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greatwall9528

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2013
29
0
My Macbook Air is the 2013 standard version with 1.3 GHz i5,4 GB RAM.

I just can't stand the x64 version windows7 ,it's huge and badly in compatibility.For there are not so many 64 bit software,so it is not worthy to run a Windows7 x64.

I wanna to run a Windows7 x86 in virtual machine,but I don't know if it can run fluently.Anyone can tell me?
 

m98custom1212

macrumors 6502
Jul 20, 2013
287
1
Toledo, Ohio
My Macbook Air is the 2013 standard version with 1.3 GHz i5,4 GB RAM.

I just can't stand the x64 version windows7 ,it's huge and badly in compatibility.For there are not so many 64 bit software,so it is not worthy to run a Windows7 x64.

I wanna to run a Windows7 x86 in virtual machine,but I don't know if it can run fluently.Anyone can tell me?

What lol?

I have windows 8 64bit and you can install/use pretty much anything 64 bit or not
 

dyn

macrumors 68030
Aug 8, 2009
2,708
388
.nl
You want to run x64 bit operating systems since they can use all the features in modern cpus. That would also mean features that make certain things (like multimedia) faster. You can run 32 bit software without problems on x64 bit Windows, OS X and Linux versions and many do exactly that. The only problem will be drivers: you need to have 64 bit drivers. Some old hardware don't have these and that might be problematic. Only things you can do is run 32 bit OS or buy replacement hardware that does have 64 bit drivers.

In terms of stability, hugeness and compatibility you are absolutely wrong when it comes to Windows 7. It is a stable OS that is compatible with a lot of software and hardware. Hugeness is debatable: some consider Windows to always be huge. It doesn't really matter if you use the 64 or 32 bit version. Drivers are the only real problem.

Windows 7 32 bit will run less fluently as a virtual machine than it's 64 bit version. You need a special 32 bit hypervisor and not all of the available virtualisation software have this. However, the 64 bit is always good. One of the requires of 64 bit is the use of VT-x which is hardware supported virtualisation. This is faster in most cases (only VMware has a good 32 bit hypervisor that is able to run as fast or even faster than 64 bit). However, your MBA will run both systems just fine when virtualised (boot camp only supports the 64 bit version on the 2013 MBA apparently).
 

Dsteller

macrumors member
Jun 24, 2013
46
0
Everything will run really fluently no matter what bit system you have. One thing to keep an eye out for is since you got the standard version with 128gb (i suppose) is the with vm's they may require a large percent of your storage. For instance, if you load 30gb on the the vm's partition, you will only have 70 left on OSX.
 

ZBoater

macrumors G3
Jul 2, 2007
8,497
1,322
Sunny Florida
Yea IDK what this guy is talking about. I fix computers for a living have never had issues with 64 bit os since XP. Why would anyone not run 64-bit

In all fairness, some applications behaved oddly in XP 64 bit. MS Office and IE being two of them oddly enough. Windows 7 did a great job in fixing a lot of those issues, but some poorly written 32 bit applications did not do so well in 64 bit Windows, and IE 64 bit is still a scorned browser. Also, many older games disliked Windows 64 bit. Most newer games (in the last 3-4 years) do fine.
 

fenderbass146

macrumors 65816
Mar 11, 2009
1,449
2,490
Northwest Indiana
In all fairness, some applications behaved oddly in XP 64 bit. MS Office and IE being two of them oddly enough. Windows 7 did a great job in fixing a lot of those issues, but some poorly written 32 bit applications did not do so well in 64 bit Windows, and IE 64 bit is still a scorned browser. Also, many older games disliked Windows 64 bit. Most newer games (in the last 3-4 years) do fine.


I worded that wrong. I meant to say everything after xp. So vista and newer does not have issues with 64 bit. Xp 64-bit was garbage
 

AXs

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2009
515
2
Yes and No.

Yes it will run 64bit Windows flawlessly.

No you shouldn't run Windows on a Mac because it is blasphemy :p
 

ItHurtsWhenIP

macrumors 6502
Aug 20, 2013
409
28
'Merica!
No you shouldn't run Windows on a Mac because it is blasphemy :p

LOL, I admit to having Windows 8 for any just in case situation where it's needed, but I also very very rarely boot into it. BUT! I think it runs better on a Mac than a PC (even with trackpad "issues"). :eek:

:cool:
 

NewbieCanada

macrumors 68030
Oct 9, 2007
2,574
37
Windows 7-32 Windows Experience Index, running on Parallels 8, Mavericks DP7, Macibook 13 2013 i5. Highest score possible under Windows 7 is 7.9
 

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