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

I did not use MacBook Pro at all and I bought it for my daughter for her study. I don't want to touch the Tiger OS as she had loaded a lot of stuff. I am planning to buy Leopard and install it on an external drive (USB or firewire) and then install Bootcamp on the external drive and run Windows XP on the external drive and share a FAT32 partition with Leopard and Tiger, possible?

 

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/01/21/apple-quietly-intros-64-bit-windows-support-in-boot-camp/

 

Before I buy leopard, I need to know if its possible to install Leopard on an external drive and boot with the external drive, anyone? I need to make a decision today, thanks.

 

running vista on boot camp but when my MBP is plugged in vista does not see it . It thinks that I am still on battery. Is there any fix?

 

Unplug and replug the adapter to the laptop.

 

You would think its a simple fix for Apple to do when they released v2.0 of Boot Camp. Also, would it hurt them to spend a little time on getting single tapping for clicks on the touchpads?

 

Sorry for not having updated both my guides lately, with lots new information out . I've been busy and haven't really had the time to sit down and write up the new information. I'll promise to update as soon as I have time!

 

I have a question. If I run Windows Live Messenger via Parallel or Vmware in Leopard, will i able to use webcam feature in MSN live? Will the connection speed be slower?

 

It should be fine .

 

Wow thanks a lot for this guide. Spent like half an hour reading it lolz

 

Glad its been of help to you, War-Crimes .

 

I've just tried out VMware, and I like it.

Knowing I'd probably screw it up often, I made an .ISO image of the XP CD.

If you plan on screwing up your XP alot, or aren't sure if you'll want to do a larger size, I recommend the same, because it installed windows in less than 15 minutes. Disc images are fast!

 

I'm pondering if I should buy and install Vista Home Premium 64-bit for my MBP (SR) to get most out of my 4GBs. I'd naturally be using it via boot camp, even though 64-bit OS isn't officially supported.

I think that the new Mac Pro drivers floating in the Internet might solve all possible installation problems. Has anyone tried Mac Pro's drivers on their MBP? Is it a go or o go? (I can live without iSight.)

 

Hey, I wanted to install XP via bootcamp, just one question though. I see XP Home comes in 2 different versions (both with SP2), one says "For Operating Systems before Windows 95 or any non-windows OS" or something like that (for $250), and theres another one, but I can't read what it says on it because it's too small(for about half the price).

I'll probably ask the rep in the store anyway but you know some of these guys...lack information lol.


I'm guessing I get the first one right?

 

The upgrade edition is cheaper, because it is used to upgrade from a licensed copy of Windows 98 or newer.

The full edition is more expensive, because you are not upgrading.

 

So I get the full version correct?

 

Yes, you'll need the full version (the $250 version) of Windows to use in Boot Camp, as the other is only an upgrade.

 

Thanks, I know you put it in your guide but still wanted to be sure cause these cows don't take back items because of the cd-key ><.

 

Okay, started using VMWare fusion a week or so ago, and I'm really liking it. I've setup about 4 or 5 linux VM's and have yet to try my bootcamp partition.

It looks like they fixed the bug with the Airport process taking 100% of your processor power and killing your battery life. They still need to sort out the Linux tools though. If I reboot Ubuntu now, then I'll loose my network connection in it (it basically removes the network device). Huge issue right now that a lot of people are trying to find work arounds... think some work, but so far I haven't had luck with them. Thankfully, I started using snapshots.

I know most of the benchmarks have shown Fusion being slower than Parallels, but with the new release (1.1.1) Linux distros run very well with either 256 or 512mb of ram and I feel no slow down on the host machine. I can even run two VM's with not much slow down in OS X. Pretty impressive since 1 VM under Parallels slows down OS X.

BTW, upgrade CD's will work. My old univ sold the XP SP2, but they were "upgrade" versions. But they worked fine under bootcamp, since it can do a fresh install as well. Granted YMMV there...

I'd really like to test out my XP bootcamp install under VMWare, but I don't want to go through the hassle of loosing my license activation and going through the process of getting another one of my licenses reactivated.

But so far, I might very well buy VMWare. I'm impressed. But they REALLY need to add in multiple snapshot support.

 

You can safely run the Boot Camp partition of Windows XP and not have to reactivate it. It just "worked". I had Windows XP Pro (Full Edition) though, so that might be something.

 

Just bought XP Home Edition, installed, everything went fine.

I'm likin' Bootcamp so far

 

If you run it under boot camp, activate it, then go to use it under parallels, it detects hardware changes and forces relicensing. I'm sure the same thing will happen under VMWare.

My coworker has to have his Office disk present if he launches it in VMware if he last used office in Bootcamp, cause it thinks it's running on a different machine.

I hate windows licensing!

 

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but, I'm looking to run Windows XP in Boot Camp with my new MBP coming soon, and was wondering if this is a good deal and will work fine with no problems, since it's not the $240.00 version. Or, if you know of a better price or something, please let me know!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116400

Thanks in advance

 

Yep, its a good deal. It says it has service pack 2 with it which is required for boot camp to work correctly. Enjoy your MBP!

 

I'm using VM Fusion and Windows XP. It was a friend's copy, I believed he had multiple licenses for it but I was mistaken, so it obviuolsy will not activate. My question is should I purchase a Windows XP OEM version of go for Vista? If Vista, which version, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business or Ultimate? I read somewhere that Business and Ultimate were the only two versions you could legally use to "emulate." I know Aero isn't supported on VM Fusion, so is Home Premium worth it over Home Basic?

 

Using VM Fusion, should I purchase XP or Vista? If Vista, which version would be best?

