I'm looking for a way to LEGIT and LEGALLY install windows on my mac. I'm looking for windows 7 or Windows 8. Whichever one is cheaper. Now, what do I buy to make this bootcamp as seemless as possible?
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Want to install windows 7/8? What do I need?
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Once you buy Windows, you need to decide whether you want to install it "native" using Bootcamp, or Virtual (using VMWare or Parallels) or both.
I did both.
Using Bootcamp Assistant (a Mac utility), I partitioned the hard drive and gave my Windows partition 50GB. The utility walks you through creating a USB install stick from an ISO image of a Windows install disk, downloads the necessary Windows drivers from Apple, and kinda walks you through the partition and install process. Relatively painless.
By doing this you will be able to "boot native" into Windows, which will give you the best performance possible.
You can also get VMWare or Parallels (I use Parallels). This is Mac software that will create a virtual machine with Windows using your legally purchased Windows disk. The virtual machine (VM) is essentially a file that lives in your Mac drive, and when you open it, it runs Windows inside the Mac OS in a virtual machine. Very slick and it works very well. Games that require the most performance might lag a bit as the Mac OS has to emulate an environment for Windows to run, so that overhead can cause delays, but most software runs great.
I did both by first installing Windows in bootcamp and then installing Parallels and creating a VM from the bootcamp partition. That way I can run most Windows software (like Quicken) inside a VM in Mac OS (which is fast and convenient), and when I want to boot natively into Windows, I can do that as well.
Good luck.
I did both.
Using Bootcamp Assistant (a Mac utility), I partitioned the hard drive and gave my Windows partition 50GB. The utility walks you through creating a USB install stick from an ISO image of a Windows install disk, downloads the necessary Windows drivers from Apple, and kinda walks you through the partition and install process. Relatively painless.
By doing this you will be able to "boot native" into Windows, which will give you the best performance possible.
You can also get VMWare or Parallels (I use Parallels). This is Mac software that will create a virtual machine with Windows using your legally purchased Windows disk. The virtual machine (VM) is essentially a file that lives in your Mac drive, and when you open it, it runs Windows inside the Mac OS in a virtual machine. Very slick and it works very well. Games that require the most performance might lag a bit as the Mac OS has to emulate an environment for Windows to run, so that overhead can cause delays, but most software runs great.
I did both by first installing Windows in bootcamp and then installing Parallels and creating a VM from the bootcamp partition. That way I can run most Windows software (like Quicken) inside a VM in Mac OS (which is fast and convenient), and when I want to boot natively into Windows, I can do that as well.
Good luck.
Thanks for the responses! I'm going to go over to my Microsoft store tomorrow and see what they have in stock, I just won't mention I have a mac. 
Thanks for the responses! I'm going to go over to my Microsoft store tomorrow and see what they have in stock, I just won't mention I have a mac.
The MS store isn't likely going to have Windows 7, and what they do sell will be the more expensive retail copies of the software. Just buy the OEM release I linked to above from Amazon, or get it from Newegg as mentioned by another poster.
If you do end up going to the MS store, you could spend some time playing with Windows 8 on the demo computers they have set up to see if you like it. If so, you can buy the system builder (same as OEM) from Amazon. However, since it's the same price as Windows 7, I'd stick with 7.
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Student Discounts was one of the reasons I was going to go to the MS Store. If I can get Windows 8 for 70 bucks with a student discount, sorry Windows 7 I love you but not enough for another 30 bucks.
Actually, Windows 7 is definitely worth $30 more than 8...
I love 7 so much I bought the full retail version of it.
Just to confirm guys, this will work?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-W...135&pid=100034&prg=1079&rk=1&sd=271192702027&
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-W...135&pid=100034&prg=1079&rk=1&sd=271192702027&
Yup, although you can probably find the Pro version for about the same price.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/compare#T1=tab01
The XP Mode was worth it for me until I got into Parallels and now I have 15 VMs of all sorts of flavors. If you don't need XP mode then Home is fine, as the other differences only matter if you plan on joining a domain.
I could get Home Premium for cheaper
Trust me, I'm all about saving in my quest to find a cheap windows license lol. Any links you want to share for a cheaper Home Premium. yeh, I don't need professional, Just looking to run some PC games
It's worth noting the Pro version of 8 also has built in disk encryption. If I was buying it now I'd go for Pro just for that. However, when 8.1 comes out (whenever that is) it will be free for 8 users and will put Bitlocker on all versions anyway.