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Looks Like I Need MS Windows 7 on 2011 iMac

H

harcosparky

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jan 14, 2008
2,055
2
Ok so I have some expensive gear coming in that will be computer controlled and the manufacturer does not support OSX, they only provide drivers/software for Windows 7.

I have the current 27" iMac with 3.4Ghz i7 CPU and 16GB RAM

What will I need to acquire to install Win 7 and what is the most painless method.

I am not against backing up the computer manually and completely reinstalling both OSX and Win 7.

THANKS


My other option is to buy a cheap Win 7 system, but who wants all that extra hardware around.
 
Depends on whether you need to natively boot or not

For me, Bootcamp was more trouble than it was worth since I never natively booted

I use VMware Fusion + Win7 on my MBA with excellent results to run proprietary software at my job
 
MacDawg said:
Depends on whether you need to natively boot or not

For me, Bootcamp was more trouble than it was worth since I never natively booted

I use VMware Fusion + Win7 on my MBA with excellent results to run proprietary software at my job
Click to expand...

I'll have to think on that one.

Running in VMware and a window on OSX sounds good, but there will be a lot going on in that window.

I'll have to post the question about native boot or not around some forums related to the gear in question.

It is communications gear from a company called ICOM, the provide hardware drivers for Win 7 but third party vendors will be providing some of the operation software for various communications modes.
 
You can get a virtualization software (Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion, there is also the free option of VirtualBox) or you can natively install Windows via bootcamp. Both takes only few minutes (the time of Windows installation). The Bootcamp will result in better performance, but you will have to reboot the machine to windows each time you need it. The virtualization method will result in somehow lower performance, but you can run OS X and windows at the same time.

Just get a demo of Parallels and try it out, I am sure you will find it acceptable for your needs.
 
harcosparky said:
I'll have to think on that one.

Running in VMware and a window on OSX sounds good, but there will be a lot going on in that window.

I'll have to post the question about native boot or not around some forums related to the gear in question.

It is communications gear from a company called ICOM, the provide hardware drivers for Win 7 but third party vendors will be providing some of the operation software for various communications modes.
Click to expand...

Both Fusion and Parallels will run in a mode that uses your whole display in a way that's functionally identical to booting into Windows. The advantage is that you can go back-and-forth between OS X and Windows seamlessly without rebooting. Of course, you'll have to be certain that your gear will run properly in this way. As well, the vendor may not support this configuration, even if it works technically.
 
I had my MBA dual boot with Bootcamp.

I didn't notice any real pain doin it. The critical thing to know is make sure you have all drivers updated and good to go. I had no performance issues.

What you will need to do it via Bootcamp is a full Windows 7 OS software. There are several helpful links in MacRumours on how to do it.
 
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