What is better, boot camp, fusion4 or parallels to install Windows 7?

What software is a better choice for installing/using windows on my macbook pro?

You forgot one. Oracle VirtualBox is free and mostly like Fusion or Parallels. Maybe a bit less refined, as it is a newer product, but functionally identical.
You will have to make a choice between convenience vs. performance. The virtualization option (Parallels/Fusion/VirtualBox) lets you run both systems at the same time, but with a performance handicap that may affect some heavy usage programs such as games. And since the guest systems are not running directly on bare hardware, some antipiracy or authentication measures may not work.
Running natively via BootCamp lets the system run on bare hardware with the maximum performance afforded by the Mac. However, it is an either/or propositiion; if you need anything on MacOS X, you need to reboot.
Personally, I've never had the need to max out the computer on Windows, so I'm quite happy running it virtualized. I'm currenty carring Win 2000, Win XP, Win 7 Enterprise and Win Server 2008 R2 virtual machines, together with RedHat Linux and Solaris 10 Unix instances.

Similar Messages

  • I have an iMac with mountain lion 10.8.3 with boot camp 5.0.2 .i installed windows 7 -64 bit with boot camp but the boot camp didn't install drivers for windows please guide me for trouble shooting .

    i have an iMac with mountain lion 10.8.3 with boot camp 5.0.2 .i installed windows 7 -64 bit with boot camp but the boot camp didn't install drivers for windows please guide me for trouble shooting .

    Kappy wrote:
    Boot Camp doesn't install the drivers. You have the drivers on a separate USB device if you followed directions. Once in Windows connect the USB drive with the driver software. It should startup automatically and install the drivers.
    You don't even need to do that. As downloading the drivers from within Boot Camp Assistant can be unreliable, it is better to get the package directly from here:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1638
    Copy the .zip file to a USB flash drive or burn it to a DVD in OS X. Install Windows as normal, insert the flash drive/DVD in Windows, copy the .zip file to the hard drive, extract it, then run the setup executable.

  • I recently brought a mac and downloaded windows with the help of boot camp and by mistake i installed windows 7 ultimate version whereas i had the cd and serial key of windows home premium i started installing windows home premium from windows 7 cont...

    I recently brought a mac and downloaded windows with the help of boot camp and by mistake i installed windows 7 ultimate version whereas i had the cd and serial key of windows home premium i started installing windows home premium from windows 7 ULTIMATE then after the exctraction of files and everything the windows setup came and my mouse and keyboard stopped working and i dont know how to open mac os x there is no option anywhere?? what shall i do pls help!!!!if there are any keyboard shortcut key to open mac os x or boot camp pls mention.

    For Boot Camp issues please repost in the Boot Camp forum located by clicking Boot Camp

  • Can i just partition my HD by using boot camp 4.0.1 without install window?

    Can i just partition my HD by using boot camp 4.0.1 without install windows?
    cox i want to use rEFIt to boot up my pendrive to install windows.
    Due to some reason the boot camp 4.0.1 cannnot detect my usb drive (that contained windows 7), so thats why i use the rEFIt to boot from my usb drive

    Yes, you can.
    Let the BootCamp Assistant just make the partition and do not click on "Install Windows"-button.
    The result is a preformatted FAT32-partition on your Mac.
    Stefan

  • Boot Camp will not let me install Windows via external hard drive

    Hi,
    I'm having problems installing Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro. I have the iso file on my external hard dirve and have went to Boot Camp but the following message comes up:
    "The startup disk cannot be partitioned or restored to a single partition.
    The startup disk must be formatted as a single Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume or already partitioned by Boot Camp Assistant for installing Windows."
    At one point i just clicked OK and let Boot Camp install the selected tasks, which formated the disk, copied the Windows files and downloaded the Windows support software but another message came up:
    "Install this Windows support software after installing Windows"
    It then only gives me an option to Quit...
    I would like to add that i tried to install Windows a few days ago and everything was working well up until instead of clicking on "customize" to continue the installation i clicked on "upgrade" then it asked me to remove disk and reboot the computer, i did that and it didn't work. Luckily i got that sorted but wanted to try and install Windows again as it didn't end up getting it installed and this is what is happening now...
    Can someone suggest to me what might be wrong?
    Thanks in advance.

