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Hi,
I plan to buy a Macbook Pro soon and join the Mac community after several years of PC and experience the Mac features. I will need to be able to use Windows to run some programs and calculation. For that reason, both Bootcamp and Parallel seduce me and I might consider having them both.
I looked at almost all threads in this forum and just need to get a confirmation about this:
* - Bootcamp creates a separate partition on which you install Windows. At booting, once you chose to switch on Mac OS or Windows, it will be fully a Mac or a PC.
* - Parallel makes an emulation of Windows while you are on Mac OS.
I am just confused... Will there be 2 instances of Windows installed at the same time? One on the partition created by Bootcamp and the other one on the virtual machine? Which means that I will not use the same instance of Windows whether I use it on the partition or on the parallel mode and all the consequences (not the same settings, accounts etc...).
I understood that Parallel allows to use the Windows instance installed on the partition, in which case, when running Windows on paralle mode, it loads the Windows installed on the partition created by Bootcamp.
If so, what do you recommend me to do? Install Windows through the usual Bootcamp way first and then install the Parallel by mentionning it to reference to the Windows already installed?
Thanks for your help and answer.
-vinny
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Bootcamp/Parallel: Windows redudance??
#1
vinny_hunge 
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Posted 09 January 2008 - 11:15 AM
MultiQuote
#2
techwild2008
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Posted 13 January 2008 - 05:50 PM
You've got it just about down to a science.
Boot Camp allows you to divide a single hard drive, or use an extra hard disk in a Mac Pro, to install and run Windows just as you would on any other "PC". In this setup, the Mac acts like a PC because it is one, with the same innards as any other machine. Windows gets full use of all the Mac's resources, but remains in its own space on disk. It can't get to any files stored on the Mac side, which can be good or bad depending on what you do. However, this setup is best if you're doing anything resource-heavy like gaming. To switch between the two, as you pointed out, you use the Option key at startup.
Parallels and Fusion handle the concept of Windows quite differently. They are programs that run Windows in a "sandbox" from within the Mac OS. Each is not exactly an emulator, in the same vein as Virtual PC. Rather, each relies on your CPU's ability to virtualize, or create a "fake" PC without translating CPU instructions (called a virtual machine, or simply "VM"). It's faster than emulation, but slightly slower than using Boot Camp. VPC was an emulator because it had to expend CPU power from the PowerPC to create a phony Intel machine., and as a consequence, both Mac and Windows were poor performers--Windows even more so than Mac.
Neither Parallels nor Fusion has the muscle to create fake hardware powerful enough to run intensive apps, and so neither should be used extensively for gaming, Photoshopping, or other heavy work. Both can, however, use an existing Windows volume created with Boot Camp, at the cost of a second Windows activation and license.
With virtualization, you are also able to run any number of OSes on any number of VMs, so you can run things like Linux, W2K, or even older variants of Windows and DOS.
Whichever method you choose, you can't lose because both will get you where you want to go. How you get there is more a matter of preference.
Nate
Boot Camp allows you to divide a single hard drive, or use an extra hard disk in a Mac Pro, to install and run Windows just as you would on any other "PC". In this setup, the Mac acts like a PC because it is one, with the same innards as any other machine. Windows gets full use of all the Mac's resources, but remains in its own space on disk. It can't get to any files stored on the Mac side, which can be good or bad depending on what you do. However, this setup is best if you're doing anything resource-heavy like gaming. To switch between the two, as you pointed out, you use the Option key at startup.
Parallels and Fusion handle the concept of Windows quite differently. They are programs that run Windows in a "sandbox" from within the Mac OS. Each is not exactly an emulator, in the same vein as Virtual PC. Rather, each relies on your CPU's ability to virtualize, or create a "fake" PC without translating CPU instructions (called a virtual machine, or simply "VM"). It's faster than emulation, but slightly slower than using Boot Camp. VPC was an emulator because it had to expend CPU power from the PowerPC to create a phony Intel machine., and as a consequence, both Mac and Windows were poor performers--Windows even more so than Mac.
Neither Parallels nor Fusion has the muscle to create fake hardware powerful enough to run intensive apps, and so neither should be used extensively for gaming, Photoshopping, or other heavy work. Both can, however, use an existing Windows volume created with Boot Camp, at the cost of a second Windows activation and license.
With virtualization, you are also able to run any number of OSes on any number of VMs, so you can run things like Linux, W2K, or even older variants of Windows and DOS.
Whichever method you choose, you can't lose because both will get you where you want to go. How you get there is more a matter of preference.
Nate
#3
fhmoore
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Posted 13 January 2008 - 10:47 PM
You do not need a second Windows license (or at least don't need to buy another copy of Windows). I just needed to call Microsoft, you may be able to do it online now, and tell them you are running a Mac with Windows in Bootcamp and with Parallels as a virtual machine, and they will give you an activation code. That is the way I run Windows. I have it installed in Bootcamp, and run it using Parallels. Microsoft didn't bat an eye at giving me the activation code to run in Parallels. It only took a few minutes to get the code. I installed Fusion a few weeks ago to run off the Bootcamp install, and to get the activation code for that, I just did the activation online and it took less than a minute.
