VMware Fusion or Parallels for running Windows 7 on a portable HD?

So I have a shiny new MBP 13" with the Haswell chip and I'm trying to totally replace my Dell PC laptop in everyday life. I cloned my Dell's HD to a USB 3.0 portable HD and am looking at either VMware Fusion 6 or Parallels Desktop 8 to create a VM to run Win7 off of that portable HD. I only have a 256Gb SSD in my MBP, so I don't want to fill it up with all my Windows stuff.
Here are my two questions:
1 - Is this possible to do?
2 - Based on how I want to use this, does anyone know which VM platform is bes, Fusion 6 or Parallels Desktop 8?
Thanks!

Niether. First try Oracle Virtualbox. It is free and runs all OS as good as the paid for virtual machine software programs.
EDIT:
Sorry I did not at first read your whole post.
You can use any of the 3 virtual machine software programs for running most all versions of Windows on your Mac and they all work quite well. But you can not use a version of Windows that came on your Dell PC on any other computer, whether in a virtual machine or installed directly to the hard drive of that computer (Mac or PC), as that version of Windows is tied to your Dell PC and will only work on a Dell PC. It is illegal to put it on some other computer than the one it came on.
So to run Windows on your Mac, Natively or in a virtual machine, you will need to buy a retail copy, or a System Builders OEM copy, of the version of Windows you want to use.

Similar Messages

How many licenses for Windows 7 via both Boot Camp and either VMware Fusion or Parallels on the same MacBook?

This concerns a white MacBook running OS X 10.5.8 Leopard.
If I install Windows 7 on my MacBook with Boot Camp, and then use either VMware Fusion or Parallels to access that Boot Camp partition, will I need to buy two Windows licenses from Microsoft?
I had not anticipated this, but when calling VMware and Parallels to check out the tech support services of the two companies, the person at VMware mentioned that I would need two licenses. When I called Parallels, I then asked the person at that company whether two Windows licenses would be needed. That person told me that only one license would be necessary.
I then called Microsoft. The representative there told me that my question could not be answered by Microsoft because that company does not provide support for users installing Windows on Apple computers.
After that, I called Apple. The Apple representative was not familiar with this type of issue. She mentioned the possibility that the VMware Fusion and Parallels products might be different, and that that might be why using the former would involve two licenses and using the latter would involve only one license.
Has anyone had experience with installing Windows 7 via Boot Camp, and then accessing that Windows 7 installation from VMware Fusion or Parallels? If so, did you have to buy two Windows licenses?

One license. You may have to re-register Windows online when you start it up in Parallels because Windows sees that it is now running on new hardware (virtualized) and thinks it has been installed on a new computer. If the online re-registration does not work, just call the registration number and go through the automated registration process. Once re-registered then use Windows from Parallels. If you are also installing MS Office in Windows you will need to go through the same process again for registering Office.
The process is automated, simple, and free. You have made the process more complicated than it is by calling Apple, Parallels, and Microsoft when there is an automated MS registration number to call.

VMware Fusion vs Parallels Desktop 3.0

i want to run Windows XP or Windows Vista on my mac.
which among VMware Fusion and Parallels would be a much better program/software to buy?
what are the pros & cons of each?
should i buy now or would waiting for Leopard's release (with a new Boot Camp version) be much better?
thanks.

I have Parallels installed on my wife's MacBook and I have Fusion installed on mine. I think if you are using it in a home environment, Parallels would be better as it's snazzier in it's implementation. But for a work type environment, I would recommend Fusion. VMWare has lots of experience with virtualization, and if you have a Linux/Windows VM that is already built and configured, it would be quite easy to just port it over to Fusion to run.
Fusion is probably playing a bit of catch up with Parallels but eventually it will get there, and I expect them to overtake Parallels.
Both software has free trials, and I would recommend that you download both and try them out to see which one you would prefer.

VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop Benchmark Comparison

This is a quickie benchmark of VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop using Super PI, PC Mark 05, and Passmark.
VMWare Fusion 36932
Parallels Desktop 3094 Beta 2
Notes:
Both virtual machines were allocated with large 10+ GB virtual disks and 640MB of RAM. The VMWare CPU was configured with two processors. The Parallels CPU was configured with 1 (two is not available). VMWare reported the CPU as 1 physical, 2 logical processors running at 2.66 GHz while Parallels reported 1 physical, 1 logical processor running at 9.6 GHz (the combined speed of all four cores on the Mac Pro). The max observed CPU utilization in activity monitor when running under VMWare was 200% and max under Parallels was 173%.
I chose not to compare 1 VMWare CPU vs. 1 Parallels CPU. While Parallels does not support SMP or multithreaded processes on multiple processors the CPU utilization on the Mac went well above 1 core (173%). For this comparison, I wanted to see results of max processing based on what the two vendors have delivered, as opposed to benchmarking the underlying "virtual or hypervisor cpu" on a 1:1 basis. This explains why VMWare was 2x faster than Parallels on some CPU tests.
Both of these products are beta. VMWare is running in debug mode (can not be turned off in this beta).
Caveat emptor on these stats. This was an unscientific exercise to satisfy my curiosity. Some of the extraordinary differences are highlighted with <--.
Platform:
Mac Pro 2.66 GHz, 2GB RAM, Nvidia 7300GT
Disk 1 - OS X, 73GB Raptor
Disk 2 - dedicated disk where each virtual machine image was created separate from the OS or any OS-related virtual memory files.
VMWare and Parallels guest OS: Windows XP Professional, SP 2
Comparison Benchmrk
VMWare Fusion 36932 and Parallels Desktop 3094 Beta 2
Super PI Parallels VMWare
512K 8s 9s
1M 20s 21s
4M 1m 57s 2m 03s
PC Mark 05 Parallels VMWare
CPU Test Suite N/A N/A
Memory Test Suite N/A N/A
Graphics Test Suite N/A N/A
HDD Test Suite N/A N/A
HDD - XP Startup 5.0 MB/s 19.54 MB/s <--
Physics and 3D Test failed Test failed
Transparent Windows Test failed 69.99 Windows/s
3D - Pixel Shader Test failed Test failed
Web Page Rendering 3.58 Pages/s 2.34 Pages/s
File Decrypt 71.73 MB/s 67.05 MB/s
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines 179.92 FPS 111.73 FPS
HDD - General Usage 4.82 MB/s 42.01 MB/s <--
Multithread Test 1 / Audio Comp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 1 / Video Encoding Test failed Test failed
Multithread Test 2 / Text Edit 152.85 Pages/s 138.48 Pages/s
Multithread Test 2 / Image DeComp 5.91 MPixels/s 35.4 MPixels/s <--
Multithread Test 3 / File Comp 3.22 MB/s 6.03 MB/s
Multithread Test 3 / File Encrypt 19.0 MB/s 33.26 MB/s <--
Multithread Test 3 / HDD - Virus Scan 27.91 MB/s 25.49 MB/s
Multithread Test 3 / Mem Lat - Rnd 16MB 5.34 MAcc/s 6.63 MAcc/s
File Comp N/A N/A
File DeComp N/A N/A
