What is the best way to have windows installed on my MBP?

[listen2justin]

I would like to have the windows OS installed on my MBP. idk if it's important or if it makes a difference but i have a 15" with 2.66 ghz. i've seen different options in this forum as far as what's available (vmware, parallels, bootcamp, etc.). switching back and forth or running both at the same time between OS' is very preferable. can anyone using any of these programs school me on the differences, pros/cons, benefits of using one over the other, or straight up give me suggestions on which one to use? i'm tryin to google the differences but it's not so helpful so i figured i'd go straight to the pros for advice. thanks in advance for everyone's help!!!

[MacDawg]

Start by reading this:
Booting Windows on a Mac (http://guides.macrumors.com/Booting_Windows_on_the_Mac)

All of the solutions require you to have your own copy of Windows
Boot Camp requires XP SP 2 or higher (or Vista or Windows 7)

Boot Camp - you must reboot into Windows.
You use Boot Camp Assistant to partition your drive and install Windows so you can boot natively into Windows
This will give you the best performance and if you will be using games it is the preferred method

Virtualization - Fusion (http://store.vmware.com/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayPage&Env=BASE&Locale=en_US&SiteID=vmware&id=ProductDetailsPage&productID=82532200&urlcode=PaidSearch_Google_AMER-US_AMER-US_VDI_Fusion_Brand_Search_WWW_fusion&src=PaidSearch_Google_AMER-US_AMER-US_VDI_Fusion_Brand_Search_WWW_fusion&ossrc=PaidSearch_Google_AMER-US_AMER-US_VDI_Fusion_Brand_Search_WWW_fusion&CMP=KNC-google&HBX_OU=50&HBX_PK=WWW_fusion&gclid=COGg4c_Um5sCFRKIxwodbQJusw) or Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/landingpage/dskd10_5/?source=google_us&gclid=CODyhODUm5sCFRKIxwodbQJusw) or Virtual Box (free) (http://www.virtualbox.org/)
These allow you to run Windows in a separate window within OS X at the same time.
This will give you good performance for everything but games or highly demanding software.
If you are using Office or other similar type products it will be fine.

NTFS-3G (http://www.ntfs-3g.org/) allows OS X to read/write NTFS formatted drives (Windows)

MacDrive (http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/) allows Windows to read/write HFS+ formatted drives (OSX)

Woof, Woof - Dawg http://homepage.mac.com/k.j.vinson/pawprint.gif

[LtRammstein]

There's a program that allows Windows to read HFS drives:

HFSExplorer

It's a bit cumbersome, but overall it's not to bad if you need to transfer a few files.

[arjen92]

I have windows installed in bootcamp. When I need the power I use bootcamp (games and such), when I just need to see something quick which requires windows I use VMWare to open windows from my hd.

[Zerozal]

If it's important that you be able to run both OSs simultaniously and switch back and forth, than your choices are between VMWare Fusion and Parallels. With BootCamp, you have to reboot between the two OSs.

It seems it's pretty much a Coke vs Pepsi or Ford vs Chevy thing between VMWare Fusion and Parallels. After doing my research, I decided on Fusion and have been very happy with it. You could also check out Sun's VirtualBox, which is free open source. I have no experience with it, so I can't tell you how it compares with Fusion or Parallels, although I believe that the free version of VirtualBox doesn't support USB devices, which is a deal killer for me. YMMV.

[VPrime]

If it's important that you be able to run both OSs simultaniously and switch back and forth, than your choices are between VMWare Fusion and Parallels. With BootCamp, you have to reboot between the two OSs.

You can always run your bootcamp partition in vmware or parallels... This is probably the best feature of both softwares :cool:

[Tarek]

Boot Camp is the best way. All applications that let you run Windows simultaneously "virtually" are not good. Slow and bad graphics.

[Forum-User]

I use VirtualBox v3.0 on a MBP. It is free. I configured it to read my Downloads directory as a shared drive. It supports USB. It gets updated fairly often. After installing Windows, I had to install the guest client (VirtualBox Tools?), so I can scale the Windows screen to any size and so it can automatically handle the keyboard and mouse inputs similar to any normal program window.