Frank Moore
Frank Moore
#4
vinny_hunge
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Posted 14 January 2008 - 06:56 AM
Thanks to both of you Nate and Franck for your very clear answers!
Cheers,
-vinny
Cheers,
-vinny
#6
fhmoore
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Posted 14 January 2008 - 10:54 AM
Sean said this, and I think he brings up a good point.
Hopefully I'm not overanswering your question, but I don't think the others addressed one of your questions. I use both Parallels and Bootcamp and they are the same instance of windows. If I install a program in Parallels, it's there when I go
into Bootcamp, etc. To set it up that way you need to install Boot Camp first and then tell Parallels you want to use a Boot Camp partition when you set it up (otherwise it wants to use your OS X partition). I think you should be able to have separate instances of windows if you want to... just don't tell Parallels about the Boot Camp partition (but I haven't tried it).
Sean
I have Windows installed both ways with Parallels. I have a Bootcamp install, and then I have an install of Windows in Parallels. You can run off of either or even both at the same time in Parallels. I now just use the Bootcamp install, and haven't opened the Parallels install in a long time. I like running Windows with Parallels. It acts like it is just another window that is open on you Mac. If you do a Bootcamp install, you only have 1 actuall copy of Windows on your computer. I have 2 copies on mine. One in Bootcamp and one in Parallels, but don't use the one in Parallels any longer, so I will probably delete it.
I recently got Fusion, but I think I like Parallels better. That may be because I am more used to Parallels. I have been using it for about a year, and only got Fusion a month ago. When I switch between Parallels and Fusion, I have to long into Microsoft to update the license (takes about 30 seconds).
I am very happy with Parallels. It lets me do what I need to do without having to have a PC computer. I had some medical CME programs that only ran in Windows. I actually bought a Toishiba PC laptop a year ago just to run those programs. It took the tech over a week before he could come out to my house to set it up. During that week I decided to buy a 15" MacBook Pro and try running the programs from that. I never even took the PC out of the box. The only problem I had was that I got 2 bad Windows XP disks. The instillation would hang part of the way through. I took the first one back to the store and got a new one that did the same thing, only in a different place during the install. By then I was sure it was my computer. For some reason, I made a copy of the Windows XP disk and the install worked fine with the copy. I called Microsoft and they sent me a new disk, and that one worked fine as well. I wasted several hours trying to install Windows because of the bad disks, other than that I had no problems. One thing I learned from my use of Windows is that it is MUCH MUCH easier to do things with the Mac than with Windows.
Frank
Hopefully I'm not overanswering your question, but I don't think the others addressed one of your questions. I use both Parallels and Bootcamp and they are the same instance of windows. If I install a program in Parallels, it's there when I go
into Bootcamp, etc. To set it up that way you need to install Boot Camp first and then tell Parallels you want to use a Boot Camp partition when you set it up (otherwise it wants to use your OS X partition). I think you should be able to have separate instances of windows if you want to... just don't tell Parallels about the Boot Camp partition (but I haven't tried it).
Sean
I have Windows installed both ways with Parallels. I have a Bootcamp install, and then I have an install of Windows in Parallels. You can run off of either or even both at the same time in Parallels. I now just use the Bootcamp install, and haven't opened the Parallels install in a long time. I like running Windows with Parallels. It acts like it is just another window that is open on you Mac. If you do a Bootcamp install, you only have 1 actuall copy of Windows on your computer. I have 2 copies on mine. One in Bootcamp and one in Parallels, but don't use the one in Parallels any longer, so I will probably delete it.
I recently got Fusion, but I think I like Parallels better. That may be because I am more used to Parallels. I have been using it for about a year, and only got Fusion a month ago. When I switch between Parallels and Fusion, I have to long into Microsoft to update the license (takes about 30 seconds).
I am very happy with Parallels. It lets me do what I need to do without having to have a PC computer. I had some medical CME programs that only ran in Windows. I actually bought a Toishiba PC laptop a year ago just to run those programs. It took the tech over a week before he could come out to my house to set it up. During that week I decided to buy a 15" MacBook Pro and try running the programs from that. I never even took the PC out of the box. The only problem I had was that I got 2 bad Windows XP disks. The instillation would hang part of the way through. I took the first one back to the store and got a new one that did the same thing, only in a different place during the install. By then I was sure it was my computer. For some reason, I made a copy of the Windows XP disk and the install worked fine with the copy. I called Microsoft and they sent me a new disk, and that one worked fine as well. I wasted several hours trying to install Windows because of the bad disks, other than that I had no problems. One thing I learned from my use of Windows is that it is MUCH MUCH easier to do things with the Mac than with Windows.
Frank
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