File Encrypt N/A N/A
File Decrypt N/A N/A
Image DeComp N/A N/A
Audio Comp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 1 / File Comp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 1 / File Encrypt N/A N/A
Multithread Test 2 / File DeComp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 2 / File Decrypt N/A N/A
Multithread Test 2 / Audio DeComp N/A N/A
Multithread Test 2 / Image DeComp N/A N/A
Memory Read - 16 MB N/A N/A
Memory Read - 8 MB N/A N/A
Memory Read - 192 kB N/A N/A
Memory Read - 4 kB N/A N/A
Memory Write - 16 MB N/A N/A
Memory Write - 8 MB N/A N/A
Memory Write - 192 kB N/A N/A
Memory Write - 4 kB N/A N/A
Memory Copy - 16 MB N/A N/A
Memory Copy - 8 MB N/A N/A
Memory Copy - 192 kB N/A N/A
Memory Copy - 4 kB N/A N/A
Memory Lat - Rnd 16 MB N/A N/A
Memory Lat - Rnd 8 MB N/A N/A
Memory Lat - Rnd 192 kB N/A N/A
Memory Lat - Rnd 4 kB N/A N/A
Transparent Windows N/A N/A
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines N/A N/A
Graphics Memory - 128 Lines N/A N/A
WMV Video Playback N/A N/A
3D - Fill Rate Multi Texturing N/A N/A
3D - Polygon Throughput Multiple Lights N/A N/A
3D - Pixel Shader N/A N/A
3D - Vertex Shader N/A N/A
HDD - XP Startup N/A N/A
HDD - Application Loading N/A N/A
HDD - General Usage N/A N/A
HDD - Virus Scan N/A N/A
HDD - File Write N/A N/A
Processor Intel Core 2 9653 MHz Processor Unknown 2661 MHz
Physical / Logical CPUs "1 Physical, 1 Logical" "1 Physical, 2 Logical"
MultiCore 1 Processor Core Multicore 2 Processor Cores
HyperThreading N/A N/A
Graphics Card Generic VGA Generic VGA
Graphics Driver Parallels Video Driver VMWare SVGA II
Co-operative adapters No No
DirectX Version 9.0c 9.0c
System Memory 640 MB 640MB
Motherboard Manufacturer N/A Intel Corporation
Motherboard Model N/A 440BX Desktop Reference Platform
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Microsoft Windows XP
Passmark Parallels VMWare
CPU - Integer Math (MOPS) 112.35 230.31 <--
CPU - Floating Point Math (MOPS) 280.46 588.33 <--
CPU - Find Prime Numbers (OPS) 446.37 676.99 <--
CPU - SSE/3DNow! (MMPS) 2118.56 4737.13 <--
CPU - Comp (KB/s) 2994.16 5952.34 <--
CPU - Encrypt (MB/s) 18.09 36.27 <--
CPU - Image Rotation (IRPS) 598.21 1184.41 <--
CPU - String Sorting (TPS) 2118.81 3672.59 <--
Graphics 2D - Lines (TPS) 220.71 25.15 <--
Graphics 2D - Rectangles (TPS) 189.74 61.8 <--
Graphics 2D - Shapes (TPS) 39.54 13.71 <--
Graphics 2D - Fonts and Text (OPS) 190.39 75.88 <--
Graphics 2D - GUI (OPS) 439.77 63.72 <--
Memory - Allocate Small Block (MB/s) 2533.83 2526.21
Memory - Read Cached (MB/s) 1960.5 1906.27
Memory - Read Uncached (MB/s) 1871.79 1826.08
Memory - Write (MB/s) 1687.81 1545.43
Memory - Large RAM (OPS) 60.99 46.37
Disk - Sequential Read (MB/s) 102.11 76.45 <--
Disk - Sequential Write (MB/s) 58.33 50.9
Disk - Rnd Seek + RW (MB/s) 51.4 40.4
CPU Mark 711.08 1432.72 <--
2D Graphics Mark 743.31 176.5 <--
Memory Mark 599.94 580.38
Disk Mark 766.11 606.7
PassMark Rating 557.27 637.35<br>

