Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Alexjones

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 28, 2010
421
0
Before i break the seal on this baby, Can anyone share their experience installing and using Windows on a Mac. I still love Lion, But i figure i will have the best of both worlds.
 
Installed win7 with parallels and it works fine, of course battery life isn't as good as running osx, but that is with all windows based pcs. Anyways, I used it for office 2010 and it works great.
 
You'll like it. Have done both bootcamp and virtual. Virtual in parallels in seamless mode is great. Hardly know it's there unless you need it. I don't notice much difference in overall performance or battery life.
 
Parallels: Bad drivers, games did not recognize them.
VMWare: Good drivers.
Boot Camp: Best performance.
 
If you're used to running Windows 7 natively, you'll need 8GB of ram in your Mac. If you only have four you'll want to use boot camp so as to have enough resources. Virtualization like VMware or Parallels runs too slow at 4GB. It will get you by, but very slowly.
 
Running windows natively is the only way to game. Mac OS ports are crap. That and the fact that you get a HUGE selection of games on Windows.
 
I'm running win7 under vmware fusion. I prefer staying on OSX and only run one or two windows programs
 
I'm running win7 under vmware fusion. I prefer staying on OSX and only run one or two windows programs

So true.

If I didn't have to run Windows on mine for the two vertical market programs for work, my MBP would be pure OS X.

When I have a lot of both Windows & OS X work to do, I carry two laptops. That's how much I dislike using Windows on a Mac.

I just don't like poluting my MBP with anything else :)

----------

I'm running win7 under vmware fusion. I prefer staying on OSX and only run one or two windows programs

Please excuse the double post but I wanted to ask you about WMWare vs Parallels. I've used both VirtualBox & VMWare with good success.

Lately I've heard that the newest rev of Parallels is faster and a better interface in general.

Always looking to streamline and optimize my workflow, do you have any experience or thoughts about Parallels? I hate using trial versions otherwise I'd take that route.

You input is appreciated. Thanks.
 
OS wise, Windows 7 is a great OS.
Of course, you need antivirus program, but other than that, it's very stable.

However, the mac portables are not built for native windows 7. What I mean is when running windows 7 in bootcamp, you get more heat due to lack of precise cpu/gpu speed control(no dynamic graphic switching). And because of that you get less battery life as well. And to be fair, it's not due to Windows7, the mac bootcamp drivers just don't have enough features built in.

If you have to use both Mac OS and Windows on the same machine, macs are the only choice. But I wouldn't use Win as the main OS.
 
bootcamp for me. I only put it on because i had to have it for one specific class that needed to have a plug in for excel. i don't play any games as i have my ps3 for that. My only regret was that i didn't assign enough space to it initially, i only gave it about 35GB, and i haven't found a good option to resize.
 
When installing Parallels 7, what are most people picking for as a setting... Like a Mac or Like a PC? Thanks!
 
I chose more like a PC, mostly due to my class over win 7 and office 2010 so that when studying, etc the examples would match. You can also use coherence mode that works well. I have 8gb ram so I have not seen any performance issues.
 
OS wise, Windows 7 is a great OS.
Of course, you need antivirus program, but other than that, it's very stable.

However, the mac portables are not built for native windows 7. What I mean is when running windows 7 in bootcamp, you get more heat due to lack of precise cpu/gpu speed control(no dynamic graphic switching). And because of that you get less battery life as well. And to be fair, it's not due to Windows7, the mac bootcamp drivers just don't have enough features built in.

If you have to use both Mac OS and Windows on the same machine, macs are the only choice. But I wouldn't use Win as the main OS.

You know why people complain about the slow performance of windows system? Because they use antivirus program which slows your machine down significantly.
 
You know why people complain about the slow performance of windows system? Because they use antivirus program which slows your machine down significantly.

I have Microsoft essentials for my PC at home. Its free and it runs quietly in the background
 
bootcamp for me. I only put it on because i had to have it for one specific class that needed to have a plug in for excel. i don't play any games as i have my ps3 for that. My only regret was that i didn't assign enough space to it initially, i only gave it about 35GB, and i haven't found a good option to resize.
The advantage of boot camp is you are then using all the resources the computer has, which gives you the speed. If only Apple had better drivers.

As far as your space issue, I use GParted for all my partitioning work in OS_X, Windows, and Linux. It will make the task of creating more space very easy for you. It works especially well on a Mac, it's open source as well.

If you don't want to burn your own disc, I highly recommend just buying one, they are under $3.00 from OSDisc, a company I do a fair amount of business with due to the great prices, fast shipping and great customer service.

Here's a link to their GParted disc for you:

http://goo.gl/s5y4B
 
hi

this depends on your use of windows. are you planning to play heavy games on windows? then bootcamp is better. i had counter strike installed in my parallel, it was so jittery that i wanted to hit myself in the head for wasting my own time on installation. i switched to bootcamp.
 
Please excuse the double post but I wanted to ask you about WMWare vs Parallels. I've used both VirtualBox & VMWare with good success.

Lately I've heard that the newest rev of Parallels is faster and a better interface in general.

Always looking to streamline and optimize my workflow, do you have any experience or thoughts about Parallels? I hate using trial versions otherwise I'd take that route.

You input is appreciated. Thanks.

I use Parallels v6 and am quite happy with it - I use it primarily to run Visio and the occasional Office program, not games or other programs with some heavy hardware requirements. I also have run various Adobe apps and was happy with the performance. I also have fusion an dam happy with it as well; I simply use Parallels more since I am more familiar with it.

A VM always will cause a performance hit over natively running an OS; but the current state of VM and Apple technology make sit unnoticeable, unless you plan to do something, such as run the lasts games, they really tax even a native OS system. I've run VMs back to when Virtual PC was not an MS product and the difference in performance from then to today is astounding. My Mac (2010 i5) is subjectively as fast army 2 year old Dell desktop - which is fine for my needs - to the point I rarely run my Dell for anything beyond ripping my DVD collection (I have 2TBs on my Dell so it is easier to do it there).

I'm not sure why you don't like trials - the only difference, in Parallels at least - is the lack of a serial number. Otherwise it is the same product only time limited. My suggestion is to give both try in the trial mode (for both the VM and Windows) and then register the one you like best.
 
My Windows 7 professional arrived today update

I just installed windows and all the drivers. It works and looks great. My ethernet connection is a little slow, Otherwise it was a complete sucess. I did 250/250 to ensure i have enough space for both.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.