Parallels Desktop instead of Boot Camp for a Mac to run XP?

[Karen182]

Does anyone use this and if so does it work well??


www.computerwarehouse.co.uk/detail/9080013/0/-/-/1/-/-/-/1174770661750835

[littlegreenfairy]

I'm using bootcamp. Not sure it would be worth it as I can get at my documents from either side (apparently)

[krispy]

Apparently there are some issues with stuff that requires OpenGL in XP but it has had very good reviews.... I'd be interested to hear how you get on if you end up trying it...

[Strangely Brown]

It doesn't have to "either", it can be "both".

I have XP installed in a Bootcamp partition on my MacBook Pro. I also have Parallels Desktop installed and configured to use the Bootcamp partition. This means that when I just need to use something like ProntoEdit or the other half needs to use MS Access, I can just fire up Parallels and run the virtrual machine. However, if I fancy a bit of a blast on Battlefield Vietnam or GPL I can shutdown and boot into XP (bootcamp) to take full advantage of the 3D hardware.

I have the best of both worlds with only one Windows installation to keep up to date with patches and AV etc.

Parallels Desktop is a great product that does exactly what it says on the tin. If you need to run windows but don't need full hardware support for gaming then it is an excellent choice. If you intend to play games then use Bootcamp. If you have a need for both, use both.

Edited by Strangely Brown on Saturday 24th March 22:29

[jimothy]

I couldn't get parallels to work with a bootcamp partition - as soon as it booted it told me the hardware had changed so I had to reactivate, but couldn't do anything as parallels was still trying to install its tools. Result - screwed bootcamp partition.
If it wasn't for playing games, I'd probably just stick to Parallels, but to get C&C to work I need bootcamp. Love the way parallels puts windows apps on your dock!

[Strangely Brown]

jimothy said:

I couldn't get parallels to work with a bootcamp partition - as soon as it booted it told me the hardware had changed so I had to reactivate

How long ago did you try this? AIUI that did used to be a problem it the earlier betas. It's not any more.

[magic torch]

Download the trial www.parallels.com/en/download/desk

Gives you 15 days to see if it works for you or not. Quite processor intensive, worth upgrading the RAM if you're going to keep it.

[Sparks]

I work for a big Investment Bank, and Parallels was being demo'd on two macbooks, at one of our 'Tech days'. Looks like it might be fairly good, for them to allow the company to exhibit.

Sparks

[Zod]

I only use Windows on my MacBOok Pro to play games, so I'm not very interested in Parallels. BootCamp does things almost perfectly for me and I can even play Oblivion on the MBP.

[jimothy]

Strangely Brown said:

jimothy said:

I couldn't get parallels to work with a bootcamp partition - as soon as it booted it told me the hardware had changed so I had to reactivate

How long ago did you try this? AIUI that did used to be a problem it the earlier betas. It's not any more.

Couple of weeks ago using RC3.

[Strangely Brown]

jimothy said:

Strangely Brown said:

jimothy said:

I couldn't get parallels to work with a bootcamp partition - as soon as it booted it told me the hardware had changed so I had to reactivate

How long ago did you try this? AIUI that did used to be a problem it the earlier betas. It's not any more.

Couple of weeks ago using RC3.

Hmmmm, I thought it was fixed by then. Anyway, the product is final now and that particular issue is supposed to to have been addressed. If you're happy using bootcamp then it's probably not worth it for you.

[CommanderJameson]

I've got XP running in a Parallels VM on my iMac (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM) and it'd be just fine for Office type things.

The "coherence" feature in the upcoming build of Parallels (i.e. Windows windows floating around like OS X windows, rather than being stuck in the VM console) will make this even more appealing.

[Strangely Brown]

CommanderJameson said:

The "coherence" feature in the upcoming build of Parallels (i.e. Windows windows floating around like OS X windows, rather than being stuck in the VM console) will make this even more appealing.

Coherence is in the current release and works really rather well. You could almost forget that wondows is there.