Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Windows?

Mar 5, 2008 9:17PM PST

Hey everyone, I'm looking to get Windows on my Macbook Pro. I was wondering what you think would be the best way of doing this, such as getting Leopard with Boot Camp, VMWare Fusion, etc. Thanks.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Fusion
Mar 5, 2008 9:44PM PST

I'm sure there'll be others on here with much more informed advice, but I'm using VMware Fusion and found it very easy to install and use. I am running it on the very latest iMac 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme with 2GB of RAM and Leopard 10.5.2, so I don't know if you might encounter performance issues with lesser machines.

I have to run MS Access, SQL Server and Visual Studio and have had no problems to date. It's great being able to able to swap between the PC and Mac windows at a click, plus the PC can be 'suspended' rather than shut down and so starts up again in seconds - far faster than my PCs do, even taking into account the 20 seconds or so the Mac takes to start up.

- Collapse -
Specs
Mar 5, 2008 11:24PM PST

Well, here's the details on my mac.

Mac OS X 10.4.11
2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

What do you think?

- Collapse -
Not a problem
Mar 6, 2008 12:10AM PST

You can run Parallels or VMFusion with no problem with your machine.

I don't think BootCamp is an option any longer. I believe that when the Beta trial period ended, it was no longer available as a working download.

P

- Collapse -
?
Mar 6, 2008 2:16AM PST

Doesn't Boot Camp come with Leopard now?

That is why I am asking. As I can get a discount on Leopard, bringing it to $75, which is about the price of these other programs. Since they're all about the same, it's just a matter of finding out which one is better.

- Collapse -
Yes it does
Mar 6, 2008 4:54AM PST

but your original post said:
"I'm looking to get Windows on my Macbook Pro. I was wondering what you think would be the best way of doing this, such as getting Leopard with Boot Camp, VMWare Fusion, etc." which would indicate that you do not actually have Leopard right now and that you were only considering it as an option.
Using Boot Camp is completely different from using the other programs like VMFusion or Parallels. These two produce a virtual machine while Boot Camp produces an Actual machine. Your HD is partitioned and you boot into Windows or Mac OS X, NOT both at the same time.
Boot Camp has its advantages, faster and is able to use all the computers processing power and RAM while the Virtual Machine shares that.
If you need to move from one to the other, seamlessly, then Boot Camp is NOT for you. However, if you do not mind having to reboot to get from one to the other, it will be fine.

P

- Collapse -
Much Misinformation Here
Mar 7, 2008 12:49PM PST

I use Boot Camp for one very good reason: A PC program that I use doesn't run under Parallels or VMware Fusion.

There is an excellent little utility called MacDrive, which, when installed on any computer running Windows will read and write to all Mac formatted partitions and drives. Cost: $50, I think.

There is no evidence that Apple will discontinue supporting Boot Camp. That doesn't mean they wouldn't, there just isn't any evidence that they will.

Finally, while it is time consuming to reboot from OS X to Windows and vise versa, I believe, though I'm not qualified to say for sure, that computer's resources are used more efficiently in Boot Camp. If someone knows whether this is true or not I would like to know.

- Collapse -
Best Way
Mar 7, 2008 1:29PM PST

I have a MacBook Pro with 10.5.2 and i use VM ware fusion without a bootcamo partition and for me creating a virtual machine and switch between windows and mac os

- Collapse -
No misinformation
Mar 7, 2008 9:19PM PST

Boot Camp, as a separate download, was only available as a Beta product and the license expired when Leopard, which has Boot Camp built in, was released.
Once Leopard was released, Apple stopped supporting the Beta version and will only support the version that is built into Leopard.

It is not available now as a separate download from Apple. That said, if you installed the later versions of the Beta software, it should be possible to continue to use your Windows partition. Apple's statement about Boot Camp can be found Here

There may be Windows programs that do not run under virtualization and for these, Boot Camp will work fine.

You are correct in regard to the use of resources. Once you are booted into Windows, via Boot Camp, your machine becomes a Winbox and is running Windows natively, without having to support OS X and the virtualization software.
It runs better, partly because it can concentrate on only running the one OS.

It was noted in a number of journals that, prior to Vista being released, the Vista Compatibility Software issued by MS, showed that the Mac was the best machine to run Vista on.

P

- Collapse -
Correct Me Please
Mar 7, 2008 10:56PM PST

Boot Camp is included on the Leopard installation disk. This version of Boot Camp is not a beta version. The beta version was partly to satisfy people who didn't want to wait for Leopard and it was never supported by Apple. It was a 'use at your own risk' offer.

That means, if you want to use Boot Camp in non beta form, you must upgrade to Leopard.

One of us doesn't know what we're talking about.

Will a third party step in please. I will gladly admit my lack of knowledge if I'm wrong.

- Collapse -
misunderstanding, not misinformation
Mar 8, 2008 10:29PM PST

Boot Camp is included in Leopard, it is not a Beta. (mrmac said that )

Boot Camp was issued as a separate download long before Leopard was near release.

