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

If you google Wine and zMUD you will find that some people have used it successful.

There are also OSX native clients such as Savitor

 

I've tried a plethora of OSX native mud clients and they've all been pretty crappy. Either buggy, lacking important features or too slow. Trust me, I've been hunting for a good OSX client for years

 

Well you have 2 choices:
1. Try to get it running with Wine, Winebottle or Wineskin. There is a post in the zMUD forum that someone got it running in Linux. Maybe it will work maybe not. You can ask doh123 for help. He seems to have experience.
Advantage of this is that its free. Wine programs start faster than starting a VM and than starting the program. It will also use less resources than a VM.

2. Make a small VM with 1gb ram 1 cpu and 10gb hard disk. Install XP and run the program. Dont think you need more than that. This will work for sure. But you need to buy Parallels or VMware fusion and you need an XP license if you dont have one. You can also try Virtualbox. Its free.

 

Wine Wrapper worked like a friggen' charm. Thanks again everyone.

 

Wineskin? I just like to know when its helped people out, or any info on what could make it better.

 

What is the best way using Bootcamp install to control cooling fans under Windows 7 pro 64-bit? I have searched but a lot of links are invalid now.

 

I used a software called smcfan control its free and works really good, what you do is you boot into mac and set the fans at say around 3000RPM some heavy gaming or heavy cpu tasks you might need higher fan like 3500RPM

I deleted my bootcamp partition on my i7 Quadcore MBP15 and settled for parallels I've used VMware fusion too but found parallels much more snappier and stable with no heat at all.

Other than gaming virtual windows on parallels is flawless and all multitouch gestures supported compared to VMware.

My new MBP15
i7QM 2.0
4GB
256GB SSD Apple

On mac virtual windows runs flawless with tiny impact on cpu very stable no heating issues whatsoever on windows a little warm, fans setup up a bit higher.

 

Are there frequent reports of problems with Parallels Desktop 6? I'm coming across a lot on the web starting at amazon.

And does wineskin allow me to use windows apps without actually buying windows?

 

Wineskin uses Wine... which is made to direct run Windows software, it does not run Windows at all, so no Windows OS is needed. This can lead to compatibility problems though of course, but Wine is improving all the time... when something works good with it, its nice, but not everything will work, or work 100% right, so its not a full-rproof way to go. If you've ever used Crossover, it uses basically the same tech behind the scenes, its just focused on bundling everything up to work like a Mac app, instead of launching a program like Crossover that then handles running the software.

 

@doh123 thanks

I'd like to know whther there are frequent reports of problems with Parallels Desktop 6? I'm coming across a lot on the web starting at amazon.

 

Personally I'd go with VM Ware's product over that, just because it's VM Ware, and this is what they've been doing on an enterprise level for 90 bajillion years.

 

Can parallels 6 satisfactorily run on a 2010 mbp i7 2.6 dual core with 4gb ram and a 5400rpm hdd?

 

I've got both VMware Fusion 3.X and Parallels 6 installed on MBP15 i7 2.0 SSD256GB running both win7 and winXP and I find parallels much snappier, overall performance and stability vs VMWare Fusion. They are very similar offerings however I found parallels to be a bit better thanks to:
- multitouch gestures (pinch to zoom, double tap etc.)
- performance (you can costumize performance or longer battery life)
- Deeply integrated in the Mac OS swithcing between windows is seamless experience, apps integrated in doc.

Whatever you choose, MacOS is well optimized to handle both with barely any cpu usage. Other than playing games I never dualboot, virtualization on MacOS is superb, much better than Ubuntu other linux distros I used. Since I barely play games I ditched bootcamp a couple of days after my MBP purchase.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhu5lumSiVQ
Watch my video demonstrating overall performance Parallels 6, feel free to ask any questions. EDIT: watch closely I shut the parallels app down completely, the software is completely integrated and all windows apps are indexed so when I search for Internet Explorer I type EXPL... it opens virtual machine, opens explorer, connects online virtual windows in less than 3-4 seconds. I updated my youtube with info...

