faffing about of rebooting etc). The reason for this is that I don't have anything in Windows that I regularly need to run so can use Mac most of the time and Bootcamp is slightly more stable and faster than Parallels. PC gaming for example pretty much need Bootcamp.
My mate prefers Parallels as most of the time he has various programs that only work in Windows which he needs to use daily and alongside the Mac software that he uses. This means that rebooting etc is too much hassle for him.
Incidentally he also has Bootcamp installed for the times when he wants to run Windows natively for the extra speed and stability (again mainly gaming).
I personally prefer Bootcamp (even with the faffing about of rebooting etc). The reason for this is that I don't have anything in Windows that I regularly need to run so can use Mac most of the time and Bootcamp is slightly more stable and faster than Parallels. PC gaming for example pretty much need Bootcamp.
My mate prefers Parallels as most of the time he has various programs that only work in Windows which he needs to use daily and alongside the Mac software that he uses. This means that rebooting etc is too much hassle for him.
Incidentally he also has Bootcamp installed for the times when he wants to run Windows natively for the extra speed and stability (again mainly gaming).
PersonalTitle to help support PPRuNe against legal bullying.
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 134
Likes: 0
From: France
Careful Mr PPrune Towers....I'm still out here, and still chipping away at the chip on my shoulder :-)
Interesting that comments like "slightly more STABLE and faster than Parallels" and "when he wants to run Windows natively for the extra speed and STABILITY"....suggests, like I have experienced, that trying to work with Mac-heads using this Win emulator is not all sunshine and roses.
For example, one of the many many times when Safari was found to be so cr@p that they had to use IE in this Win emulator they faced a(nother) funny problem.....I asked why they kept the emulator window (and hence the IE window inside it) only partially filling the Mac screen, they told me that the emulator could not (or does not) work properly when used in full screen mode. And don't try blaming the Web Application in question, or IE, as both worked fine on a genuine Win platform.
There they were on their wacky Mac platform using the horizontal and vertical scroll bars like crazy every time they needed to type something in or get to a button that was at the bottom of a web page.
And to add insult to injury, I just bought a LaCie External Hard Drive, with a bloody MAC FILESYSTEM preinstalled on it, you can imagine my joy at that moment
They are out to get me.....
Interesting that comments like "slightly more STABLE and faster than Parallels" and "when he wants to run Windows natively for the extra speed and STABILITY"....suggests, like I have experienced, that trying to work with Mac-heads using this Win emulator is not all sunshine and roses.
For example, one of the many many times when Safari was found to be so cr@p that they had to use IE in this Win emulator they faced a(nother) funny problem.....I asked why they kept the emulator window (and hence the IE window inside it) only partially filling the Mac screen, they told me that the emulator could not (or does not) work properly when used in full screen mode. And don't try blaming the Web Application in question, or IE, as both worked fine on a genuine Win platform.
There they were on their wacky Mac platform using the horizontal and vertical scroll bars like crazy every time they needed to type something in or get to a button that was at the bottom of a web page.
And to add insult to injury, I just bought a LaCie External Hard Drive, with a bloody MAC FILESYSTEM preinstalled on it, you can imagine my joy at that moment
They are out to get me.....
Just Binos
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 1,397
Likes: 0
From: Mackay, Australia
The sellers of Parallels are not too upfront about the licensing agreement. Can anyone confirm that I will have to buy a copy for each Mac I want to install it on, or is one copy good for more than one computer?
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 15
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From: Mars
f you've got the originals you can run every flavour of Windows including Vista
I've used boot camp for about 12 months.
Its great BUT it is technically still a BETA, a very good, stable and well presented beta but a beta non the less. Thus it will invalidate your warrenty and is "unsupported" by Apple. So melt your brand new macbook and Apple will wash their hands of you.
The full release wont come till the next update to OSX later in the year.
Ramasseur des pommes
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 823
Likes: 19
From: UK
tallsandwich
That chip on your shoulder is a stubborn old thing.
It is complete sophistry that IE in Parallels doesn't work in "full screen" properly. I have it running in full screen now without any trouble. A new feature called "Coherence" enables switching between Mac and applications within XP seemlessly, too. I have no problems with scrolling in Parallels either, as it accepts the two-finger scrolling (and right-clicking) standard on Mac laptops, something which no PC laptop can do, as far as I'm aware.
I was sorry to hear about your tribulations with the Mac-formatted LaCie drive. It's a shame that PCs can't read Mac-formatted drives, yet Macs can easily (and without drivers) read PC-formatted drives...
Applemacster
That chip on your shoulder is a stubborn old thing.
It is complete sophistry that IE in Parallels doesn't work in "full screen" properly. I have it running in full screen now without any trouble. A new feature called "Coherence" enables switching between Mac and applications within XP seemlessly, too. I have no problems with scrolling in Parallels either, as it accepts the two-finger scrolling (and right-clicking) standard on Mac laptops, something which no PC laptop can do, as far as I'm aware.
I was sorry to hear about your tribulations with the Mac-formatted LaCie drive. It's a shame that PCs can't read Mac-formatted drives, yet Macs can easily (and without drivers) read PC-formatted drives...
Applemacster
Plastic PPRuNer
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 1,902
Likes: 0
From: Rochechouart, France
"...Macs can easily (and without drivers) read PC-formatted drives..."
Every other OS can read and (now) write MS's formats (even though they're closely guarded state secrets) but MS stubbornly maintain that Ext3/3, Reiser, HFS/+, JFS, ZFS etc., etc., just aren't real and won't provide any means of reading 'em.
Typical.....
(Yes, I know there ARE ways, but not sanctioned or written by MS)
Every other OS can read and (now) write MS's formats (even though they're closely guarded state secrets) but MS stubbornly maintain that Ext3/3, Reiser, HFS/+, JFS, ZFS etc., etc., just aren't real and won't provide any means of reading 'em.
Typical.....
(Yes, I know there ARE ways, but not sanctioned or written by MS)
