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Which windows OS

P

paddler60

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 1, 2010
3
0
Hello,

I'm anxiously awaiting my new Imac. I will be creating a separate partition for Windows so I can use my Photoshop and other image editing software.

Which Windows system would you recommend? I currently have an Imac and a PC. The PC OS is Windows XP. Can Windows XP still be purchased? I don't have Windows 7 but am worried that some of my older PC software might not work on it.

Thanks in advance.

Gerry
 
paddler60 said:
Hello,

I'm anxiously awaiting my new Imac. I will be creating a separate partition for Windows so I can use my Photoshop and other image editing software.

Which Windows system would you recommend? I currently have an Imac and a PC. The PC OS is Windows XP. Can Windows XP still be purchased? I don't have Windows 7 but am worried that some of my older PC software might not work on it.

Thanks in advance.

Gerry
Click to expand...

XP can still be found in many places. I'd recommend www.tigerdirect.com, but I'm sure everyone has their own preference. I have had pretty good luck with compatibility between XP and 7, and I like 7 better for a variety of reasons not relevant to our discussion here.
 
paddler60 said:
Hello,

I will be creating a separate partition for Windows so I can use my Photoshop and other image editing software.

Which Windows system would you recommend?
Click to expand...
At this point, I could only recommend Win7. Throwing money into XP is taking a step backwards, imo. If you have concerns that specific software isn't compatible, I'd suggest you check with the vendor.

It isn't germane to your question, but I have to ask: why are you buying a beautiful new iMac only to run Photoshop under Windows? If you have a fairly recent edition of PS, you should be able to arrange to purchase a "cross-grade" (platform switch) with Adobe. It would be much nicer to run PS within your Mac OS X environment than to reboot every time you need to run it! Just some food for thought--of course it's up to you! :)
 
I'd try to grab a copy of Windows for Workgroups 3.11

Seriously, why run a 9 year old OS on hardware it can't even take full advantage of? At least run Vista if you're opposed to Windows 7.
 
Go with Windows 7. If you really need to run something that doesn't work, you can always run Windows XP in a virtual machine using Windows XP Mode (if you have Windows 7 Professional which comes with a license to use XP Mode) or Microsoft Virtual PC 2007.
 
Thanks for the replies everybody. It looks like Windows 7 for me.

Videofreek, the reason I want to use my Photoshop CS2 on the Windows platform is because I purchased it while I was still teaching and received the educator's discount online. Since I am now retired, I am not eligible to receive the discount. I would not be able to purchase the new version for the upgrade price, so I'm not anxious to upgrade because CS2 works just fine for me. Also, I haven't seen any improvements in the newer versions of Photoshop that would justify me spending that kind of money. Being a photographer, I use Photoshop to both convert my images from RAW and also to edit them. CS2 does everything I need for this. When I eventually get a new version, it will be the Mac OS!!

I started with Apple years ago with the Apple II series and the first Macs followed. I started using Windows too because there was more mapping software out there for Windows than Mac at the time. Our school district has always used the Apple computers so I am partial to them. With my current Mac that I am now typing on, I can be online in less than 30 seconds from startup. With my Gateway PC next to it, I usually start it up and then do something else for about 5-10 minutes!!

Thanks again for all the replies.

Gerry
 
You may want to take a look on the Apple support site for installing Windows 7 on your iMac. Apparently, people have been having problems where after the installation of Windows 7 is complete and the computer reboots, you're presented with a black screen. This seems to happen a lot on the recent iMacs. Apple provide a solution.
 
Thanks much, Grannyville for the update and the link.

I may just hold off a bit on making the Windows partition and keep using my PC for my image editing until they get the problems ironed out. I'm in no hurry.

Gerry
 
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