If you have any questions feel free to ask
/ swestar

 

It's new hardware, it'll certainly run fine..the issue is more whether what you want to run inside it can run satisfactorily on a non-native OS, or whether you'd be better off booting to Windows for whatever it is.

 

How is the Flash performance under Parallels/VMware Fusion compared to running Windows 7 Pro 64 natively (bootcamp)?

My girlfriend purchased a 2011 2.2 i7 MBP15 and she loves Bloons Tower Defense 4...except for the fact it doesn't work properly with OSX's latest Flash plug-in. Once you get more than probably 5-10 attributes on screen at once, they begin to disappear and leave a white squares where you can no longer see the course or items.

I thought maybe it was her MBP specficially but I tested loading a game mid-way on 3 different 2011 MBP15's and they all suffered the same issue.

She loves playing this as well as a few other NinjaKiwi games so I need to install W7, my only question is which route to take? She likes the idea of not having to reboot to use Parallels/Fusion but if Flash performance isn't around 80-90%, I'd rather save $79.99 and just use bootcamp.

I'm sure this has been probably been mentioned but any students thinking about dual-booting should pull the trigger on MS's student promotion. They're offering W7 Pro 64 for $29.99 via DigitalRiver. They offered this promotion last year but I waited and missed out myself!

 

Thanks for the video, i was wondering how this all would come along..propably ready to pull the trigger and put parallels on my wifes macbook now

QUOTE=sweswe234;7510411]I've got both VMware Fusion 3.X and Parallels 6 installed on MBP15 i7 2.0 SSD256GB running both win7 and winXP and I find parallels much snappier, overall performance and stability vs VMWare Fusion. They are very similar offerings however I found parallels to be a bit better thanks to:
- multitouch gestures (pinch to zoom, double tap etc.)
- performance (you can costumize performance or longer battery life)
- Deeply integrated in the Mac OS swithcing between windows is seamless experience, apps integrated in doc.

Whatever you choose, MacOS is well optimized to handle both with barely any cpu usage. Other than playing games I never dualboot, virtualization on MacOS is superb, much better than Ubuntu other linux distros I used. Since I barely play games I ditched bootcamp a couple of days after my MBP purchase.

YouTube - ‪MBP15 elitebook 8560p‬‏
Watch my video demonstrating overall performance Parallels 6, feel free to ask any questions. EDIT: watch closely I shut the parallels app down completely, the software is completely integrated and all windows apps are indexed so when I search for Internet Explorer I type EXPL... it opens virtual machine, opens explorer, connects online virtual windows in less than 3-4 seconds. I updated my youtube with info...

If you have any questions feel free to ask
/ swestar[/QUOTE]

 

I think you try out a demo of parallels desktop 6 not sure if there's a demo of vmware fusion try them for yourself and see how they handle your requirements.

 

When I loaded Windows on my MBP, the sound did not work. The solution turned out to be to load OSX while running windows which loaded the necessary drivers. A fringe benefit is that the touchpad works much better in Windows, though, oddly, an external mouse now does not work as well. Just passing this along.

 

ok here's an updated video with comments on virtual windows on mac, heating and temperature, ssd, cpu performance. Enjoy!

YouTube - ‪Macbook Pro 15 2011 i7 running parallels virtual windows vs bootcamp‬‏
Macbook Pro 15 2011 i7 running parallels virtual windows vs bootcamp

 

That was a helpful video. My MBP is a couple of years older than yours. I wonder if that would make a difference in Parallels performance. I have not tried it yet. I do notice that my MBP runs hotter in Windows, though I have not tried to adjust the fan.

 

I'm not very familiar with MacOS, and am looking to buy the 2011 MBA. Reading about Boot Camp, the instructions imply the need to dual-boot MS and MacOS. But, is there anything to stop one from booting off the win7 dvd and installing over any pre-existing partitions?

 

Not 100% sure what you're asking. You're wanting to wipe out the OS X install completely? I'm not sure that you can do that, and probably definitely shouldn't, if for not other reason than to make sure you can install any firmware updates or drivers or whatever that require OS X.

