Running Windows on a Mac: Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop & VMware Fusion

what's its graphics requirements?you know you cant play anything graphically intensive on your virtual machine eh?

 

Okay so heres the thing, I love Macbooks, they are just perfect for me they look amazing and have pretty good spec's. The only problem is... I really really really don't want to use Mac OS =[ My question is, on a scale from 1 to 10 how hard is it to put the Bootcamp thingy on, Also if i get a windows laptop with the same exact specs as the macbook, will the windows laptop perform better than the macbook with bootcamp windows?

 

Boot Camp is very easy. Just run the Boot Camp Assistant application in OS X (Applications/Utilities), and follow the instructions.

There is a possibility that an identically speced PC laptop will perform better than a Macbook when running Windows. The reason for this would be due to the drivers - large manufacturers such as HP or Dell spend much more effort perfecting their drivers for Windows than Apple. However, you can install 3rd party (non-Apple) drivers in Windows on a Mac to improve performance, but that would involve extra effort on your behalf.

 

i agree with budding. i advise you to install w7 rc and then buy it when it gets released. don't waste your money on vista. windows 7 solves a lot of compatibility issues and it's less resource eating when your it through a virtual machine.

 

Windows XP isnt a bad choice either if you have the cd for that.

 

I use XP and no complaints for me. Although it did have a hiccup and didn't want to recognize the ethernet at one point, but that was no biggie.

 

Hi there,

I'm thinking about buying a 15.4" Macbook Pro. I would mainly be running it in Windows (for work). However, I've heard that MBPs get poor battery life running windows in bootcamp (i.e., nowhere close to the advertised 7-8 hours in OSX). Battery life is important for me, so it could be a deal breaker.

Could anyone who works in windows on a MBP tell me what your experience is with the battery life?

Your feedback is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

if you need to mainly use Windows... and you cant get by using just a few Windows apps in a virtual machine and mostly OSX apps... then you should just buy a Windows machine.

 

To answer your question, I get about 2 hours; give and take a bit more.

Although doh does have some good points.

 

So that means only 25 % of normal battery time when running windows under Bootcamp ?

Is this the case for all models ?

 

^^ You have to remeber Colton has the Rev A Unibody Macbook (13inch Macbook Pro) which has the removable battery which is weaker than the new immovable batteries. The Unibody MB batteries were advertised under 4Hours of battery life so its about 50-60%. So you should expect 3 1/2 to 4 hours with the new mbps.

 

does anybody know the battery runtime of new mbp's under bootcamp?

 

That all depends on what kinda ur running.. I mean programs..
But its definitely less than the runtime on mac.. because windows has some bull always running on the background.

 

i get 2hrs on windows bootcamp and 3-4hrs on os x..what about the new gen mbp?

 

I would suspect with the ratio increase in mac os x with the new gen mbp the ratio should be the same for boot camp so 3-4 hours.

 

i would suspect windows users will now get ~2.30hrs using bootcamp.

 

Well i get 2 hours on mines so I would assume they would get a bit more than that.

 

same here. 2hrs timed. but i'm sure apple will release a new version of bootcamp with the release of snow leopard and let's pray the new drivers are battery life oriented.

 

Will XP Home with SP2 slipstreamed work OK, as i read at the beginning of the thread that damage can be done.

"An authentic, 32-bit Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition or Professional with Service Pack 2 (or later) disc or"

 

Yeah, slipstreamed SP2 will be fine.

 

In bootcamp can you use any Nvidia driver on the 9600m GT , or has apple got some weird device id ect, that means only apple driver work.

Thanks.

 

any driver you want.

 

I don't think this question is worth its own topic, so I'll just ask it here.
How is the support on macbook for a non-windows OS? Google's new upcoming OS looks very interesting to me. Would it be possible to install that on a macbook (and still keeping OSX of course and Windows via bootcamp) ?

 

you can install linux w/o problem.

and regarding that new OS...C'on, it was barely announced, we don't even know what PC's will it support!

 

Do the Fn keys work fine in Windows , brightness, volume, keyboard brightness, ect.

Thanks.

 

AFAIK,yes,they do.

 

There's an option for all that I think in the bootcamp program while running windows.

 

Tell me it aint so, I already asked if i could use normal Nvidia display drivers and was told it was ok, nobody mentioned it caused the brightness to lock on full, I just got rid of a Samsung Notebook that did that.

EDIT : Is display drivers from the Nvida website OK, but the Microsoft ones though the update bad.

 

Yes the notebook drivers from Nvidia are actually pretty darn good. Also you can go to Laptopvideo2go.com and downloaded drivers for your card (this is where all the notebook enthusiasts go to download "better" graphics cards so they can get better results out of their gaming laptops).

 

That does not answer my question.

 

I used nVidia drivers on mu old uMBP and it worked great-no such issues!

 

Good News Good News

 

Had XP running with Boot camp but I've decided to swap over to Vista.

 

under windows 7 (running either through bootcamp or parallels/vmware), does the macbook support the windows xp compatibility mode? this apparently requires some kind of hardware virtualization, so i'm wondering if the macbook can do that

 

The Macbook has an Intel CPU which supports Intel Virtualization. Therefore, I would think that it will be able to run XP Compatibility mode in Windows 7.

 

Anyone know of a decent fan control in Vista running through Boot Camp. I've tried speedfan and lubbao(sp?). Speedfan is getting a reading but I can't seem to set a higher speed, running Red Alert 3, runs fine but it's getting near 80C, too hot for my liking >.>

 

I don't think there is any fan control over on the windows side. Input Remapper did work great but then for some reason it does not work with the unibody line.

 

Yeah I read the same thing I did read though by setting the fans in smc and then rebooting it works, haven't tried that yet though.

EDIT: Yup that works nice 8-10C cooler!

 

Yea I adjust SMC in OS X before I boot into windows for fan control but sometimes its annoying when i stop playing games and then want to browse the net or do some chatting having the 6000 rpm fans go. To bad input remapper is bonkers.

 

Yeah I had the fans going fast today while I install a few of my games....after that was done I just wanted to download and install a few plug-ins....fans going fast was pointless then...hopefully something comes out soon.

 

Excuse my ignorance on the topic - what's the deal with you guys cranking the fans on Windows? When I played games the fans seemed to spin quite a lot.

 

Its just when I was playing Red Alert 3 yesterday it was running around 75C so that's a little too hot for me Just don't want the GPU running that hot!

 

Ah, ic. I *try* to avoid monitoring temps; ignorance is bliss

 

Oh so do I, I'm not ever that much of a gamer...but I put my hand on the MBP to move it and noticed it was pretty damn hot ! Got a little worried

 

I can't argue that point. I definitely did notice that the wasd keys were a bit hot...I'm guessing that's where the video card is located.

 

75c is no to bad most 9600m GT`s run at 80-90c in some systems.

 

like, for example my HP HDX 18t,elitebook 8530 or Dell m4400...

 

Yeah it really is fine, not even bothering to set SMC now, everything runs fine at 2000 RPM.

Actually got another issue that doesn't warrant a thread, I'm having a sound issue, its like laggy/choppy sound. I've read that it's a problem with the WLAN, tried searching the net and downloading drivers but the links I had found are gone or are the wrong ones, anyone experienced this?

Only happened once so far though...not a big issue because I only use Vista for games and programming. Sound is perfect while the games run for some strange reason :O

 

What audio chipset is in yours, also what make of 500gb hdd did you get Hitachi?

 

500GB 7200rpm, that would be seagate 7200.4.