How well does Windows 7 run on iMacs?

I've heard reports of Windows 7 running a little buggy via bootcamp on the Macbook Pros.

However, I was just wondering if the same was the case with the more powerful iMacs.

Moreover, which do people generally prefer for their Windows fix Parallels or Bootcamp?

I use OS X pretty extensively but I also have a desktop PC that I might be replacing with an iMac ... If I do, I will still need access to Windows for a couple of reasons and I'm just wondering what's the best way to go about it.

 

The problems with Windows and Macbooks are related to the battery life being much less in windows and the trackpad not working as perfect as in OSX.

Since the iMacs dont have a batteries or trackpads I would expect no problems at all. Will run just like a PC.

 

It runs hotter, but other than that it is fine.

D.

 

Yep, thats what I experienced when I had W7 on mine

 

May be there will be some driver issues with your magic mouse. AFAIK there's no official windows driver for the magic mouse(for multitouch, kinetic scrolling etc).

 

Well I don't intend to use a magic mouse, that thing either has terrible ergonomics or I have unusually large hands.

In any event, I'm glad to hear it won't adversely affect anything ... You think it'll be a better idea to just virtualize instead? I really don't see the benefit of having a local partition for W7 considering I'm only going to be running a few programs on it.

 

VMware Fusion has the ability to let you run your bootcamp install of Windows as a virtual machine in OS X. It really depends on what your reason for needing to run Windows is; if it's for games, then obviously a native install would be ideal. If it's just a few applications in Windows, then virtualization should be fine, depending on the system and resources available.

 

I find parallels to run better than vmware, but either is fine.
I actually have started to just run separate partitions with bootcamp so I have full resources (and the reboot is actually quite fast using bootchamp in osx and bootcamp in windows)

D.

 

Since Parallels 6, they've pretty much taken the lead, but VMWare used to be better.

I'm using pre-released next version of VMWare Fusion, and its very nice, but Legally I cannot give any details about it at all (though people seem to anyways, even after agreeing to non-disclosure)... but don't expect Parallels to always be the best.

 

Agreed.
I always try out both when the new versions come out and then stick with the one that works the best.

But, I am finding separate partitions to work pretty good lately.

D.