But you should be able to use the vast majority of the drive for Windows 7 if you want to-just leave a bit for OS X to run when you set it up.

 

Thanks, Wolfpup. And, yes, I seek to completely remove MacOS. So, firmware updates cannot be installed via. Windows?

 

Has anyone tried running virtualization software like VMWare or parallels on lion? If so, any problems with features like the system resume or automatic termination features that are in lion? I plan on upgrading when I get back from my work trip.

 

My VMWare has been behaving as usual since I upgraded to Lion. My existing Windows sessions in Snow Leopard resumed in Lion without any problems.

 

Cool, thanks! Do you notice any speed improvements running windows virtually with lion as the host?

 

Nope. Everything worked the same as before for me.

 

I don't *think* so. I'm not sure how much space OS X 10.7 is taking up, but I'd just take out whatever you don't need from the OS X install (well, I guess that's everything in this case, but you know what I mean LOL), and then just leave a bit of extra space for it, and use the rest for Windows. I think you should be able to use the overwhelming majority of the drive for Windows, I think.

 

Is it possible to boot my new 13" Apple Air to an external Crucial 300 256GB SDD loaded with Windows pro 64 bit if the Crucial SDD is connected to the Air with a Thunderbolt cable? (Such a cable isn't yet be available but I'm guessing one will be soon.)

 

Here is a question for the Parallels guru's (or Fusion too)

Is there any way to have a Win7 VM in Parallels 6 that will allow for the use of xpmode? xpmode in Win7 is essentially a fully licensed XP Pro VM that can be run from within Win7. So yes, I'm asking if I can run an XP VM (xpmode) within a Parallels Win7 VM that is based on my existing Win7 bootcamp partition.

I use xpmode in my bootcamp Win7 64 Ultimate partition for when I need to run a windows application that absolutely will only run in an XP environment [*early versions of Oracle Apps which require Oracle J-initiator will not work in Vista or Win7 environments because they do not support the very early versions of java which is what jinitiator is].

I'd like to be able to launch xpmode inside of my win7 Parallels VM (this vm is based on my existing bootcamp partition). But when I try to do that I get a windows error as soon as XPMode tries to startup (which remember is basically an xp vm within the Win7 parallels vm). The error is "hardware does not support virtualization" or somthing to that effect.

When I boot into Win7 natively via bootcamp I don't have any problem going into xpmode. It is only when trying to access xpmode while in the Parallels 6 Win7 VM.



Thanks!

Ben

 

I doubt it would work since xp mode uses virtual pc which requires a processor that has virtualization support. The rub is I'm not sure if parallels reports to the windows vmthat info.

 

Thanks Dbam987 for the reply. I did some google searches and found this thread on the same subject about xpmode within a Win7 vm:

Can't launch Windows XP Mode from Windows 7 Professional - Parallels Forums

I may try some more experimentation to see if I can get it to work. Or I may try Fusion next if I can't get parallels to work with it (from what I read, Fusion does work with Win7 running xpmode virtualization).

In case people are asking themselves why I don't simply install a retail copy of XP Pro into a parallels VM... I've been hesitant to do that because I already have all of my development and MS Office tools setup in Win7. Using xpmode vm from within Win7 allows me to use those two windows environments side by side seamlessly using xpmode's virtual applications. If I install a new retail XP Pro as standalone in a Parallels vm then I'd have to also reinstall all of my dev and office tools that are currently installed in Win7 (and I'd have to pay for those additional licenses too).

 

Huh...that's a really interesting question! :-D Nested virtual machines.

 

Hi. I am just new to this forum. I need your help since I am a new Mac user. I just bought my MBP 15" 2011 i7 8gb last week and Parallels Desktop 6 since I still use Windows apps (photoshop, dreamweaver, pagemaker). I have some questions which I hope you can help answer:

- What Windows version do I need to install in order for me to run the apps above?

- Can I use Win 7 starter (since this is the cheapest and legal copy I can get here in the Phils.)? If not, is Win Home Basic Premium good enough? That would cost my around Php5K but I'm still ok with it as long as it is legal and will run my apps.