It was issued as a Beta, with little or no "official" support. Some Apple support techs would help if you called, others would just say it was "use at your own risk"

If you don't want to buy Leopard and you have a late version of Boot Camp that you downloaded and installed, it will continue to work. Unlike the early versions.
This will still be a Beta (robertmro, mrmac & Apple said that) and will not be "officially" supported.

For a supported version of Boot Camp, Leopard is needed (robertmro said that)

Looks like both are right.

Herbert

- Collapse -
Thank You saywhatnow
Mar 8, 2008 10:48PM PST

I rest my case.

- Collapse -
bootcamp as actual machine PC vs Parallels as virtual machin
May 9, 2008 1:27PM PDT

You are on the right track. It is absolutely better for the most part and more supported to use bootcamp as actual machine PC. Many of the Microsoft and adobe softwares and others do not support or recognize the virtual machine. It tired doing both bootcamp and parallels- even bought softwares for both to respect licensing and lost the licenses and authorizations for many software apps on the parallels. Went back and forth for hours and months with adobe and microsoft and HP. Bottom line- they don't support the virtual machines for their software. You can't go back and forth using parallels or bootcamp between the two and have the best of both worlds until those companies change how the registrations and key recognitions and authorizations work. Until then, bootcamp runs much much much better. Those are my two cents.

- Collapse -
Tried Both...
Mar 7, 2008 10:23PM PST

I've tried both VMWare Fusion and Parallels, and I prefer Fusion over Parallels. I have an identical mac-- with 2gb of ram in it, and both run very well together. The integrated feature-- "Unity"-- in Fusion is quite good. If you do this, I recommend that you use Fusion or Parallels and not Bootcamp. When you setup Bootcamp, it permanently partitions your hard drive, making it impossible to change partition sizes once setup, although either of these pieces of software can run from a Bootcamp partition. If you allow the software to set up your partition, the size of the partition continues to be adjustable, so if you find that you're out of "mac space" and need to use some of your windows hard drive space to make it work, you can adjust the partition sizes. Both Fusion and Parallels are quite stable, on the whole-- although Fusion is less expensive.

- Collapse -
Also....
Mar 7, 2008 10:26PM PST

I started with Tiger, and moved to Leopard... Fusion and Parallels run equally well on both.

- Collapse -
A Final Thought
Mar 7, 2008 11:07PM PST

VMware Fusion and Parallels seem to be pretty well matched, from the posts.

The only situation that I would suggest using Boot Camp is, if you are using some high end PC program, like 3DMax, and wanted to get the best performance from your Mac in Windows. Otherwise Fusion and Parallels seem to be equally good choices.

- Collapse -
BootCamp & Leopard
Mar 11, 2008 12:19AM PDT

Unless you have a specific need to run both Windows <i>and</i> OSX at the same time, I strongly recommend you go with BootCamp. I have a 2GHz MacBook and it's a pretty speedy laptop on either operating system.

Don't forget to get good security software for the Windows install. Running through BootCamp, your MacBook Pro is as susceptible to malware as any other Windows-based system.

- Collapse -
Again I Would To Add MacDrive
Mar 11, 2008 12:41AM PDT

I agree with this post.

But again I find MacDrive indispensable. It makes it possible to read and write to all your Mac formatted partitions and drives directly from Windows.

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

- Collapse -
Problem installing SQL Server 2000 Enterprise
Apr 21, 2008 3:25AM PDT

I switched back to Mac after several years on PCs. I have the latest MacBook Pro, 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

I am running VMware Fusion with Windows XP Professional. I am trying to install SQL Server 200 Enterprise edition, but I get an error that the software is not compatible with my operating system. Strange thing is that I can install and run the SQL Server 2000 evaluation edition with no issue.

Any ideas?

- Collapse -
That's right!
Apr 21, 2008 4:20AM PDT
- Collapse -
Ugh
Apr 21, 2008 4:27AM PDT

Ahhhh, wrong edition. I have Workgroup laying around somewhere...

Thanks!

- Collapse -
Not a developer
Apr 21, 2008 4:31AM PDT

I'm not a developer. Know enough to be dangerous, but apparently not that dangerous.

- Collapse -
How about my favorite MYSQL?
Apr 21, 2008 4:33AM PDT

With that you can run it natively on Macosx and it will interface just super with your code.

- Collapse -
No experience with MySQL
Apr 21, 2008 4:49AM PDT

I've never tried to run the application with MySQL as the backend. The system requirements for the application that I'm running say that SQL Server 2000 is required, although 2005 will work with some mods to the code. Since I'm running it locally as well, I'll give it a shot and if it blows up, no one gets hurt!

Thanks for the suggestion.

- Collapse -
SQL Problems on mac
May 9, 2008 1:31PM PDT

call the company that produces SQL and get to the actual system engineers- way past usual customer support and ask if that version is supported on a virtual machine as opposed to an actual machine. If it doesn't support operating on a virtual- then that is why you are having the problem- happens with some of the more recent software apps and registrations keys.

- Collapse -
MySQL doesn't have this issue.
May 9, 2008 10:45PM PDT

At least not a peep or complaint from my buddy running this today. The nice part is that while he started in VM land, the move later was to the native version.