Running windows on mac

[terpfan102]

I'm not sure which forum this should go in so figured I'd start here...

I have a late 2013 MBP Retina still running Mavericks. I'd like to install Windows (7 or 10). Since I'm hesitant to upgrade to El Capitan, I'd be stuck with Windows 7 which is fine for me and seems to overall get better reviews right now.

I definitely would get Parallels or VMWare Fusion but my question is whether I do an install of just a virtual machine or do bootcamp and then a virtual machine from that bootcamp. If I do the former, am I able to save a lot of space vs doing a 30GB partition of my HD? Any other thoughts?

 

[T5BRICK]

I definitely would get Parallels or VMWare Fusion but my question is whether I do an install of just a virtual machine or do bootcamp and then a virtual machine from that bootcamp. If I do the former, am I able to save a lot of space vs doing a 30GB partition of my HD? Any other thoughts?

If everything you need to do in Windows can be handled via Parallels or VMWare, then you don't need Boot Camp. I use Boot Camp because it's free, and it's faster because it's not running through virtualization.

 

[Teugeus]

Just leave Windows behind.

 

[v3nom]

Parallels is very comfortable if it is enough for you. Bootcamp has the big advantage that you have 100% of CPU and GPU power, but the question is if you really need that.

 

[glenthompson]

It really depends on what you need to run in Windows. If gaming then bootcamp is the way to go so you get all the processor. If it's simple stuff then VmWare, Parallels, or Wine can be sufficient. One of the downsides of bootcamp is having to allocate all the disk space from the start. With Parallels you can allocate what you need and let it grow.

Parallels has done fine for me but I haven't needed to run Windows in over a year. Thinking about getting rid of it to reclaim the disk space.

 

[terpfan102]

Hi there, thanks for the replies. So the primary reason for me wanting to add Windows is to get Quickbooks. I despise the Mac version. I use this fairly often. I gave VMware a test and found it seems a bit slow when I did an install straight into VMware and not with bootcamp. Would running the virtual machine off of the bootcamp partition make any difference vs just having a virtual machine off of itself? I did like the fact that I could create it with just 10GB. Why does bootcamp require so much more? Is it due to all of the drivers MacOSX installs?

 

[duervo]

How much RAM do you have in the Retina?

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

In my experience, running a VM from the Bootcamp partition sucks. Always seemed flaky and poor performing. I use Fusion and I don't envision any performance limitations for OP's use. You can even run Win10 if you want without upgrading to El Capitan.

Last comment is Apple's Bootcamp drivers are crap. The touchpad works better under Fusion.

Good luck. There really isn't any risk any way you go since requirements are so minimal.

 

[Teugeus]

I would get a retina Mac with 16GB of RAM, i7 processor and at least 512GB of Storage. Install Windows using Parallels, job done.