Windows via Bootcamp on a Mac

[Kirk Gittings]

I am considering going fully Mac finally but have two programs that I really need that only run on a PC. My last attempt with Parallels a couple of years ago was a flop. It was very unstable and I ditched it.

Any experience recently with Bootcamp? Any stability issues? Any issues at all?

[zachary12]

I have had no dramas on my 2011 MBP, driver support is much better than previously.

I find VMWare Fusion much better than Parrallels, if you're running Windows 7 in a VM.

[Kirk Gittings]

Thanks. I am not familiar with that program. Any more users out there? Because the PC programs I need will be used sporadically I won't mind rebooting.

[manet]

With Bootcamp It is necessary to reboot. With an emulator program, no and it is lots more easy.
I use Parallels for to run XP or Seven for to work with Autocad very easily on an iMac without any problem.
It's a pleasure to change OSX to Xp or Seven without to reboot.:)

jp

[Lenny Eiger]

Thanks. I am not familiar with that program. Any more users out there? Because the PC programs I need will be used sporadically I won't mind rebooting.

Fusion is the way to go... IMO

My daughter uses it on her laptop...

Lenny

[Joanna Carter]

Boot Camp is definitely a total waste of time; you can't do anything to interact between the Windows and Mac environments.

I am primarily a software developer and have been using Parallels for over four years now. It has always been extremely stable and allows me to run Windows at the same time as OS X. The "Coherence" mode means I can have Mac windows appear right next to Windows windows and can copy/paste stuff from one program to another and even files from the Windows disks to the Mac disks.

I also have a licence for VMWare Fusion and, personally, found it to be "clunky" in appearance and not as smooth running as Parallels.

[Bob McCarthy]

Boot camp works great, if your need don't require multiple programs sharing process or data. There are some workarounds on data that are simple to implement.

I boot over to PC for games primarily w/o and issues at all.

Bob

[David Swinnard]

I have a new MBP and also have to run several old Windows/DOS programs. I am using Parallels 7 without any issues. I'm running XP via Parallels and am completely satisfied with the experience. The program I run - Adobe FrameMaker (older version) runs well. I did get Parallels a while back when they were having a promotion (and I was "trying" an old, borrowed, first Intel white MacBook).

The ability to move data easily between the XP and OS X environments has been useful to me a number of times.

As an aside...I also run a very old DOS-based CAD program, Generic CADD, using a program called DOSBox not in XP but it Lion. After a bit of fussing to deal with some changes in the Lion OS, I can run this program from the '80s better now than I could back then, even making use of the the full screen of this high-res Mac. Apparently I have to thank the old DOS game users for this one...Thanks Guys!

Dave

[SamReeves]

The nice thing about rebooting into Windows is that everything runs natively, and will take full advantage of your hardware. Parallels or other emulators can't take advantage of the video hardware, and won't run games, video editing, etc. as well.

[Brian K]

I'm using Parallels 7 on both an iMac and a MacPro, it works like a charm with Windows XP. I use Studio Print 14 which requires a dongle and I have no issues.

I used to use bootcamp, but I hate having to reboot the computer, and given how reliably Parallels has been I don't find any need to do Bootcamp.

[photobymike]

Fusion is the way to go... IMO

My daughter uses it on her laptop...

Lenny

I use Fusion also.. in my experience i have not ever had a problem running win programs on my MAC PRO. With fusion you do not need windows installed on your computer. My daughter is on her 3rd restore in 6 months because of problems on her Sony laptop windows install.

Never had a problem with leopard or snow leopard on a Quad G5 and a Quad Intel with Fusion... "it just works"

[wmsey]

I am considering going fully Mac finally but have two programs that I really need that only run on a PC. My last attempt with Parallels a couple of years ago was a flop. It was very unstable and I ditched it.

Any experience recently with Bootcamp? Any stability issues? Any issues at all?

Parallels has had a "couple of years" to get better. It's rock solid - at least running XP.

[Richard M. Coda]

Oracle Virtual Box... and it's free!
https://www.virtualbox.org/

I had problems with Parallels after going to Snow Leopard.

Got Virtual Box and no issues... and did I mention it's FREE! :)

[Darin Boville]

...but have two programs that I really need that only run on a PC.

What two programs? Maybe there are specific issues that need to be looked at...

--Darin

[Larry Gebhardt]

Parallels has had a "couple of years" to get better. It's rock solid - at least running XP.

I will second that. I've not run Windows 7 on it, but XP is frequently running for weeks at a time on my mac very stably in Parallels.

[QT Luong]

I'm in the same situation. I used a combination of Parallels and Boot Camp (when the software is too slow on Parallels because of graphics) for a number of years, and this was mostly OK, although Parallels didn't really work as advertised. It often crashed, but fortunately, the way I set it up, the data stayed in the physical Boot Camp partition, so all I had to do was to create a new VM.

Then with my current combination of hardware (Mac Pro 2008) and OS (10.6) , I wasn't able to run Boot Camp, so I bought a cheap Windows machine. In the end, I think it is a better solution: simpler, and gives a full, real Windows environment.

[Kirk Gittings]

What two programs? Maybe there are specific issues that need to be looked at...

--Darin

Quadtone RIP and Neat Receipts (which I can't seem to get an answer from them about my archives transferring over to the Mac version).

[Daniel Moore]

I can't offer any advice as to running those programs virtually but my experience with current versions of Parallels has been free of complaint. It's easy enough to download a trial of Parallels and see if it's viable before spending on it.

[Peter De Smidt]

Quad tone rip is available in a mac version.

"Mac: OS X Leopard 10.5 or Snow Leopard 10.6 or Lion 10.7 (any recommended),
Tiger 10.4 (upgrade recommended, but can use version 2.6.2)

Windows: Windows 7, XP Pro (either recommended), Vista, XP Home, 2000.
Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the Operating Systems are supported."
From QTR's homepage.

[Scott Davis]

I had issues with running BootCamp on my MacBook Pro - one of the things it doesn't do is have a thermostat app, so it won't initiate cooling when running Windows in BootCamp. Your laptop will get hot enough to fry eggs (and batteries). My recommendation would be a VM solution.

[kmack]

Another plug for VirtualBox. I use it daily in my RL job as an application developer. I have to run several flavors of Windows and Linux on my Mac for testing purposes and have found VirtualBox simple to install and administer. It starts fast and the guest OS boots quickly.

[Jim Andrada]

+1 for Fusion. It has a "unity" mode where Window apps run on the same desktop as Mac apps. I got it to run Sony Vegas video editor when I'm traveling - also have a Linux Virtual Machine running


Virtualization has been around since IBM introduced it in 1967 -it isn't something new and untested