Windows without Boot Camp

[gc9og]

Has any one been able to get Windows 8 up and running on a MacBook Air (Late 2012) without using Boot Camp? I managed to format the hard drive and got almost finished with setup and then a black screen. Thanks

 

[gc9og]

Well, for any one who is interested, I finally figured it out. My main problem with BootCamp was that it was taking 48 seconds to get to the boot screen in Windows 8 and I thought it should boot much faster. After a lot of trial and error I have my MacBook Air (Late 2012) booting to the log on screen in 19 seconds.

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Actually 18.4 seconds but who's counting

 

[jenzjen]

Well, for any one who is interested, I finally figured it out. My main problem with BootCamp was that it was taking 48 seconds to get to the boot screen in Windows 8 and I thought it should boot much faster. After a lot of trial and error I have my MacBook Air (Late 2012) booting to the log on screen in 19 seconds.

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Actually 18.4 seconds but who's counting

What changes did you make to shave time?

 

[SlCKB0Y]

Why did you bother getting a Mac at all?

 

[gc9og]

I restarted the compiter with a Bootcamp USB disk. I clicked on the Windows icon and began Win8 setup from there. Towards the end of setup when the installer reboots, I had a black screen. I powered down the computer and took out the USB disk. Powered back up and Windows automatically finished setup. @ Sickboy, mainly because I wanted to.

 

[macalec]

I restarted the compiter with a Bootcamp USB disk. I clicked on the Windows icon and began Win8 setup from there. Towards the end of setup when the installer reboots, I had a black screen. I powered down the computer and took out the USB disk. Powered back up and Windows automatically finished setup. @ Sickboy, mainly because I wanted to.

Is this due to it finishing the install or simply getting into the system. Why did you not just do a Parallels install?

Thanks

 

[gc9og]

I previously had Windows running in Parallels, found that I was using Win8 more than OS X, then I went to BootCamp, only thing I didn't like about it was the slow boot times.

 

[blanka]

Run Windows 8 64bit pro in Virtual Box. It is free, and mega-fast. Full booting takes 15 seconds on a slow 5400rpm drive, and only 6 or so from SSD. It has all the Win8 drivers and Win8 runs nicer on it than on any PC in my experience. You can also copy-paste between Mac and Windows, very useful. Strange though: with XP save-state of Virtual Box was the fastest exit and restart of Windows, now the usual Shut Down and full Boot win from save state! Guess Microsoft really improved the way the system boots and shuts down.

 

[chrfr]

Run Windows 8 64bit pro in Virtual Box. It is free, and mega-fast.

It's no more "mega-fast" than Parallels or VMWare Fusion. The OP has already mentioned he's found Parallels to have unacceptable performance.