Thanks for posting these numbers - it's an interesting comparison.
I would expect the final VMWare fusion performance numbers to be quite a bit better than that of Parallels - they have almost a decade's worth of experience more than the Parallels folks in this arena, and a much larger development team to boot.
Once VMWare Fusion is released to the public, I think that you'll see a clearer distinction between the two products. VMWare will continue to appeal to the professional customer, with a more robust feature set and corporate-friendly features (and a correspondingly higher price tag); Parallels will fall more into the consumer/VirtualPC-replacement market. It will be interesting to see how Parallels will be affected when (and if) VMWare player is ported to OS X.
Interesting about the Parallels performance stats on a native partition - looks like almost enough reason to avoid the bootcamp partition approach altogether. Sharing a native windows installation with a VM in parallels is a pretty scary situation in any case, as the two environments have entirely different hardware configurations. Do-able, but there is some black magic involved (if you want to see an example of what I mean, try to move a windows installation from one machine to another w/different hardware sometime - it ain't pretty); I wouldn't try this in a production scheme unless I had REALLY good backups.

Recommendations for running Windows on Macbook with OSX Lion version 10.7.2?

I Just bought a new MacBook Pro, running Lion, version 10.7.2. I am looking to run some windows applications on my mac, including AutoCAD, etc. I would ideally like to install bootcamp on my MacBook, but from what i understand, Lion is only compatible with Windows 7... I have Windows XP and VMWARE Fusion that I had run on my previous MacBook, however, I am unable to install VMWARE Fusion on my new MacBook (Lion). Any recommendations for running higher-profile windows apps on a mac without having to purchase Windows7 or a new version of VMWARE? Thanks

Newer computer = newer drivers and apps. You can only run Windows 7 using Boot Camp Assistant with the newer computers. Or, you can download and install Parallels or Fusion (the most current versions work in Lion). If using Parallels or Fusion you can install XP, Vista, Windows 7, etc.
Or, you could try the free VirtualBox.

What are the best options for running windows on a Mac Pro

what are the best options for running windows on a Mac Pro

For gaming and other CPU intensive stuff: Boot Camp – https://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/
For the rest: any virtualization software (Parallels/Vmware Fusion/VirtualBox)

VMware Fusion Ideal Settings for Best performance

Can someone please help with the ideal settings for VMware Fusion on mac for best performance.
My Machine Details
MacBook Pro (13-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3)
Processor : 2.8 GHz Intel Core
Memory : 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Storage : 750 GB SATA Disk
Graphics : Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB
Am using VMware Fusion Version 4.1.2
At Present the resources I have allocated for VMFusion are
Processor : 1 Core
Memory : 4 GB
Thanks
Brij

VMware Fusion doesn't slow down the Mac just because having it installed. You have 16 GB of memory in the computer and you assigned 4 GB for the virtual machine you have, so you shouldn't have any memory problem. Also, your Mac has got a great processor that run virtual machines without any problem.
If you feel your Mac slow while running the virtual machine, just reduce the amount of memory assigned to the virtual machine, depending on the operating system you have in the virtual machine. For example, I recommend 2 GB or more for Windows 7, and you can run Linux virtualized assigning only 512 MB of memory

If i buy VMware fusion or Parallels desktop, i need a version of windows?

do i need windows with parallels or VMware?
a lot of thanks

nicholasfromcorreggio wrote:
do i need windows with parallels or VMware?
a lot of thanks
You don't need Windows if you want to run a different OS as your "guest". You can download many different flavors of Linux for free, and most of them will run in Parallels or VMWare Fusion... If you want to run Windows though, you will need a copy of that OS to install in the virtual machine of your choice...

VMware Fusion v Parallels

Which one should I go with?
I have been using VirtualBox for a while but it has been freezing up my cirsor after Lion install.
What should I do? Is there a fix for VirtualBox or am I better of buying VMWare or Parallels?
Which one is best in performance?

thaipantsman wrote:
which one did you go for? i use parallels. it's a bit sluggish but works. They always want you to pay for support or upgrades. i run windows 7 on my macbook pro. Can I also run VM Fusion or Virtual Box on the same system. Given I have windows 7 installed already will I need to reintstall this to try out Virtual Box?
If your Windows is installed in its own partition using Boot Camp Assistant both Fusion and Paralllels can use this already installed Windows as their guest operating system. If your Windows is installed in Parallels, no Boot Camp partition, then you will need to also install Windows in Fusion when you try it.
VirtualBox does not support using an already Boot Camp installation of Windows as its guest operating system.

