Dingdongler

Though I love my Mac I'm getting a bit fed up of not being able to run Windows programmes. I'm trying to build something and there is a programme that helps you model that something but it is windows only!

I see there are programmes that allow you to run Windows on your Mac and claim there is no slow down in processing speed.

Are these ok to use, will the cause any problems? Can anybody suggest one?

Many thanks

BigGT3Fan

Parallels is what you want, and it rocks. It fires up a virtual PC on the mac and it's been around for ages in various guises, originally as a separate VM like you might expect.

However, the most recent versions have a "convergence" mode where the PC apps run integrated on the mac desktop, it's pretty good.

Ant

+1 for parallels

Dingdongler

Thanks is parallels the trade name or is it a system? If the latter is there any particular make you recommend?

Thanks

Ant

It's software you run within osx and let's you run other OS in a virtual machine . Whilst still running osx.

Ant

http://www.parallels.com/uk/products/desktop/

They have a trial you can use. But if it's your thing you could obtain it for free through
Torrents

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Get this mate, works a treat



http://www.virtualbox.org/


This is mine on a macbook pro and it is fine and dandy and its free

BuRR

It's called Crossover.

It's a port of Wine from Linux, and allows single applications to run in the OSX environment.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Well which one is it, Port or Wine !!!

Gigsy

+1 for Parallels... I run various test and development environments using multiple OS using Parallels. Works a treat.

Dingdongler

Thanks guys.

How would parallels be better than the free virtual box Tony has suggested?

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

It is optimised and plays nicer, has whizzy bang features which frankly I dont use. when I want windows XP, I want just that. I dont need it to interact with my dock or apple OS

jsh1

iTrader: (1)

And another vote for parallels. I run it on my MacBook Pro as part of my job requires using software only available on Windows.

It is very fast and captures ports perfectly.

The other option is to use Boot Camp which should have come with your Mac and allows you to boot up the machine as either OS-X or Windows.

The disadvantage is that it is either and not both like parallels.

Jason

Gigsy

Parallels can run your Bootcamp windows partition though so you can run either Windows natively on the Mac (via bootcamp) or Windows and OSX together (via Parallels) or just OSX on its own.

Parallels allows you to access either the Windows or Mac HDD when running Windows as a VM which is good if you need to share the same file between the different OS. Support is probably than free software better too. Last time I checked, Parallels wasn't prohibitively expensive.

Dingdongler

Thanks, I'll buy the parallels.

As long as I don't surf the web using windows and only use windows to download a handful of programmes I take it i won't be prone to PC viruses?

thanks again

JackClark

Mine looks different, I certainly don't get the preview window, how?

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

Maybe because I have snapshots selected top right of screen ?

JackClark

I don't have the option. Yours says Manager as well, further investigation required.

hodgy0_2

maybe you need to "believe" a little more Jack

Gigsy

Should be ok... I don't run AV on the vm's but their only up for a short while at a time usually. You can always use Avast (free) if you find you need to.

Markus

Grrr, damn dodgy cell connection on my iPhone! I'll post again then!

There are three main options for running windows apps on your intel based mac, they are:

1) Boot Camp - This is Apple's official dual boot solution (you could use rEFIt to dual / triple / quad boot if you want - so linux will run). You partition your drive for windows, then install Windows (XP SP2 or later), you boot into Windows and that's it (well, install boot camp drivers). 100% Percent of performance as it's running as a PC, intel iMacs are basically just PC's in a pretty dress. Pros are it's a pc, cons, can't run OS X at the same time

2) Virtual Machines. Run OS X, then fire up a virtual machine to run Windows, or other OSes. Supports more OSes than Boot Camp. Main products are: VMWare's Fusion for Mac, Parallels Desktop For Mac and Oracle's VirtualBox for Mac.
The first two are commercial products, they do have 30 day trial versions, so grab both, see which you like better. Parallels was the first to market and I used it in beta form and it was very good, had the full version for a while now. I've also use Fusion, again very good.
I would pick Fusion over Parallels, simply because it would run Novell Netware, whereas Parallels would not, and back in the day, I did need access to Netware servers.
Virtualbox is free and I've used it at work and am rather impressed with it, so certainly give it a go
Pros are that you can run a hell of a lot of different OSes, even if they are just different versions of Windows. You are also running it at the same time as OS X, and you should be able to copy and paste data from one environment to the other.
Con is that performance takes a hit as you'll be running two OSes at the same time (OS X and whatever your VM runs). So anything processor intensive is going to cause slow downs.
In addition, you can use your BootCamp partition as the hard drive in Parallels and Fusion (not sure about VirtualBox), thus your apps / files / etc from Boot Camp and your VM will be the same, very handy

3) Wine - This is essentially a project to allow apps to run without an OS. Crossover by Codeweavers is a commercial solution, Look up Winebottler for a rather nice free port of Wine. It's not bad, but the problem is that some apps are not compatible with it, typically things that use .NET won't run and it's difficult if not impossible to get .NET installed into a Wine environment. There should be compatibility lists for which apps work with Wine out there, so check and see if your app is on that list.

Hope that helps

hodgy0_2

is that apples version of App-V?

Markus

Nothing to do with Apple. Wine is open source and Crossover is a commercial version of Wine.

hodgy0_2

App-V is Microsoft's attempt at virtualising applications (what was Softgrid), abstracting them from the OS --- and delivering them as a contained package independent of the underlying OS

http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/appv/default.mspx