Windows on a Mac
Discussion
Currently working from home and have two systems at once on Three machines. Editing on Windows 7 Professional on a HP Elite from work and doing creative work on PS on my 4k iMac and MacBook Pro Retina. After a week it's becoming apparent that this isn't a great way to work.
I remember about a decade ago there was something called Parallel Desktop which meant you could run Windows within the Mac OS and another which you could partition part of your HD and chose which to run on.
Is this still a thing or is there an easier way to do things in 2020?
Also I've got quite a lot of old software from the early 2000's and a few classic games. If I was to install Windows OS on the Mac would I be able to run these on the Superdrive. I've got a 3.3Ghz iMac Quad Core with about 750GB of storage left and about 16GB RAM so speed and performance isn't an issue.
I remember about a decade ago there was something called Parallel Desktop which meant you could run Windows within the Mac OS and another which you could partition part of your HD and chose which to run on.
Is this still a thing or is there an easier way to do things in 2020?
Also I've got quite a lot of old software from the early 2000's and a few classic games. If I was to install Windows OS on the Mac would I be able to run these on the Superdrive. I've got a 3.3Ghz iMac Quad Core with about 750GB of storage left and about 16GB RAM so speed and performance isn't an issue.
It's more or less what I've been doing since Mac came with Intel chips...in fact did it before that using Virtual PC, but it was terribly slow.
I use VMWare Fusion for the stuff where I need to quickly switch/share between MacOS/Windows and use Bootcamp when I need the full capabilities of Windows (mainly GPU-intensivegamestasks), or when I know I'm going to be in Windows all day, as it runs at full speed directly on the hardware, rather than slower through a virtual machine.
I have both Mac & Windows licenses for all the software I use though - so staying in Mac or Windows all day is rarely a problem - and I tend to only swap as the clients' needs require.
Either way you will need a W10 license for the iMac.
I use VMWare Fusion for the stuff where I need to quickly switch/share between MacOS/Windows and use Bootcamp when I need the full capabilities of Windows (mainly GPU-intensive
I have both Mac & Windows licenses for all the software I use though - so staying in Mac or Windows all day is rarely a problem - and I tend to only swap as the clients' needs require.
Either way you will need a W10 license for the iMac.
Edited by mmm-five on Tuesday 31st March 10:01
mmm-five said:
Either way you will need a W10 license for the iMac.
The other option is using Bootcamp on a Mac. https://support.apple.com/en-gb/boot-campI used this daily on a retina MBP for about 5 years. Not great if you need to work in both Mac and Windows worlds simultaneously, but the definitely the best way of just running Windows on Mac hardware..
Re Win 10, simply download Windows 10 from Microsoft and not bother to activate it!
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/...
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-to-get...
I used to use bootcamp on my old Macbook Air and currently run Parallels on my Macbook Pro.
I don't use particularly intensive Windows-only software so the added flexibility of running both OSX and W10 simultaneously on Parallels is more useful.
The experience is pretty good and after a year or so of using it, once settled in, I can only think of two drawbacks that affect me:
1. The keyboard mapping between OSX and W10 means one of them is always going to be wrong without lots of fiddling. This would be the same whatever solution you use and it's only \ and # that still fox me from time to time
2. Massive drain on battery running both OSs at the same time. No combination of Windows and OSX power saving features seem to get me more than a few hours if running both. Again, this isn't really a surprise but something to consider if it matters to you.
I don't use particularly intensive Windows-only software so the added flexibility of running both OSX and W10 simultaneously on Parallels is more useful.
The experience is pretty good and after a year or so of using it, once settled in, I can only think of two drawbacks that affect me:
1. The keyboard mapping between OSX and W10 means one of them is always going to be wrong without lots of fiddling. This would be the same whatever solution you use and it's only \ and # that still fox me from time to time
2. Massive drain on battery running both OSs at the same time. No combination of Windows and OSX power saving features seem to get me more than a few hours if running both. Again, this isn't really a surprise but something to consider if it matters to you.
EarlofDrift said:
Currently working from home and have two systems at once on Three machines. Editing on Windows 7 Professional on a HP Elite from work and doing creative work on PS on my 4k iMac and MacBook Pro Retina. After a week it's becoming apparent that this isn't a great way to work.
I remember about a decade ago there was something called Parallel Desktop which meant you could run Windows within the Mac OS and another which you could partition part of your HD and chose which to run on.
Is this still a thing or is there an easier way to do things in 2020?
Also I've got quite a lot of old software from the early 2000's and a few classic games. If I was to install Windows OS on the Mac would I be able to run these on the Superdrive. I've got a 3.3Ghz iMac Quad Core with about 750GB of storage left and about 16GB RAM so speed and performance isn't an issue.
You are right - Parallels is exactly what you need.I remember about a decade ago there was something called Parallel Desktop which meant you could run Windows within the Mac OS and another which you could partition part of your HD and chose which to run on.
Is this still a thing or is there an easier way to do things in 2020?
Also I've got quite a lot of old software from the early 2000's and a few classic games. If I was to install Windows OS on the Mac would I be able to run these on the Superdrive. I've got a 3.3Ghz iMac Quad Core with about 750GB of storage left and about 16GB RAM so speed and performance isn't an issue.
I use it daily.
Forget Bootcamp.... ( unless you are doing heavy duty CAD stuff ).
It is a subscription model now.... but worth every penny.
Zero issues so far over 6 years.
If you’re an occasional windows user and not running anything too demanding, VirtualBox is free from Oracle. Of the much slicker paid options, I’d say Fusion is a bit faster and Parallels integrates better with Mac OS. I’ve used both and settled for Parallels. The only downside is that they have moved to an annual subscription licensing model
VirtualBox is the cheapest but also not the fastest. It's good for occasional work but I struggle to use it for longer than just logging on every now and then.
It sucks about Parallels, I didn't realise they changed their business model. They want 99.99usd per year which I believe is the same as what it used to cost to buy a copy you'd own and use indefinitely. What a bunch of ...
I'd go VMWare Fusion in this case. Or best Bootcamp if you need raw power.
It sucks about Parallels, I didn't realise they changed their business model. They want 99.99usd per year which I believe is the same as what it used to cost to buy a copy you'd own and use indefinitely. What a bunch of ...
I'd go VMWare Fusion in this case. Or best Bootcamp if you need raw power.
There is a 2 week free trial of Parallels: https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/trial/
There is a non-subscription version, but they usually make you buy a new version with every major macos version change
Heres the cheapest that I can see on their site: https://buy.parallels.com/329/?scope=checkout&...
There is a non-subscription version, but they usually make you buy a new version with every major macos version change
Heres the cheapest that I can see on their site: https://buy.parallels.com/329/?scope=checkout&...
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