Windows App on Macbook Pro

[Levi's]

Question...... I have a MBPro, running Mavericks, 750 Gig hard drive, I love it, and moved away from windows for a good reason. Now I'm committed to apple, with TV, Time Capsule, Iphone, 3 TB Hard drive, so forth and so on. I have a business at home, more than a Hobby, and it deals with graphics. I have two software programs, which were written for windows to run on. My windows computer is a desk top, and to be honest, I'd like to switch these two software programs to my MBPro. Their tedius and very involved programs, which can be helped, if I could somehow install a windows drive on my MBPro, but then somehow reach from windows to my photo album to import pictures into the program. It's very difficult to explain. I'm looking to get this done, the simplest, least expensive way to do it. These two software programs also require updates, patches and etc from the software writers from time to time, maybe once every 6 months, so they won't be online much. Can some o0f you guys offer some advice please, best way to do this, what I will need, so forth and so on. Thank you.

 

[TC400]

I think the best thing to do would be to use boot camp or run a Virtual Machine.

http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/getstarted/

 

[MacTCE]

You could also try Crossover if the apps are compatible. http://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-mac/

 

[Altemose]

Parallels works well and offers a 14 day trial to test whether the software is going to work for you. It can even open apps in windows along side typical Mac applications. You can even drag and drop files between them. I must say, Parallels is a quality piece of software!

 

[MrGimper]

I use VMWare Fusion for running windows on my iMac, Air, and MBP. Never had a problem and I believe it's cheaper than Parallels.

 

[deluxeshredder]

VirtualBox is not as pretty as Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion and it doesn't have a proper desktop integration mode, but it works fine on OS X (on Windows it is somewhat wacky) and is free.

 

[takeshi74]

Any of the virtual solutions suggested above are designed for this. None of them are really simple. Boot Camp will be cheapest but most intrusive when you need the Windows app since you have to reboot. With a virtual solution you can just fire up the VM.

 

[ecschwarz]

I actually use a mix of VirtualBox (https://virtualbox.org) and Bootcamp - both are free, and VB is a bit rough around the edges, but you can actually make it "boot" off your Bootcamp partition - it's a bit tedious to set up, but then you can either run your PC apps in a virtual machine (from the comfort of OS X) or reboot into Windows if you need more horsepower:

http://phaq.phunsites.net/2011/03/05/sharing-windows-7-between-boot-camp-and-virtualbox/