OT: Loading Windows on Macbook

[firerescuefin]

Frustrated using the new family MacBook. Know the adult answer would be to take a class.

Whose done it. The good/the bad/the ugly.

TIA,

Geoff

[spacemen3]

I'd recommend going the VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org/) route. There should be plenty of tutorials on getting it setup on a Mac.

[sngk]

+1 VirtualBox. It's free and if you have never used virtual machines before it will change your life.

[JasonF]

How is Virtualbox different from using Parallels?

I'm slowly switching from PC to Mac and many of my programs don't have a Mac version.

[Gsinill]

Can you elaborate?
This is what held me back initially but it turned out that it was only true for a very limited number of applications.
As a matter of fact, I found that most alternatives on the Mac are actually superior to what I've been using on the PC.
Have to admit though that I am a total Mac bigot ;)

...and many of my programs don't have a Mac version.

[JasonF]

Can you elaborate?
This is what held me back initially but it turned out that it was only true for a very limited number of applications.
As a matter of fact, I found that most alternatives on the Mac are actually superior to what I've been using on the PC.
Have to admit though that I am a total Mac bigot ;)

For personal use, Quicken's Mac version is seriously dumbed-down.

For work, I use several financial analysis programs that are pc-only

Finally, I use Dropbox a lot and I much prefer how the files are presented, loaded and able to be previewed on a PC vs Mac. This is not the case for an iPad, where the Dropbox app is 100% awesome.

[GregL]

+1 VirtualBox. It's free and if you have never used virtual machines before it will change your life.
+1 on his +1 (does that make +2?). My wife uses VirtualBox on her Macbook to run Windows 7. Very easy to install and configure. Virtually seamless to go back and forth from Mac OS to Windows.

- Greg

[GregL]

For personal use, Quicken's Mac version is seriously dumbed-down.

For work, I use several financial analysis programs that are pc-only
This is exactly why my wife runs VirtualBox/Windows 7 on her Macbook. Her accountant recommended the PC version of Quickbooks over the Mac version for her business (she's self-employed).

- Greg

[Nooch]

Quick question -- with virtual box, do you still need to have a copy of windows to install, or is it just 'there'?

Sorry if it's a stupid question...

[JasonF]

Quick question -- with virtual box, do you still need to have a copy of windows to install, or is it just 'there'?

Sorry if it's a stupid question...

+1 that's a good question. With Paralells I think you have to actually go out and buy a copy of Win7 (or Win8 if you're a masochist)

[gavingould]

in almost every case/program that I am aware of, you will need to supply a copy of Windows to install as the "guest OS"

there are various 'free' sources, but as an IT professional, i don't think they're worth the hassle and potential malware etc.

i use Mac at home, Windows for work... my work laptop is a macbook air, running BootCamp for the Windows portion. You can't swap back and forth between Mac and Windows like a VM, you have to reboot and select OS you wanna use. My scenario never really calls for using both semi-simultaneously.

firerescuefin, if you're near a brick & mortar Apple retail store they have some 'getting started' kinda class/seminars. you can also get one-on-one help.

[thegunner]

parallels and virtualbox are similar, they emulate an OS off an existing OS.

i'd personally go with bootcamp: http://www.macwindows.com/winintelmac.html#bootcamp

which actually runs windows natively.

[mccx]

Did it on my previous MacBook Pro. Went the Boot Camp route with a separate hard drive partition that boots directly to Windows, rather than using an emulator like Parallels or VirtualBox. The software I was running in Windows was very processor intensive and running it through an emulator really slowed it down, but Boot Camp allowed the my laptops full resources to go to running Windows & the Windows applications. Don't have it on my laptop now primarily because I don't use those Windows applications anymore.

I don't think it's too difficult to install and use Boot Camp if you're relatively comfortable with a Mac and follow the directions closely. Only real downside is that you're either using Mac or Windows at a time, not working between them, but Windows does run faster this way.

[Gsinill]

Virtualbox, VMWare and Parallels are similar apps that allow you to virtualize part of your resources to make it look to an OS installation like dedicated hardware.
Once installed you can use your Windows (or any other OS) installation media to install it in this "virtual machine".
You can dedicate resources of your Mac to those VMs and share capacity between the Mac OS and the VM.

