Installing Windows 7 Upgrade Edition on a new Macbook Pro

Question

Hi all,
I am a recent convert to Apple after becoming more and more disillusioned with Windows for the past 10 or so years. I have ordered a shiny new 15" 2011 MBP and can't wait for it to arrive!
My issue is that I am going to need to install Windows for occassional use with certain software as well as occassional gaming. I have a legitimate copy of Windows XP (as well as ME and 98) which I am perfectly happy with - However I understand that the new Macbooks will no longer support WinXP via Bootcamp?
I am a student and have recently purchased a copy of the Windows 7 upgrade edition to rectify this, but I have now read that you cannot perform a "clean" install from the upgrade edition?
I'm afraid I am finding this all very confusing. I do own a legitimate copy of WinXP, and am eligable for the Win7 upgrade, so any help getting this installed on my new Macbook? I would hate to have to keep my ancient desktop around just for Windows, as this would defeat the object of my new purchase.
I have found the following guide;
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgra de-media.aspx
Does anyone know if this will work in my case or has anyone tried on a brand new MBP?
Thanks in advace for any advice and guidance you can offer.

Answer 1

I have read in an issue of Mac Format about installing Windows in VirtualBox? I'm not really sure how this differs from using BootCamp and what the advantages/disadvantages are...
Virtualization through Virtualbox (or Parallels or Fusion,) allows you to create a "virtual machine." In this virtual machine, you install Windows or Linux or whatever OS, just like you would a physical machine. But the "machine" is just some software and you view the machine as window within OSX. Think of it like a word processing program like Microsoft Word. You run Word to create documents. You can have multiple documents, but the documents can only be "run" within Word. And you can have multiple documents open at the same time and you can switch back and forth between documents without having to reboot OSX. So it is with virtualization. You can create multiple virtual machines (if you have enough hard drive space, just like Word.) You can run multiple virtual machines (if you have enough RAM, just like Word.) It's just that the "documents" are now operating systems rather than word processing or spreadsheets. The big advantage is that you don't have to reboot out of OSX in order to use Windows.
...i'm looking to mostly use windows for gaming, would this method be suitable for that as i see I would not have to restart the system.
And then we come to the disadvantage. A virtual machine has "virtual hardware". The "guest" operating system doesn't actually "see" the physical hardware directly. Instead a virtual motherboard, virtual hard drive, virtual keyboard, etc, are "presented" to the guest OS. The virtualization software must "interpret" the requests from the guest OS into things the physical hardware must do. As with any interpretation, there is a delay. Think of it like if you spoke only French and you talk through an interpreter to someone who only spoke Swahili. It works, but is slower than if you were able to speak Swahili. For most things, this is fine. The weak link is the virtual video card. A simple game like solitaire doesn't need much graphics power so the "slowness" is not an issue. But a FPS game like Call Of Duty or Crysis, where graphics performance is critical, a virtual machine often chokes. So the use of virtualization in gaming really depends on the game.
BTW, there is another technology called emulation that is similar to virtualization, but in general is slower than virtualization. Emulation is used when the CPU required for the guest OS is different than what the physical host has. For example, if you wanted to run Windows on a PowerPC Mac. This is why the Mac changing to Intel CPUs was so exciting because it allowed the use of the faster virtualization technology for Macs to run Windows.
So the decision to use Boot Camp or virtualization depends on your needs. Me personally, I work with virtual machines daily due to my work with testing servers and such. With virtualization I am able to run several virtual machines simultaneously and so can simulate a whole network all within my Macbook. My work doesn't involve much graphics tasks with games, Photoshop, video, etc, so virtualization is fine. If your game is a FPS, then you probably wouldn't find virtualization acceptable. But "simple" games it may be fine. Virtualbox is free, but Parallels and Fusion sometimes do better with certain games. Parallels and Fusion have trial versions so you may want to try them as well. If you do, when you create the virtual machines, do NOT activate Windows until you're sure you're going to purchase. The various products do NOT use the same file format so converting a virtual machine to another format is tricky. If you do activate Windows, then decide to use a different product but are unable to convert the virtual machine, it's not a big deal to call Microsoft for the reactivation, but it is inconvenient, so better to avoid activation until you're sure.