Best way to run Windows??

[jamin00]

New to this Mac.

Boot camp or Parallels?


Which is the better way to run it as I do need Windows for some work stuff.

[simsaladimbamba]

It depends on what applications you use. If it is something like MS Office, Parallels will suffice. But if it is CPU and GPU intensive, Boot Camp is better.

Booting Windows on the Mac

[Dweez]

Have you considered virtualization?

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by Dweez

Have you considered virtualization?

Seems that way, since the OP mentioned Parallels (Desktop).

[MacDawg]

There is no best way, there is a best way for you
And only you can determine that

If you Bootcamp, you get the advantage of native speed, but you have to reboot
However, you can use your Bootcamp partition with Parallels or Fusion

If you run Parallels/Fusion you can run it at the same time as your OSX, copy/paste, etc

For me, there were no advantages to the headaches of a Bootcamp install, dual registration of Windows, rebooting, etc.

I chose to run Fusion and it is excellent for everything I do (MS Office, and some proprietary work stuffs)

If you game... Bootcamp
Most everything else (unless high end stuffs, Photoshop in Windows, or video editing), then virtual is usually enough

[balamw]

Originally Posted by MacDawg

However, you can use your Bootcamp partition with Parallels or Fusion

This. It's not (necessarily) either/or. I use a BC partition in a VM on all my Macs except for the MBA. You do lose a few advantages of a VM only solution w.r.t. sleep/hibernate/suspend modes. (This is made up for by the ability to run at native speed).

NOTE: In order to run a VM smoothly you want as much RAM as you can. If possible have 8GB of RAM and allocate 4 GB to the VM.

B

[jamin00]

The programs I need to run on Windows are not going to take many resources so perhaps for convenience a paralell option will be better suited for me.

With this option I take it, its a case of having it on or off and not running both all the time?


So with this in mind, do you have any links to what I need to buy. App download would be great

[NewbieCanada]

Originally Posted by jamin00

New to this Mac.

Boot camp or Parallels?


Which is the better way to run it as I do need Windows for some work stuff.

If you have a Windows PC sitting around unused, or your company will allow you to use Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (free) over a VPN to access your work PC, you might not need to run Windows on your Mac at all.

----------

Originally Posted by jamin00

The programs I need to run on Windows are not going to take many resources so perhaps for convenience a paralell option will be better suited for me.

With this option I take it, its a case of having it on or off and not running both all the time?


So with this in mind, do you have any links to what I need to buy. App download would be great

Note that Parallels requires a licensed copy of Windows to be installed on your Mac, even if you don't use Bootcamp.

[Dweez]

Originally Posted by simsaladimbamba

Seems that way, since the OP mentioned Parallels (Desktop).

Dang - another example of my male pattern blindness. Thanks Sim.

[simsaladimbamba]

Originally Posted by jamin00

So with this in mind, do you have any links to what I need to buy. App download would be great

According to the link in post #2, you need a Windows license and OS and a Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion license and software, all of these can be downloaded and bought via the companies websites.

[balamw]

Originally Posted by jamin00

The programs I need to run on Windows are not going to take many resources so perhaps for convenience a paralell option will be better suited for me.

Is this a long term thing or just a one-off?

You could also consider the free virtualbox as a VM solution. https://www.virtualbox.org/

You need to supply a Windows license. Do you have one or can you get your work to supply one.

B

[jamin00]

I can get the license thats fine and it is a permanent thing.

[murphychris]

Virtual Box is worth a shot, since it's free. I found it slightly confusing at first that there's the application to install, but a separate Extensions Pack. The Extensions Pack is easy enough to download (it's cross platform) but installing it was a WTF moment. I ended up dragging and dropping it onto the running VirtualBox icon in the dock. Next, after installing Windows, you'll want to mount the Guest Additions CD/DVD image, which is a menu option. In the VM you'll suddenly have a CD mount, and in theory it should autorun a script to install the guest additions for Windows. This lets you do things like sharing folders, USB devices, and copy-paste. Pretty sure it also installs a video driver, which means you can enable 3D acceleration for this VM, and it will use your Mac's video card for accelerated Windows video.

All of the VM apps support dynamic disk images, that grow as you use them. So create a disk image with the *maximum* size you would ever want it to get (something slightly less than the disk size minus your Mac stuff at the moment), and then it'll grow as needed.