Windows On A Mac?

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I'd really appreciate any advice about the practicality of running Windows on a Mac desktop as a dual OS.

Is there any reason why it shouldn't be stable?
Will it slow the machine down?
Will it render it vunerable to viruses etc?

Any advice or experience much appreciated from a Mac newbie with a slightly glazed expression! :thinking:
 
there was quite a useful (and at the same time condecending and anti MS) article in mac user magazine this month if thats any use..

but in answer to your questions:

Is there any reason why it shouldn't be stable?
Nope, as Macs are all Intel PC it should be fine

Will it slow the machine down?
Obviously if you have the Windows machine running in a Virtual session within OSX (i.e. at the same time) you will have a resource overhead, but it should not affect OSX otherwise.

Will it render it vunerable to viruses etc?
You should have AV installed on the Windows installation, something free like MS Security Essentials or Avast.
 
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Thanks Neil. :thumbs: I bought a Mac on a complete impulse at the weekend and I'm just hoping I've done the right thing. Everything is a learning curve at the moment but thankfully I still have a functional Windows machine while I decide what route to take with the Mac.

The only niggle is that unless I install Windows I'm going to have to use another editing package than Paint Shop Pro which is a bit of a wrench. I'm not a gamer so that part doesn't bother me - it's been bought mainly for image editing and it's fast and powerful in that respect. Images look bloody fantastic on this screen- but at the moment it's making me feel like I have the mental capacity of an amoeba! :D
 
You can actually run Windows on a Mac without the operating system that came with it if you so wished. Some people do this because the hardware Apple makes is stylish and of reasonably good quality, but the operating system is not to everyone's taste. Make sure you run Windows 64 bit on the Mac though otherwise you'd be wasting your time.
 
I've got windows 7 running under parallels desktop. It's runs smooth and fast, I haven't noticed any slow downs.
 
Windows seems to run really well under emulation on Macs. There are youtube vids of XP booting in a matter of seconds on a Mac VM...
 
Personally speaking, I would just get used to the Mac.

Yes you can run both without too much bother, but it is a bit of a hassle.

If you can just get used to Photoshop on the Mac you won't look back.

Come on, commit yourself!
 
BarryG said:
Come on, commit yourself!
Click to expand...

LOL. That's what I'd really prefer to do. I just need to take a bit of time getting used to it - not to mention the files I've got to copy across. :gag:
 
The VMWare video driver does not have the capabilities for colour management, AFAIK all emulators are the same.
 
CT said:
Is there any reason why it shouldn't be stable?
Will it slow the machine down?
Will it render it vunerable to viruses etc?
Click to expand...


No
No
& No.

We have now switched all office and home applications over to OSX apps except for one that I use under XP and Sage :spit: that the wife uses on another computer, also under XP. Until about a couple years ago, I was running five or six apps under XP.

Let me say that it is and always has been rock solid stable. No, it doesn't slow the machine down - as long as you have just a little more than the minimum amount of memory.

And no, it won't make your computer vulnerable to viruses. Contrary to popular belief, computers running MS aren't vulnerable to viruses. It's their users that cause them to gather viruses and trojans.
 
Sage :bang:

XP has the same vulnerability regardless of hardware. All operating systems do.

Microsoft Security Essentials is one of the best home antivirus solutions and the best news is its free :thumbs:
 
CT said:
Thanks Neil. :thumbs: I bought a Mac on a complete impulse at the weekend and I'm just hoping I've done the right thing. Everything is a learning curve at the moment but thankfully I still have a functional Windows machine while I decide what route to take with the Mac.

The only niggle is that unless I install Windows I'm going to have to use another editing package than Paint Shop Pro which is a bit of a wrench. I'm not a gamer so that part doesn't bother me - it's been bought mainly for image editing and it's fast and powerful in that respect. Images look bloody fantastic on this screen- but at the moment it's making me feel like I have the mental capacity of an amoeba! :D
Click to expand...

Just been through the change myself :eek: Also an impulse buy - you might want to have a look at:

http://www.apple.com/support/switch...EA-AFF&tduid=d73cc444ae5c115f2d68015a77e566d4

which I found quite useful:)
 
Try the gimp. It's a good free image editor.

It will be less hassle to learn the Mac software rather than try and install windows and end up with one foot in each camp. Give yourself 3 months. If you really can't manage without some of the windows programs then do the virtual machine thing as dual booting will be a pain - you often find what you want to be running is always on the other OS...
 
^ and to add to that, you think you need to be in the other OS to do certain things.

If you have just one, you'll work out how to do it in there.

Personally I would go down the Photoshop route for your pictures, at least it's universal and if you decide Bill Gates has a bigger willy, you can just use what you know in Windoze.
 
I've got Windows 7 installed on a Bootcamp partition so can choose to boot into Windows using all 4GB RAM on my Mac.

Have also got Windows XP installed as a VM using Parallels so I can run within OSX.

Don't tend to use either very often, although it's handy to know it's there!
 
CT said:
Thanks for that Keith. :thumbs:

Wel, I've been thinking about it for some time, but the actual decision was a tad impulsive!:D
Click to expand...

