Run Windows XP on MAC

[sanking]

I have a couple of PC laptops that are dedicated to running a few old plotting programs that won't run on the MAC. I figure that I can get rid of these machines and run the PC programs on one of my MACs but have no idea which emulation program would be best. If possible I would like to be able to switch between MAC OS and Windows without having to reboot the computer, which I had to do last time I used an emulation program.

Both of my MACs are fairly recent machines running OS 10.6.6, with 10 gb of RAM.

Advice and opinions appreciated.

Sandy

[Ed Kelsey]

I use Bootcamp but you do have to reboot to change the OS. Parallels Desktop allows switching back and forth without rebooting but you have to pay for it. Also I understand Bootcamp runs better than Parallels.

[QT Luong]

I've used Parallels, but I've never been satisfied with the performance and stability of the software. My sister-in-law seems happy with VMWare Fusion. None of them require rebooting, but they are emulators, whereas with Bootcamp, you run Windows natively which is much faster, in particular with graphics. Personally, I found it simpler just to buy an inexpensive Windows laptop.

[drew.saunders]

I have VMWare on my work iMac with XP, Windows 7 and Ubuntu. Running all at once isn't so hot, but any one of them works just fine. I used Parallels in the past, but it was much more buggy than VMWare.

[Joanna Carter]

I use Parallels. It is not emulation software, it is a virtual machine, running natively on the Intel-based hardware. But, be warned, you need memory (at least 2GB, if not more) to get the best out of any VM; don't forget you are effectively sharing all your resources like memory and CPUs.

But Parallels does allow you to run both Windows and Mac programs side by side, allowing copying and pasting between the two and reading/moving/copying files between the two machines.

[paulr]

Isn't there an open source paralleliaztion package? I read a good review of one a while ago. Supposedly it worked reliably but lacked a few advanced features of the commercial packages.

[SocalAstro]

You can also try VirtualBox made by Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) - the best thing about it is that it's FREE :-)

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Cheers,
Leon

[Leigh]

I run several windoze apps on my MacBook Pro using Crossover.

It's a stand-alone virtual machine that doesn't require booting into any version of windoze. It just runs as an app under OS X.

- Leigh

[keith schreiber]

I've used Parallels on my MBP since 2006 to run BTZS Plotter, the PC version of QTR, Quicken and Quickbooks. I can't recall having any problems.

Another option (that does not require purchasing Windows) is Crossover. While not quite as pretty as Parallels (and probably Fusion as well), it works with all the apps listed above.

~ Keith

[clay harmon]

I have both Parallels and VMware Fusion. They both work pretty well, and as long as you have a multi-core Mac, they should all run fine. I can't say I have a preference for one over the other, although Parallels is the most transparent in practice. It puts each Windows program in it's own frame on your Mac desktop. So you really don't even have a windows desktop to interact with, only the particular windows program. You can bring up a Windows desktop by clicking on the Parallels program in the Finder menu, but there really is not much need to. As others have pointed out, loads of memory will make everything run smoother. The old line credited to Wallis Simpson that 'you can't be too rich or too thin' needs to be appended with 'or have too much memory'.