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Running Windows on a Mac


RPSharman

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So my wife wants a new laptop for Christmas.  She has finally realized what pieces of crap each of her previous PC laptops have been, and since we are all Apple on everything including our phones, she wants a MacBook.

But.... There are a couple of programs (including her software that runs her embroidery machine) that are Windows only.

I downloaded a demo of Parallels on our iMac, but couldn't seem to make it work properly.

Can someone suggest the best version of Windows and the best "parallel" software to run Windows programs on a new MacBook?  Do I have to buy Windows AND the "parallel" software.  Any suggestions about getting a full version of Windows inexpensively (somewhat legally)?  I have a bunch of Windows disks, but none are FULL versions.  They all re-install versions that came with the various PCs taking up shelf space in our garage.

Thanks,

Robert

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VMFusion or Parallels seem to be the best options. The interest in running Windows software on the Mac has been on a fairly rapid decline from the initial excitement when the Intel Macs came out. So, there is a lack of current reviews I was able to find for the two major programs used to run Windows on the Mac. I know that there are those who still need to run some program on their Mac that is Windows only and in those cases I think either VMFusion or Parallels will work. There is still always BootCamp but that is really not the best approach if you need to run just one or two Windows apps. BootCamp works well for those who want Mac hardware but prefer to run the Windows programs they are familiar with. I don't understand this but it is what is being done at Local 695 office on the iMac I installed there. The whole process of booting up in Windows and then shutting down and re-booting with Mac OS seems pretty silly.

I would do some research on VMFusion and Parallels (and hopefully someone here can chime in with real world experience). I really cannot weigh in on this with any personal experience since I have never found the need to run anything other than Mac OS native apps on my computers.

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Boot Camp does effectively make the Mac a PC and for specialist PC software interfacing with specialist machinery might give more compatibility. What port interface is there between the embroidery software and machinery?

Not sure if you're familiar with Boot Camp?

I find Parallels amazing (and have come to use it almost entirely, very seldom reverting to Bootcamp except the other day where I was struggling to get a Motu Traveler to work properly but that turned out to be me being stupid!) it does however add a quite layer of complexity to the hardware interface.

I'm using Parallels to run a Windows 7 virtual machine and another Windows XP virtual machine. Parallels took my creaking XP setup (came pre-installed on a Fujitsu PC) and managed to encapsulate it in to a fully functioning virtual machine that runs very happily in parallel on my imac and even prints to the Mac printer, sees all the Mac disks by some networking clever footwork and can write to them etc. It even replicates a small memory address problem that it transpires must be software based (somewhere in the depths of XP and the dozens of programs I have installed) but I'd always blamed the aging Fujitsu hardware!

I was warned that the hardware change (for the Fujitsu copy of XP) would mean it would need to be re-activated and despite dire warnings that this would not be possible and even calling Microsoft to offer to pay for another license for the same XP and being told that was not possible, what happened was that I just went through the online re-activation process and it just worked. (Just to be clear Parallels made a copy of the whole XP installation including all the dozens of installed programs and transported the whole setup and it runs just as if it was still on the original Fujitsu machine) So I'm very happy with Parallels.

To get Windows 7 I just bought a new copy I don't know a way round this :)

I think Parallels and VMFusion constantly leapfrog each other and my impression is that Parallels is ahead at the moment with significantly better performance, but that's just an impression from reading reviews as I have not used VMFusion.

I just happened to have bought Parallels when it first came out and lost interest as initially it wasn't all that good, but wanted to give it another go now it's got to version 6, and debated whether to try VMFusion but Parallels agreed to allow me to upgrade through several versions to v6 for the basic upgrade price which was generous, and I've been very impressed with what it does.

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I worked at a few tech companies that used VMFusion, sometimes I would have to run 3 operating systems at one time. The up side is that it ran very smoothly and using the most current versions I never run into compatibility issues, the virtual system never had a problem detecting hardware as long as the drivers were available. The down side is that you are sharing resources with your host system, but the great thing about VMFusion is that you can assign how much memory, cpu cores, and disk space you want your virtual system to use and over all it's a very simple process to install. You can get a free 30 day trial version from the website. http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

I can't really comment on Parallels, I tried it when it came out with the initial release of the Intel Macs and for some reason didn't like it so I went straight to VMware since I'd use that before and still do upon occasion.

An embroidery software doesn't sound like it has to process a lot of data so this seems like it could work well for your wife.

As a side note, I'm not a fan of using multimedia apps such as audio editing and video editing tools in virtual machines because of the demand it puts on it's resources (the host system slows down dramatically) and some of the virtual drivers are "generic" drivers and don't perform as well as when running on a native machine.

Lastly, you will have to have a full version of windows to install on any virtual machine, OEM disks from HP or Dell have to read the rom chip data on your computer to verify the system and upgrade disks have to have a full install of the previous os version, unless you know how to hack but that's another story.

Good luck.

So my wife wants a new laptop for Christmas.  She has finally realized what pieces of crap each of her previous PC laptops have been, and since we are all Apple on everything including our phones, she wants a MacBook.

But.... There are a couple of programs (including her software that runs her embroidery machine) that are Windows only.

I downloaded a demo of Parallels on our iMac, but couldn't seem to make it work properly.

Can someone suggest the best version of Windows and the best "parallel" software to run Windows programs on a new MacBook?  Do I have to buy Windows AND the "parallel" software.  Any suggestions about getting a full version of Windows inexpensively (somewhat legally)?  I have a bunch of Windows disks, but none are FULL versions.  They all re-install versions that came with the various PCs taking up shelf space in our garage.

Thanks,

Robert

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I've been running Win XP Pro under VMware Fusion on my MB Pro for about two years now.  I use it to run all my pc only apps like LecNet, Icom and IAS.

It's very solid and I have no complaints.

You will need the VMware software and a full install copy of windows.

But buy a system builder's version of your Windows flavor of choice which is a lot less pricey than a regular retail version. And be prepared to reauthorize Windows the first time you run it under either Parallels or Fusion. It requires a phone call to an automated phone system but is reasonably quick and totally painless.

Read the Boot Camp how-to and the installation instructions for your virtualization product of choice as you go through the installation, don't go from memory. And be sure to make the Boot Camp partition you create large enough for future growth.

Best regards,

Jim

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make sure you update the mouse pad drivers under Windows or it will drive you crazy.

I do not understand why complicate things? Get her a small htpc and put it by her machine. Put Windows and be done with it.

Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

I might not worry about it.  Her PC still works, so she can use that for her sewing machine and internet while sewing with her friends.  She can use the Mac everywhere else.  But I was really hoping she'd be able to consolidate.

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make sure you update the mouse pad drivers under Windows or it will drive you crazy.

I do not understand why complicate things? Get her a small htpc and put it by her machine. Put Windows and be done with it.

Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

I like this idea way better than mucking around w/ multiple operating systems.  There are crazy cheap PCs around now, laptops too--just make it into an appliance that just does those few Windows things....  That said I do know a guy who runs an audio editing business that often uses a MacBook Pro running Parallels and Sadie software, and says it works well.

phil p

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Yes my SageTV server has not been restarted for maybe an year.except 2 times when updates wanted it.

I restart my laptop only when programs wants to restart it.

I like this idea way better than mucking around w/ multiple operating systems.  There are crazy cheap PCs around now, laptops too--just make it into an appliance that just does those few Windows things....  That said I do know a guy who runs an audio editing business that often uses a MacBook Pro running Parallels and Sadie software, and says it works well.

phil p

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