windows 8 on a MAC

[WharfRat]

I need to run Windows 8 along with Mavericks on a new iMAC.
What is the general conscious about the best way to achieve this?
Is Parallels the way to go? Do I need BootCamp?

Any insight will be appreciated.

MSD

 

[wonderings]

Depends on what you need to do in Windows. If its nothing intensive, I would just install it via Parallels. If you need the full power of your machine, then go with bootcamp. Both will work. I use Parallels to run Win 7, but its for some very many apps that are windows only.

 

[Green Printer]

We have used virtual box on our macs for years.

https://www.virtualbox.org

 

[prepressdork]

Parallels/VMware Fusion/VirtualBox is the better way to go so you can have both operating systems running at the same time.

I am currently using VMware Fusion (but am using Windows XP).

pd

 

[wonderings]

The downside of a virtual machine is you are splitting your computer in two basically. Sharing processors, ram, etc. For most things this is not an issue, but if running memory or processor intensive software, bootcamp is the better choice in my opinion. Other then that, virtual is the best and easiest to use.

 

[prepressdork]

I agree with wonderings. If you can, beef up your Mac to facilitate a Windows environment. I have a MacPro with 10GB of memory and lots of hard drive space. Haven't noticed any performance issues....

 

[chevalier]

Buy Parallels but install Windows via bootcamp.

You can "cold" boot straight into Windows if you want or you can run it virtualized while Mac OS runs. Win. Win.

Virtualization works best when you have a TON of resources to throw at it. SSD instead of traditional spinning disk drives makes a huge performance difference as well.

 

[MacTwidget]

I am using VMware Fusion to run Windows 8.1 Professional.
It runs great. It sees all my peripherals, printers, etc.
The only downside is that it is still Microsoft Windows

 

[mattbeals]

Run the VM. Most of what you're doing I imagine will be on the Mac anyways. Setting up BootCamp locks you into that machine. Using a VM you can move the VM to a different machine (Mac/Windows/Linux) if you ever need or want to. Much more flexible. But it all really depends on your goals and needs.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Buy Parallels but install Windows via bootcamp.

You can "cold" boot straight into Windows if you want or you can run it virtualized while Mac OS runs. Win. Win.

Virtualization works best when you have a TON of resources to throw at it. SSD instead of traditional spinning disk drives makes a huge performance difference as well.

chevalier, do you mean that Parallels can mount the info installed into Bootcamp and run that… Or do you mean install twice, once into Bootcamp and once into Parallels? Just wondering as the product would require licence activation, even though it is running on the same hardware, I am not sure if the licence server would throw a spanner in the works or not?

Stephen Marsh

 

[Steve0]

Stephen - Parallels has the ability to take the Windows iteration from your Bootcamp partition, and present it like a virtual machine inside of Parallels on MacOS. It's one load of Windows, not two. Very handy!

 

[wonderings]

chevalier, do you mean that Parallels can mount the info installed into Bootcamp and run that… Or do you mean install twice, once into Bootcamp and once into Parallels? Just wondering as the product would require licence activation, even though it is running on the same hardware, I am not sure if the licence server would throw a spanner in the works or not?

Stephen Marsh

If you install via bootcamp, after thats all said and done, both Parallels and VMware Fusion can access the bootcamp windows and run it like a virtual machine without needing to boot directly into bootcamp windows. Gives you more options for sure, though you have to partition your hard drive taking away space. I used to do this, but found I needed windows less and less and now for some very light programs that it made more sense to just install via parallels and ignore bootcamp all together.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

That is nice to know! Thanks for the feedback guys, I am running Parallels 8 if that makes a difference.


Stephen Marsh

 

[wonderings]

That is nice to know! Thanks for the feedback guys, I am running Parallels 8 if that makes a difference.


Stephen Marsh

I am running Parallels 8 as well for Windows 7. Its fast and snappy for me, though I have an SSD hard drive, so everything is very snappy.

 

[chevalier]

chevalier, do you mean that Parallels can mount the info installed into Bootcamp and run that… Or do you mean install twice, once into Bootcamp and once into Parallels? Just wondering as the product would require licence activation, even though it is running on the same hardware, I am not sure if the licence server would throw a spanner in the works or not?

Stephen Marsh

Parallels can boot a bootcamp partition. This is achieved through windows hardware profiling. You can build/configure the same Windows (all the way back to Windows98 IIRC) to boot on various hardware configurations.
Edit 01:
I see others have replied already. I believe Parallels has supported this since v6.
Edit 02:
I generally give Parallels 1/3 of the resources of my computer. MacOS 10.7, 10.8 10.9 all need ~2GB of RAM at a minimum just to maintain host OS stability.

 

[wonderings]

I generally give Parallels 1/3 of the resources of my computer. MacOS 10.7, 10.8 10.9 all need ~2GB of RAM at a minimum just to maintain host OS stability.

This is a good thing to remember. When going the Parallels/WMware Fusion route, you are splitting your computers power in half pretty much. You can adjust this of course, setting windows to use a core or 2 and how much ram it has, but its never running the full power your computer has. You are also taking away from the power of your macs resources this way. The bootcamp option gives you the best of both worlds in this case. For me, I upgrade my computer every few years, and found it much simpler when its simply a virtual machine in parallels and not a partition. Things copy over with less headaches from my experience.

 

[chevalier]

This is a good thing to remember. When going the Parallels/WMware Fusion route, you are splitting your computers power in half pretty much. You can adjust this of course, setting windows to use a core or 2 and how much ram it has, but its never running the full power your computer has. You are also taking away from the power of your macs resources this way. The bootcamp option gives you the best of both worlds in this case. For me, I upgrade my computer every few years, and found it much simpler when its simply a virtual machine in parallels and not a partition. Things copy over with less headaches from my experience.

Just open disk utility and create an image of the partition. You can duplicate it and use disk utility on the new computer to place the image. You never miss a beat.

 

[kaiserwilhelm]

I have used Parallels since 2006 when it came out. For giggles, I tried VMWare about a year ago. I find it much better. Parallels seems to have gotten cluttered. We run faster with VM. At least that is what we perceive.