Hello.

I recently got a MacBook Pro and am trying to determine my best course of action to run Vista Ultimate on this machine, outside of Boot Camp.

If anyone here is using a Mac and using either Parallels or VMFusion, kindly share your experience with Vista in this scenario.

Based on Interweb reading it seems VMFusion does better with Vista than Parallels and Parallels is better for XP.

Thank you in advance for your help and for no flaming posts about running Windoze on a Mac.

 

PS - Mods, sorry if this is the wrong section. I did not think this would fall under computer gaming.

 

This belongs in the IT subforum.....


















.

 

Why isn't Bootcamp an option?

on the IT subforum. I have moderating experience at a very large forum!!

 

Christmas avatar

 

Yeah.

 

He probably still has his lights up too....

 

Since you have a MBP you should a better experience than I do running Vista with Fusion on a Macbook. How much RAM do you have? You might want to look into bumping your RAM up. You want to be able to give Vista at least a 1gb of RAM to work with preferably 2gb. On the Macbook I use it's got 4gb of RAM which is a bit of an overkill but when running Fusion it allows me to do 2gb for each OS. Graphic wise since the MBP doesn't have integrated graphics you should be able to run Vista's Aero graphics I believe with Fusion, IDK though. I myself prefer to use Boot camp. Actually you should set up a bootcamp partition and install Vista and then you can use Fusion and it will recognize the boot camp partition and can work off of that. This way if you only want to run Vista you can do that and you'll still run OS X/Vista at the same time.

 

I have parallels and XP runs fine on my iMac, but I got 4GB of RAM. RAM is key.

I think I've used it twice, though.

 

Did you just switch to the Mac platform as well or is your MBP just a new machine? The reason I'm asking is that a whole lot of people that setup Windows on their Mac right after switching platforms do it basically just to cling to what they're used to. Talk to a lot of these same people six months later and they'll tell you they no longer bother to boot Windows on their machine.

Cliffs: If you just switched platforms, only setup Windows if you have a specific need to not just because you can.

 

+1

I used windowz on my mac for a few months then rid of it. Almost 2 years later, I have absolutely no use for it.

 

Winblowz lol, dont' waste your time. if you have a specific app you must run then use XP it's still better than Vista.

 

yea its like bent09

 

i use parallels and XP routinely without problem.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I just got the machine yesterday and have a 4GB RAM upgrade on order. Memory is so friggin' cheap right now.

If I understand you correctly, I can load Vista for native use in Boot Camp and if I install VMFusion later it will recognize the Boot Camp config and allow me to run virtual within Mac OS? Meaning, I will then have the choice of run native Vista or running Vista virtually in a program window using Mac OS? That sounds like the best plan.

 

'

The machine is a day old. For now, I wanted to keep Windows for Office and any other just in case items. I have moved all of my multi-media files, etc to the Mac. I imagine I will use Windows less and less in the coming months.

 

Paralells is slow as shit

VMFusion I like better...heres what you do.

Install using bootcamp because its easy, just do it stop being a bitch.
Then just have VMfusion look for your bootcamp partition, wa la!

The end

Parallels I don't like because it makes its own bootable version of windows which if corrupted can fuck you over, well thats what happened to me.

VMFusion just uses your current setup and its easy

BTW XP > Vista

Only because it boots much quicker. Plus when I feel like going over to my XP side its insane how fast it is.

Info: I have July 07 Intel MBP which I am using right now. Its the first in line or the cheapest 15 inch one.

 

If you're going to use Office just use Pages or Microsoft Office Mac 2008.

 

parallels can use a boot camp partition just as easily as VMWare can JesusJuice...

 

You got it.

At work, I have Windows XP installed via BootCamp and VMware Fusion will recognize the Bootcamp partition without a hitch. Then you have the option of running Windows natively or in VMware Fusion. It's pretty slick. I don't use Windows very often, so it's nice to be able to run inside of OS X. However, there are rare occasions where I really need horsepower, so then I reboot into Windows and run it natively.

 

Yup, I got the student version of office for mac, it was dirt cheap.

The files sometimes get a little screwy when going from my work windows to home mac machines, but it's just size and font changes usually.

 

memory FTW

 

I've been running XP on Boot Camp for 4 or 5 months now and haven't had any major issues.

Parallels is gong to be slow.

If I were you, watch memory deals and try to snag a 4GB memory kit. I snagged 4GB Kingston RAM for approx $80 and it was so worth it.

 

There's an IT forum? I thought it's a GAMES forum? That's why I never post my computer questions in there.

 

I don't think the Mac Mini I got will run Vista....Probably a good thing.

 

What bout XP?

 

Maybe..But I got it to run the Max OS....I have 3 laptops with Windows on it..

 

Sweet. I will probably take a crack at getting Boot Camp up and running this weekend. When my 4GB kit arrives next week, I will install Fusion and have it pick-up the partition. It will be great to be able to run Vista in native or virtual mode from the same install.



Great feedback everyone!

 

I dont think mac minis have intel cores, I could be wrong but dont feel like looking.

 

latest mac mini is a 2.2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo

Whiskers...i have vista loaded in bootcamp on a 1.8Ghz Mini with 2GB of RAM...it's running pretty smooth

 

I have the 1.8Ghz with 1GB of Ram...

 

Nah, it's been a running joke for a while that we need one though...

Also a Youtube subforum, a movie(xyz) subforum, and a hot chicks related subforum...

 

Just finished installing Vista and Office Ultimate on the BootCamp partition. Worked flawlessly.

I did have one small issue, maybe someone else has had the same problem. In Windows, I cannot enable "tap" to click. It works fine on the Mac side and works with no problem on my other two laptops, I cannot get it to work on the Vista side. There was no check-box within the mouse settings and nothing in the icon try like some others.

All in all, everything was great. Once my 4GB package arrives, I will give VMFusion a shot to further leverage the BootCamp partition.

Thanks again for everyone's help!

 

Great.

Now take down the holiday decorations.

 

Yeah you'll have to talk to Apple about that. There's no official support for tap click in boot camp. You will however have the tap click back while running Vista with with Fusion.

 

Thank you. Sucks that it is not supported, but I am glad to know it was not me.

My 4GB kit has shipped, so I'll be getting Fusion going next week!

 

What RAM did you get?

 

I ordered the 4GB kit from Crucial. It was $90 and change for the kit. I chose Crucial since they guarantee it will work with the machine.

 

Has anyone here tried to use the USB Nintendo wi-fi connector with a Boot Camp install of Vista? Can't seem to get that thing working for my DS.

 

That shouldn't have anything to do with boot camp. Boot camp has been seamless for me. Everything you can do on regular Vista should work flawlessly on boot camp vista...except right click