- I am just new to Wine (in fact, just came across it a few mins ago!)...will it be able to run my PSCS3, Dreamweaver & Pagemaker?

Thanks so much for all your help!

 

Adobe stuff usually doesn't run that great with anything Wine based. Some older versions work ok... but it doesn't seem worth the hassle when the apps you mentions all have native Mac versions. If you have Adobe license for Windows versions, they usually let you trade them for Mac versions for free 1 time if you call and ask them about it.

 

Or boot to Windows through Boot Camp if the Wine version doesn't work that well.

I *think* any version of Windows will run those...I could be wrong, but I can't think of a reason even Starter wouldn't work, although it's 32-bit only, and Adobe's stuff probably benefits from 64-bit.

 

I have a couple of questions regarding vmware and winxp.

Is it possible to play a multiplayer game (AoE) through gameranger on the VM ?

And is it better to install the vm mcafee plus or install another antivirus within the virtual windows xp?

Thanks in advance =)

Update:
And now I have the answers too..

A1: Yes it is possible but the text in some areas appear different. Also shading in shadows is different. It can be improved a bit if you lower the screen resolution. But stats on the lower right of the screen are unreadable =( gameplay can be tough at times

A2: I installed Avira, it's light weight and I recommend it on virtualmachine.

 

I've had success with Microsoft's Security Essential as well as Norton Internet Security.

 

Hello!

Im thinking of switching to an Macbook Air from a win7 ultrabook. The mac will have win7 only installed. Is there any conserns that I should consider about it?

Are there any issues regarding win7 on mac air these days? What about the drivers? Will the touchpad work smooth in windows and without problems? Is the drivers up-to-date? I know there have been problems before..

 

Nevermind: Everything about win7 on macbook is here:

Running Windows on a Mac (Part 2): The good, the bad and the ugly | ITworld

 

Hey has sb tried installing Windows 8 with Bootcamp on a MacBook Pro?

Greetings
Julian

 

nah.... but it runs in Parallels 7 just fine.

 

yep, it works wonders, however I wouldve liked if they did side scroll support for the trackpad, it would be an awesome metro experience.

However one thing you need to do, when you are installing the bootcamp support in windows, use compatibility mode for windows 7 and it will do it just fine.

I would also advise that you dont attempt to install it from the windows 7 install that you have, otherwise you cant delete the windows.old, since it wont elevate your privileges.

 

I am Lion only at the moment and I am a newbie at Windows on Mac... burning the Bootcamp Windows Support CD... are there any downsides with installing windows 8 form a USB stick
? (I have no DVDs at the moment )

THX and Greetings
Julian

edit: creating a new partition takes hours?...

 

Not sure how long it takes, though I can see it possibly taking a long time if Apple's partition thingee has to move data first (assuming it's able to do that).

Just remember with Windows 8 that it's a not-remotely-ready-for-prime-time OS. If you just want to mess around with it, you may want to do so in like VirtualBox instead (though of course that won't run as well, and won't give GPU support I assume). Particularly if you need Windows, you may want to make sure you're running Windows 7 in boot camp, and just play around with 8 in a virtual machine.

 

I wouldn't say I need Windows... I want to play with it and want to try some games... so there is nothing I need to do on windows

The partition is build now (took about 1h ) and I wrote the iso with unitbootin on to my usb stick... but now I can continue... The Boot Camp Assistant never gave me an option to write the iso on to my USB stick so I went that way (with unitbootin) and now it asks me to insert the Windows 7 dvd without giving me other options

On the usb stick (with w8) has to be a file I can use to start the installation... but I can't find it (or does the Mac OS has no chance with that "windows installation" without inizaliced with Boot Camp)

Thank you very much for your help

Greetings
Julian

 

you cant install windows from a usb stick, nor using a usb dvd drive

 

poor Air users....

So I searched again and found an old DVD-R and it worked But now my problem is, every time I boot without "alt" the W8 comes up... how can I select W8 as secondary and Lion as primary OS? (edit: solved )

Greetings
Julian

 

they got different EFI

 

that's not fair!