You're welcome:)

Me too........I made the mistake of watching an in-store Apple demo & got hooked:D Glad I did though.
 
srichards said:
Try the gimp. It's a good free image editor.

It will be less hassle to learn the Mac software rather than try and install windows and end up with one foot in each camp. Give yourself 3 months. If you really can't manage without some of the windows programs then do the virtual machine thing as dual booting will be a pain - you often find what you want to be running is always on the other OS...
Click to expand...

Well I'm going to give myself a good period to get used to the Mac, and it does make sense to keep everything under one OS roof as it were. It's not the end of the world - I have used other packages before including Photoshop in several flavours, not that I'm a huge fan.

I knew the Mac would be a culture shock, but I didn't realise quite how different they are from a Windows PC. I'm slowly finding my way around and overall I can see lots of advantages so I don't think I'm going to regret the change.

I'm slowly getting there and have started transferring files which is also a good opportunity to review my backup and storage system. Don't ask how long it took me to work out how to eject a CD last night! :lol:

Thanks for all the comments.
 
Give Aperture 3 a bash. I hardly ever fire up photoshop any more as I can do 99.9% of what I need in Aperture. I know it doesn't suit everyone and takes a bit of getting used to but I like it plenty.
 
Parallels is definitely the way to go.
If your vm gets any virus or spyware you just delete it and create another :)

Also the ability to open windows apps from a mac desktop is also rather nice using it's convergence feature or whatever it's called
 
One of the biggest things I changed when switching, was how I actually use my computer.

Now, I sit with right hand on mouse, left hand on keyboard. Never used to do that before.
I use CMD Q for closing apps all the time, and CMD W for closing windows, soooooo quick. Yes I know windows is similar, but it just seems so much easier and more 'right' to do on a mac (maybe because the keyboard is so low profile?)

Anyway, congratulations on the change :)
 
Marcel said:
One of the biggest things I changed when switching, was how I actually use my computer.

Now, I sit with right hand on mouse, left hand on keyboard. Never used to do that before.
I use CMD Q for closing apps all the time, and CMD W for closing windows, soooooo quick. Yes I know windows is similar, but it just seems so much easier and more 'right' to do on a mac (maybe because the keyboard is so low profile?)

Anyway, congratulations on the change :)
Click to expand...

LOL. Thanks Bod. You're obviously a bit of a Mac vet then? I'm still only two days in, but finding my way round slowly and copying a lot of files across. The thing I really like is having just one plug to the mains which replaces a whole shed load, and I now have a huge work area in front of the monitor with all the clutter gone.
 
BarryG said:
Personally speaking, I would just get used to the Mac.

Yes you can run both without too much bother, but it is a bit of a hassle.

If you can just get used to Photoshop on the Mac you won't look back.

Come on, commit yourself!
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I am doing now. I thought the transition would take a couple of weeks. Within 24 hours I'm thinking of a storage space for the PC :D
 
paulcamcas said:
Give Aperture 3 a bash. I hardly ever fire up photoshop any more as I can do 99.9% of what I need in Aperture. I know it doesn't suit everyone and takes a bit of getting used to but I like it plenty.
Click to expand...


:plusone:
 
My new desktop. :cool:

5529006735_d683492724_o_d.jpg
 
Caption that..........

" Where's my apple?"
 
Give it a month or so and you'll wish you had switched years ago. I've still got VM Fusion on one of my macs to run windows but I honestly can't remember the last time I did. The weird thing now is as the resident family IT guru not all of my family are on macs yet and just as you are finding the mac weird now despite years of using windows I find it a real struggle to use windows now!
 
I agree, just get used to it. I purchased my first iMac last month. Prior to this I was a windows only guy, especially for my web designing. Now, I love the mac. It does take some getting used to but it's worth it. Fast and efficient. I personally would not use both OS's on my iMac as I would not want to contaminate it with the dross that Microsoft pumps out these days :)
 
Apologies to you and to Mr Gates :)
 
One thing I did find is that certain Photoshop plugins did not like working on the mac and had no mac alternative.

So I had my old pc Photoshop on my parallels so I could see what they were doing, I could then replicate it on my mac.

Keyboard shortcuts do seem to be a way of mac life that take some getting used to.
 
I came in tonight - switched on -zippo! :suspect:

Rang Apple support and went through all the 3 knuckle shuffle routines - nadda! :suspect::suspect:

Long story cut short -they've declared it faulty, given me a case ref no. and advised me to return it straight away which I'll be doing in the morning.

This is after two pretty intensive days of setting it up and copyng files across to get it pretty much all ready to go.:bang:

Not an impressive start is it? The replacement is going to be Apple's last chance as far as I'm concerned. I'm taking the view that I've had the 3 day familiarisation course with this one....
 
and I was just about to say the single plug thing sounds very attractive........
 
Don't start Doddy - just don't! :D
 
If you do get a replacement and stick with it - another recommendation here for Aperture 3. I switched from Windows and Photoshop Elements and Paint Shop Pro to this and never looked back. Do all my processing in Aperture and love it !

It's only £44.99 from the App Store as well so is a bargain !
 
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