Can I even install Windows on my iMac?

[no-direction]

Hey guys, I have a bit of a predicament here and would like a little help.

I have an iMac 5,1 (20-inc Late 2006 - 2.16Ghz Intel Core2Duo, 3GB RAM) that I'm trying to install Windows on - have never needed it before, but I have some software that won't work in OSX and doesn't seem to install via Crossover.

I'm currently using Lion (10.7.1) as my OS. Bootcamp 4.0 apparently doesn't support any version of Windows other than Windows 7 (I was planning on installing Vista - it's much cheaper), but (and here's the kicker) according to Apple's official support note (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3986) my iMac can't support Windows 7.

Does this mean that by upgrading OSX to Lion, I can't now use bootcamp to install any version of Windows on my iMac? I was hoping not to have to shell out for a copy of Parallels (~ £70!).

Thanks.

 

[tersono]

Honestly have no idea about your bootcamp compatibility - hopefully someone else here will be better informed.

However, if you want an alternative to Parallels there is a free option: Sun/Oracle's VirtualBox, which is free for personals use...

It's not quite as powerful as Parallels, but it still works well for office-type applications.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

 

[guzhogi]

From the sound of it, you should be able to install Windows 7 on it. I have a MBP from about the same time that runs Windows 7 pretty well.

 

[no-direction]

Honestly have no idea about your bootcamp compatibility - hopefully someone else here will be better informed.

However, if you want an alternative to Parallels there is a free option: Sun/Oracle's VirtualBox, which is free for personals use...

It's not quite as powerful as Parallels, but it still works well for office-type applications.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

@tersono - Thanks very much for the reply. I'd heard of virtualbox before but completely forgot about it - I'll take a look. I presume that you can access USB devices, internal iMac DVD drive etc. all without issue?

From the sound of it, you should be able to install Windows 7 on it. I have a MBP from about the same time that runs Windows 7 pretty well.

@guzhogi - I just wasn't sure about it seeing as the note states that my Mac is unsupported for Windows 7. Are you able to check if your MBP is listed as an unsupported model at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3986 please?

It does seem odd that Apple would allow you to upgrade to OSX Lion, but then prevent you from installing a version of Windows (as would seem to be the case in my instance).

Thanks for the help. Any other comments still appreciated though!