Vmware fusion to hyper-v on Windows 8

I am trying to figure out if I can convert my VMWare Fusion images to Hyper-V images. I want to move from my Mac OS X running VMWare Fusion to Windows 8 running Hyper-V, I want to take my VMs with me. Is there a tool or method to do that. The only references
I have found are out of date.
Thanks
Matt

I assume you are doing this on a Mac.
keep in mind you will lose some functionality going to Hyper-V.
Hyper-V was designed for server virtualization and is missing features you may take for granted:
Sound support, 3d graphics, usb redirection, etc.
Yes, there is a "work around" (more like a hack in my opinion) that allows some of this functionality if you connect to the Hyper-V VM through RDP as opposed to the console directly. But that solution has it's own problems: You must enable RDP
on the VM and ensure network connectivity between host and guest (depending on the reason for the VM this is not always desirable or even acceptable).
Furthermore, if this is a MacBook Retina (with no Ethernet port), keep in mind you will need to share your wireless connection between host and guest. Bridging wireless connections does not work reliably under Hyper-V, resulting in network connectivity for
both the host and guest dropping periodically. Again, there is a work around for this by creating an 'internal' hyper-v network between the host and guest and then enabling windows internet sharing on your wifi adapter. This has some strong limitations, i.e.
the guest will be NAT-ted and the host will act as dhcp server and dns relay for the VM and is for all practical purposes, not configurable.

What is the best solution for running windows based programs

I have one program that I need windows for. What is the best solution for doing this without painfully slowing down my mac.

Depends on your needs.
BootCamp requires reboot and uses all physical resources of the system. Only OSX *or* Windows can run. Better for gaming or memory intensive tasks. BootCampAssistant must set up the boot sector to make it work. Also BCA required to remove it.
VM (virtual machine) like Parallels which "hosts" Windows while still running OSX. You split RAM between the two environments. VM is just another program so no special boot sector changes needed, but not good for graphics or RAM intensive programs.
Other recommended alternates to Parallels (paid) are VM Fusion (paid) and VirtualBox (free download from Oracle.com).

Boot Camp 2.1 ruined my fonts - Fusion or Parallels for CS3 - need help?

As Boot Camp 2.1 has been known to cause problems with Adobe Open Type fonts, I need to run Windows XP and Adobe Photoshop CS3 on a virtual machine.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8414651#8414651
Which one would better suit my needs, Fusion or Parallels?
Thanks!

Trisha K:
Parallels and Fusion pretty much use the same principle to use Windows as a virtual machine. I use VMWare Fusion and it pretty much serves my needs as I only use it when I am logged into OSx and need to boot into Windows to run MS Office applications. I personally prefer running Windows natively with boot camp.
Please note that both Parallels and Fusion will share/split RAM with OSx. I am not sure how this will affect the overall performance of Adobe Photoshop. You may sacrifice some speed and performance while using Windows in a virtual machine environment.
Axel F.

The best option for running Windows on a Mac?

Though I'm loving my MacBook Pro, the only thing I would like to improve is the capacity for playing games. And for that I really need Windows.
So, I have a copy of Windows XP, and I have a copy of Parallel. I've installed Parallel and Windows XP, but it's limited and I can't figure out how to make my graphics card (which is 256MB) work with it. It seems to need to use the Parallel Graphics. So, some questions:
1) Is there a way to play the best Windows games using Parallel?
2) Is there a better alternative? One of my friends mentioned Bootcamp to me. Would that be better? Is there any program that would allow me to run Windows and use the full power of my system to play the games?

For gaming... your best option is to use BootCamp. Parallels is an excellent program... and it runs Windows well under most conditions... but it is still not great for gaming (even with version 3). BootCamp is free. It allows you to boot directly into Windows making your MacBook Pro a full fledged Windows PC. Games will run just as well as they would on any similarly spec'd PC notebook. The BootCamp utility in OS X will allow you to create a Windows driver CD for all of the hardware. You will get full speed 3D, ect. Also... you can use your BootCamp installation of Windows in Parallels... So, after you install Windows via BootCamp, you can delete your previous "Parallels Only" Windows installation and go through the process of installing a new version of Windows in Parallels... you will be able to point it to the copy of Windows you have set up in BootCamp. This way... when you want to play games... you can boot into Windows and run them at full speed... but for those times you are in OS X and you just want to launch an application that does not need all the 3d power, you can launch that same copy of Windows through Parallels.