 

Both run pretty well virtually, but with Vista I find that you have to assign it 2 GB of memory to run effectively. Since your sig says you have 4 GB of memory, that should be no problem. Any version of Vista works well in the virtual environment. I have tried Vista Ultimate and it works very well, so any other version should work too.

 

I plan to purchase an OEM version of Vista. Both XP and Vista seem to go for around the same price as far as OEMs are concerned. Still unsure which Vista version I'd best off with. I thought Vista Business or Ultimate were the only versions you could use, but I've read that people have used other versions. I don't need anything special, just the ability to use Internet Explorer if needed, maybe Office 2007...

 

I believe Microsoft loosened the restriction of which edition of Vista you can virtualize not too long ago. So, you can definitely use Vista Basic or Home Premium. If you are just going to be doing light stuff, and don't care for Media Center or the Aero-glass thing, then Vista Basic is a good choice to start with. Later on you can upgrade if you want to.

 

I'll just go for Home Premium, as I've been using that for well over a year on my PCs. I just read an article that mentioned how Microsoft plans on lowering its prices on Vista 20-40%. The price reduction should come around late March, coinciding with Service Pack 1.

 

Has anyone tried running Netflix's "Watch It Now" in Windows on an MPB?

 

If it works in Windows on a normal PC, it'll work on a Mac running Windows .

 

So Sammy I have got a question for you, Can I make 3 partitions, one running windows, one OSX obviously and one storing files such as music and work, the idea is that so that I can access music and work from both OSX and widnows. Is that possible?

Yes Sammy I am seriously considering a MBP shhhh!

 

You can do that, provided the partition is formatted as FAT32.

Or, you can download MacDrive for your Windows partition. It'll give your windows partition full access to your Mac partition. That's what I use.

 

What did I say, Johnny, what did I say?

Yes, you can . The "middle" partition will best be FAT32, as Lysander said, so both operating systems can read and write to it. You can format it to be Mac (HFS+), but you will need to buy extra software for Windows to read and write to it, so the cheapest way is to format it to be FAT32.

 

The MBP is relatively cheap compare to other notebooks with similar configs in HK

So anyway:

- NTFS partition for windows
- FAT 32 for common files
- HFS+ (does it have to be that?) For OSX?

Thanks guys

 

OS X has to be done on HSF+ w/ journaling enabled.

 

Journaling? ? Sorry I am confused already hahaha!

 

Netflix's Watch Now feature works on my Vista Home Premium 64 (although I have to use the Explorer 32 bit version). That desktop machine has a nVidia 8800GT and E6600 quad CPU and a relatively slow DSL (1.3Mb down) line. The processor and graphics in the Mac PowerBook are decent but not as fast as my desktop. I'm just wondering whether I'll see any performance hit on a 2.4G MPB with Watch Now running in Bootcamp Vista. I suspect that it wouldn't be a problem, but I'm curious if anyone here has experience doing this. ++ also I'm probably going to get a faster DSL line.

 

Also...FAT32 only stores 4GB...so...thats not really enough... bummer!

 

You don't need FAT32. Install Macfuse and NTFS-3G, and you can read and write to NTFS drives from within OS X. Freeware is nice!

 

No . You can only add files as large as 4 GB in size, but it can store far more than just 4 GB . That'd be terrible!

And fabarati, true, MacFUSE exists and is free, but as far as I've heard (no personal experience), it doesn't work that well. So yeah .

 

Best way is still NTFS. Since the advent of macfuse, there's no need to hold on to FAT32.

 

Ah I see...well you guys can go into more depth when the time get closer.

Thanks for all the help.

 

Okay so I've run into a bit of a problem and cant figure out a fix. I was setting up Vista Business on a 17" MBP, thru Boot Camp. The user wanted 60gig's for Windows so I set that up and BC went to create the partition and then the system froze (grey screen) and forced me to power down and reboot. Upon rebooting, there is no actual Windows partition created (that I can see) however this 60gig's has disappeared from teh available disc space on the HDD. When I go back into BC, it doesnt even give me the option to restore the drive and delete the BC partition. What could have happened, and what might I try to fix it?

 

Fixed my problem - booted from the OS X disc and ran Repair Disc from Utilities - worked like a charm and I got that 60gig's back

 

Good to hear, diggy! Did you see if Boot Camp Assistant saw the partition, or did it not?

 

Nope, it still didnt. And when I ran it again, same thing happened. So, followed same process to restore. Funny thing is, I'm able to create a 40gig and 50gig partition, but not a 60.

 

I struggled with the Windows XP Activation issue for a while last night when I installed Fusion. The key is to install VMWare Fusion Tools BEFORE you re-activate Windows in the Fusion Window. To do this, you may need to tell Windows that you activate later (you have 30 days), otherwise the Fusion Tools install Windows may not come up. You will need to call Microsoft to re-activate, but this only took about five minutes.

After this, when I then went back to Boot Camp, Windows wanted to Activate again. I just asked it to reactivate online, and it worked (no call to Microsoft that time). And now XP doesn't ask me to activate every time I switch between Bootcamp and Fusion.

Do note, however, that Office 2003 and Office 2007 WILL ask you to reactivate Office every time you alternate between Bootcamp and Fusion. VMware does not have a fix for this yet. Does Parallels do the same thing?

 

Yeah, parallels will do the same thing.

It's due to the stupid ass MS anti-piracy crap they implemented. If more than 1 device (I think it was 1) changes, then it flags as pirated and wants to reactivate.

EDIT

Parallels actually creates a complete 2nd hardware profile. I haven't loaded my bootcamp partition in Fusion to see what happens.