Bootcamp basically enables you to add multiple boot partitions that allow you to select between Win and OS X when you boot your Mac.
Once booted, you run either Win or OS X standalone leveraging the full capacity of your Mac in that one OS.
The advantage of a virtual machine approach is that you can run them both in parallel and have access to Win and OS X at the same time.
Downside: limited resources for both.

There is also a 3rd option called Wine which actually wraps Windows apps into Mac packages and allows you to run them in OS X.
Played with it several years ago, so I have no idea what the current status is, whether they improved or not etc. You can find one flavor here: http://winebottler.kronenberg.org
Advantage: no copy of Windows required.

Have fun!

[11.4]

Mostly it depends on what you're running. Trying to stay relevant here, if you're running the native SRM power meter software or the programming software for Shimano Di2, you'll find that you really want to be in either Parallels or Bootcamp, and Bootcamp tends to be more gracious about recognizing wonky hardware connections (of which SRM and Di2 are two of the wonkiest). For crap like that, you can get Parallels to work but you have to fight it for a couple hours. Most of the second-tier emulation programs don't cope with software that's as badly written as some of this stuff -- it's not about running the programs, but more about recognizing hardware plugged in, WiFi or Bluetooth connections, etc. etc.

There's a long list of programs that don't run on Mac (MS Project, for example) and a longer list of those that are so bad on Mac that you really only want to run the superb versions on Windows (Quickbooks, for example). Just because someone makes software for both doesn't mean that both versions work the same. In some cases the Windows one is an afterthought, in others the Mac one is. If you're using most of these, you'll find life a lot more pleasant if you can run them along with your ongoing Mac applications. Parallels (and to almost the same extent VMFusion) now makes all your files accessible to both Mac and Windows applications; I assume you are already aware that most applications (but sadly not quite all) that have versions in both operating systems will allow you to use a file in one system, then open it in the other (that's how MS Office more or less works, it's how Adobe products mostly work, and so on). After a short learning curve to figure out the little things, the newest versions of Parallels and its brethren allow you almost seamless integration of both operating systems. And the use of resources is so efficient on newer machines that speed or memory is scarcely an issue -- horror stories about that came from early versions when they had few resources to share.

I recommend Parallels or VM Fusion, simply because they are the leading edge of emulation software. There are others, but the support isn't as good and the others haven't worked out all the oddball applications you may want to share. Both are inexpensive, both require a full copy of Windows, and there are only rare applications that have hiccups. I use Parallels and thus recommend it, and I can edit and swap and convert power files for power meters (one of the hardest tests around for emulation software, it seems) at will. Certainly I can use all the major graphics software such as Adobe and major office products such as MS Office without a hint of trouble.

[jimoots]

I recommend Parallels or VM Fusion, simply because they are the leading edge of emulation software. There are others, but the support isn't as good and the others haven't worked out all the oddball applications you may want to share. Both are inexpensive, both require a full copy of Windows, and there are only rare applications that have hiccups. I use Parallels and thus recommend it, and I can edit and swap and convert power files for power meters (one of the hardest tests around for emulation software, it seems) at will. Certainly I can use all the major graphics software such as Adobe and major office products such as MS Office without a hint of trouble.

+1, VM Fusion. Ran that for a couple of years, till corporate IT said we have to remote in and now using Microsoft Remote Desktop. Which might I add, is a pig.

In this case it sounds like the OP's family has got a new laptop, which is a Mac, and he wants to go back to doing his bits and pieces in Windows. Doesn't sound like he wants to do 'heavy lifting'. In this case I think Fusion will do fine... Bootcamp not required.

(Running a Windows emulator just to access corporate emails / intranet is the bane of my existence... I lead a hard life haha)

[pbarry]

Geoff, you can learn Mavericks, unless you really need a superior PC program. Let go of the right click intuition, use the cursor, think intuitively, like Clint Eastwood in Foxfire and things will be good. :beer:

[NHAero]

FWIW - I began years ago using Parallels as my emulator and it worked fine. Got a job 4 years ago and IT guy hated Parallels, loved VM Fusion. Suffered with VM Fusion for 3 years - it slowed my MacBook way down (maxed out in RAM BTW) and made me re-boot several times/day. New IT guy couldn't fix it either but had no bias on software choice so we went back to Parallels and problems gone. Also, VM Fusion grew to take up 35-40% of my hard drive, for some reason the same stuff under Parallels takes way less HD.
I'm an engineer, not a software geek, so that's as much as I know!