WINDOWS 7 on iMac

Having windows installed won't intrinsically slow down the machine. Windows itself may slow down if you run the machine for years, but that is a separate issue.

Boot camp is free, but also means that you have to choose to boot either into windows, or into OSX, one at a time, to the exclusion of any software running in the other environment. If this works for you, the software you need to run in windows is only occasional, and you don't need to move back and forward between programs in OSX and the windows environment, then this may work for you.

Personally, I have found it better to use parallels, as this allows you to install windows in a virtual machine inside OSX, so you can then run the windows specific programs side by side with the other OSX programs you will be using day to day.

It very much comes down to how you will be using the machine. Personally I would find continually rebooting to change from windows to OSX really annoying, and would end up in one environment or the other 99% of the time. If that ended up being windows, well you may as well buy a windows pc.

YMMV as ever

taniak said:

Thank you!

So Parallels does not create partitions on the hard drive the way Bootcamp does?

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Not in the way Bootcamp does no. I don't understand exactly how parallels allocates space (someone cleverer than me may come along to clear that up), but with parallels the two (or more!) operating systems run along side each other in the same environment, OSX.

For using your iMac day to day, I strongly suggest you consider this option as it means you are doing everything through OS X, which is why you bought the iMac in the first place

Windows in Bootcamp runs better but if you only need to use it for one specific software, then just use a virtual machine to run it.
And Windows slowing down your computer is nonsense.

taniak said:

Exactly!

I am just concerned about performance once I install windows...
That's what I hear from people that have both systems.

Thank you for your answer!

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I have two iMacs running windows through parallels at work and both work fine. They have both got 8gb ram, which I think helps when using parallels.

The machines aren't slowed down by it, but windows is a pain.

taniak said:

Exactly!



I am just concerned about performance once I install windows...

That's what I hear from people that have both systems.



Thank you for your answer!

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The answer is no.

Installing Windows will have absolutely no effect on Mac OS X. Windows might start to run slowly, but it cannot and will not affect OS X. That goes for BootCamp or Parallels.

I would also recommend using Parallels unless the program you need to use is resource intensive.

gregvet said:

Not in the way Bootcamp does no. I don't understand exactly how parallels allocates space (someone cleverer than me may come along to clear that up), but with parallels the two (or more!) operating systems run along side each other in the same environment, OSX.

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With Parallels and VMWare Fusion, the virtual computers are just files to OS X. You can freely move or copy them between multiple hard drives. It's quite convenient.

Parallels or VMWare Fusion are the optimal solutions for using Windows software on occasion. It's easy to get things between Windows and OS X and there's no downtime to switch between either operating system, because you have access to both at the same time. While I'm sure there are some high-end professional programs that benefit from it, Bootcamp is largely used by people who want to use their Macs to play video games, as many games are Windows-only and game performance under Parallels and VMWare Fusion isn't as good as running Windows in a non-virtualized form.

Ledgem said:

With Parallels and VMWare Fusion, the virtual computers are just files to OS X. You can freely move or copy them between multiple hard drives. It's quite convenient.

Parallels or VMWare Fusion are the optimal solutions for using Windows software on occasion. It's easy to get things between Windows and OS X and there's no downtime to switch between either operating system, because you have access to both at the same time. While I'm sure there are some high-end professional programs that benefit from it, Bootcamp is largely used by people who want to use their Macs to play video games, as many games are Windows-only and game performance under Parallels and VMWare Fusion isn't as good as running Windows in a non-virtualized form.

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Yes this is what i've seen. Although with that said Parallels is not too shabby depending on how high end the games you plan to run are and the machine configuration in question. The following might be interesting for anyone who may be curious about gaming through Parallels.

http://www.controlcommandescape.com/articles/parallels-10-benchmarks/

MindsEye said:

Yes this is what i've seen. Although with that said Parallels is not too shabby depending on how high end the games you plan to run are and the machine configuration in question. The following might be interesting for anyone who may be curious about gaming through Parallels.

http://www.controlcommandescape.com/articles/parallels-10-benchmarks/

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Thank you for mentioning this! Indeed, I do a fair amount of gaming in Parallels now, and I probably should have mentioned that it was a possibility. It's probably the primary reason I run Parallels these days, actually. If Bootcamp could be made to run off of an external drive then I'd probably go that route, but otherwise I don't have the internal storage capacity to dual-boot. (I've heard it's possible with Thunderbolt-connected drives, but the cost of Thunderbolt enclosures is still too high for me to justify it for gaming.)

Ledgem said:

Thank you for mentioning this! Indeed, I do a fair amount of gaming in Parallels now, and I probably should have mentioned that it was a possibility. It's probably the primary reason I run Parallels these days, actually. If Bootcamp could be made to run off of an external drive then I'd probably go that route, but otherwise I don't have the internal storage capacity to dual-boot. (I've heard it's possible with Thunderbolt-connected drives, but the cost of Thunderbolt enclosures is still too high for me to justify it for gaming.)

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Bootcamp will always reign supreme for gaming but it will be interesting to see what Parallels 11 brings to the table if anything at all in regards to gaming performance. Vmware upped the ante a bit by matching the 2GB vRAM so i hope Parallels can raise the stakes a little further with atleast DirectX11 support.

One thing i know i'm gonna love with gaming through parallels is it finally gives me the ability to game full screen on one monitor while at the same time browse the web on another. Also i assume the suspend function may come in handy.

I'm a Parallels user. I've got Windows 7 Ultimate as well as Windows H8.1 in my Parallels install.

I've got the Windows installs configured to 2 processor cores (I never run both installs concurrently) as well as 8 GB of memory . . . . on a late 2012 iMac with a quad core i7 3.4GHz and 32GB of memory.

If I have to run Windows on my mac, I couldn't be happier than I am with this setup.

I would personally recommend VMware Fusion over Parallels. The annual upgrade game gets really old with Parallels. It's a good software but they should seriously just call it for what it is... an annul subscription program.

I gave up on virtualization software all together and just boot into Windows 7 that has been installed using Boot Camp. The iMac boots very quickly and I don't really see any issues. I use Windows 7 mostly to play games.

Have you tried Wine? Maybe you can run the Windows app directly inside OSX if it's compatible with Wine.