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5683565

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Original poster
Feb 18, 2006
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Hong Kong
Hey all,

I have Vista RC1 installed on my iMac using Boot Camp. Would I easily be able to have Windows XP on my mac partition and use Parallels for lite usage? I have never installed Parallels, so I am not sure how it works exactly, i.e. does it need its own partition or does it run off the mac one.
 

sushi

Moderator emeritus
Jul 19, 2002
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jamesmcd said:
Hey all,

I have Vista RC1 installed on my iMac using Boot Camp. Would I easily be able to have Windows XP on my mac partition and use Parallels for lite usage? I have never installed Parallels, so I am not sure how it works exactly, i.e. does it need its own partition or does it run off the mac one.
Boot Camp and Parallels are not related.

With Boot Camp, you have created a partition that you install Windows, in your case Vista RC1. You can dual boot between the Mac OS and Windows. They each operate in their own environment. When Windows Vista RC1 is running the drivers you have installed allow you to interface with the hardware.

With Parallels, you create a disk image that then contains whatever Windows operating system that you want to use. For example, Windows XP. The Parallels application interfaces with the Mac OS to allow you to run Windows in an emulated mode. Parallels takes care of the driver issues. You do not need to install on a separate partition.

The benefit of Parallels is that you can run both environments at the same time switching between the two.

In the case of Boot Camp, you have to reboot each time you want to change.

Hope this answers some of your questions. And yes, I have both installed on an iMac. In my case I am using Windows XP for both Boot Camp and Parallels.
 

5683565

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Original poster
Feb 18, 2006
586
0
Hong Kong
Thanks. Yeah I knew all that, I simply wanted to know if they both ran without affecting each other. With all the people running around saying, 'Ahhh should I get Boot Camp or Parallels', I simply asked myself, 'why not both?'.

Thanks for answering that, I am installing Windows XP on Parallels now.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
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jamesmcd said:
Thanks. Yeah I knew all that, I simply wanted to know if they both ran without affecting each other. With all the people running around saying, 'Ahhh should I get Boot Camp or Parallels', I simply asked myself, 'why not both?'.

Thanks for answering that, I am installing Windows XP on Parallels now.

Yes you can use both, but they cant obviously share the same windows installation.

I use parallels for checking stuff on windows browsers etc, and have bootcamp for anything that needs full hardware accelration in graphics / audio.
 

5683565

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Original poster
Feb 18, 2006
586
0
Hong Kong
Exactly the same here. It is very useful to checking web sites that I just made, as they often appear differently. (best on the mac of course ;) )
 

THX1139

macrumors 68000
Mar 4, 2006
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Is there a limitation on which Windows applications you can run in Parallels? I'm assuming that Parallels handles the OS and Windows does the rest.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
THX1139 said:
Is there a limitation on which Windows applications you can run in Parallels? I'm assuming that Parallels handles the OS and Windows does the rest.

Some programmes that require heavy hardware acceleration for graphics or sound can be problematic. I wouldnt wave edit with Wavelab or CD Architect via parallels as the fillters etc require DX acceleration, somthing parallels doesnt give..

But for most standard applications your fine with parallels.

jamesmcd said:
Exactly the same here. It is very useful to checking web sites that I just made, as they often appear differently. (best on the mac of course ;) )


tell me about it ;) I just spent the weekend trying to sort out a site that had issues with IE, but when I sorted them, it had issues with mozilla on pc... aghhhhh, Safari worked on all ocasions flawlessley... :)
 
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