Use parallels to run windows with iMac as monitor

This is a complicated question, so please read everything. I have a new late 2012 Mac Mini. On the Mac Mini, I had MS Windows installed with Bootcamp so I could run a 3d cad program. I want to use my iMac 21 inch computer in target display mode as the monitor for this. I hooked up the mini to the iMac with a thunderbolt cable and started both machines up. The Mac Mini is set to boot up in the windows side of the partitioned hard-drive. Because of this, the iMac doesn't respond to the mini when hitting the command/F2 key to try to place the iMac in target display mode. I could try to start up the Mini on the apple side of the partitioned hard-drive and see if I can get target display mode to work with the iMac, but that doesn't solve my problem, which is, that I need to use the windows side on the mini with the iMac as the display.
So, I'm wondering if I switch from Bootcamp to Parallels to run the windows partition, will this solve the problem. I'm thinking, that because you can switch back and forth between the window and apple partitions in Parallels without having to reboot, I can start both computers up, place the iMac in target display mode, then switch to the windows side and work there... all using a thunderbolt cable.
I've been on the phone with Apple support, and they don't know for sure if this will work, but they think it's worth a try. I'd rather do this than have to buy and use a monitor for the Mini. HAS ANYONE DONE THIS AND HAD SUCCESS??? IS THE CABLE AN ISSUE HERE? IF THIS DIDN'T WORK, DID YOU FIND ANOTHER WAY?
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from anyone who can shed light on this.

Doos your oMac meed these reqore,smet:
What are the requirements for TDM?
A Mac notebook or desktop with a Mini DisplayPort or ThunderBolt connection
A ThunderBolt or Mini DisplayPort cable
A supported iMac with OS X 10.6.1 or later. The table below shows iMac computers that support TDM, the required cables, and the port of the computer to which you are connecting the iMac.
iMac Model
Cable Supported
Port on Source Computer
iMac (27-inch Late 2009)
Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort
Mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt
iMac (27-inch Mid 2010)
Mini DisplayPort to Mini DisplayPort
Mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt
iMac (Mid 2011 or later)
Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt
Target Display Mode: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Options for running Windows Apps

Here goes - I'm a pc user. Developer to be specific, so I need to be able to run SQL Server 2005/2000 Visual Studio 2003/2005, and other Windows related apps to support my job. However, I'm interested in purchasing an Apple to support my hobbies (photography, etc). They're elegant in design/architecture, etc.
I was really excited about the new MacBook Pro on an Intel platform - with dreams of "dual booting" Windows. Unfortunately, it does not appear that Windows (currently) supports the BIOS of the MacBook Pro - and I'm not interested in "hacking" a solution out. I need this thing to run, and run well.
I've also heard about the VM and have used VM to support development work. However, I've found it to be clunky at best - and would rather pursue alternatives.
So, ultimately my questions are - am I ultimately restricted to having multiple machines if I want a MacBook Pro? Is there any reality to the claim that Vista will be able to support the BIOS standard used by Apple? Should I just forget about it - and purchase another antiquated pc.
Thanks in advance for any useful information. Sean

It is possible that Microsoft will release a Virtual PC for Intel Mac, but that may be some time in the future.
Currently you can obtain a boot loader that will instal Win XP on an Intel Mac. It is fairly straightforward but assumes that you are not a new computer user.
Please be advised: This solution is not supported by Apple. Apple is not preventing people from instaling Windows, however they will not troubleshoot your problems. Furthermore you may wish to consider waiting a bit because the current instal does not contain fan drivers which means that while in Windows you run the chance of overheating your MacBook Pro. Given time this is likely to be fixed.
http://download.onmac.net/
In the long run it is better to only run OS X, however if you are forced to run Windows the least we Mac users can do is buy Apple hardware and software and dual boot our computers when required to. If I were in your situation I too would rather have a product made by Apple than any other manufacturer.

VMware Fusion or Parallels for running Windows 7 on a portable HD?

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