    My other post has been deleted. I will reply to you on this post instead.
    I dragged down the Macintosh HD partition via the small triangle at the bottom right hand side of it. It now looks like this:
    Is it back to normal now? Can i install Windows now or do i need to do anything else?
    Thanks a lot for your help!

  • Boot camp: partition created can't install windows

    I created a 63GB partition.
    and during the bootcamp install it rebooted but never opened again and the Mac mini just spun and spun for a while and I then just reset it. though, the screen is black but I can hear the Mac spinning...I reset but this time use the OPTIONS button and it brings me to choices:
    My HD, My time machine, windows, recovery, and EFI?
    So DUH I choose windows and the screen goes blank, and the system just spins and spins.....
    CAn I restart the Bootcamp assistant and jump back in at the INSTALL WINDOWS step?
    thanks in advance
    WINDOWS-7-64
    MACMINI 2011, ( just bought it a few weeks ago)
    created the windows support software

    So let me get this straigt, you went through the installation process for setting up windows7 using the bootcamp assistant.YES. IT CREATED A PARTITION AND AFTER IT FOUND THE WINDOWS INSTALLER AND DID IT'S THING IT SHUT DOWN.
    i WAITED FOR IT TO WAKE UP AGAIN BUT THE SCREEN STAYED DARK BUT THE FAN JUST RAN AND RAN. SO AFTER 10 MINS. OR MORE I JUST HELD THE POWER BUTTON IN UNTIL IT SHUT OFF.
    TURNED IT BACK ON WITH THE OPTION KEY HELD DOWN.
    THE SCREEN OPENS WITH THE FOLLOWING ICONS: HD, TIME MACHINE, WINDOWS, EFI BOOT.
    After the set up, you are not able to access windows7 when you start the mac holding down the option button at start up or reboot after selecting the windows os. WINDOWS DID NOT INSTALL.
    I NEED TO GET INTO THE PARTITION AND INSTALL WINDOWS.
    If you have not been able to acess win7 and have not had a chance to get it up and running with any personal info that would need backing up, just delete the win7 partion using boot camp assistant and start over. Yes, you will have to create your partition all over again, but all that is maybe on it is the basic install of win7.
    Make sure you have installed the Windows support software.
    WHEN I WENT BACK INTO THE BCA. THE ONLY OPTION WAS TO REMOVE WINDOWS-7. aFTER CLICKING CONTINUE....I SEE THE ICON OF MY HD TO RESTORE TO THE ORIGINAL SIZE...WHICH MEANS IT WILL REMOVE THE PARTITION AND EVERYTHING CURRENTLY ON MY HD NOW----RIGHT?
    THANKS FOR YOUR TIME MAN!

  • HT1338 Boot camp 2.0 fails to install windows 7. Asks to eject disc but cannot

    Cannot install windows 7. Gets to eject windows 7 disc and I cannot do it.

    Boot Camp 2.0 isn't compatible with Windows 7. You can install Windows 7 with Boot Camp 3.0 or later, integrated in Snow Leopard or Lion

  • Boot Camp Installation - Grey screen before installing Windows

    So I just got a new iMac and I am trying to install BC. I went through all the steps (making a FAT USB drive, buying a copy of windows, partitioning 150GB for windows).  Then I clicked the Start Installation and the computer rebooted.
    However, I have been stuck on a grey screen for about 45 minutes.  There is no Apple logo (there was one for the first minute of the reboot) and now there is a big no-smoking symbol (without the cigarette of course.  you know the symbol that is a circle with a line).  Beneath it is the spinning ball thingy saying it is doing something.
    Should I just let it run or try a hard restart?

    I think after weeks of searching I have finally narrowed it down, based on what I have read, to a disk drive problem. It seems to be something wrong with the EFI or the entire disk drive in general. I am taking it to the apple store tomorrow and I highly doubt they will do anything.

  • Can't Install Boot Camp from Snow Leopard DVD in Windows 7

    I have an iMac "Core 2 Duo" 3.06 24-inc (08) running 10.6.2 and Windows 7.
    I was able to successfully use the Boot Camp Assistant to partition and install Windows 7 on my iMac. After the installation, I was able to download updates from Windows Updates which included video drivers.
    However, when I inserted my Snow Leopard DVD to install Boot Camp 3.0, the Setup.exe only gave me two options: To Install Mac OS X remotely and to install CD/DVD Sharing. I was not presented any options to install Boot Camp.
    I did manually navigate the Snow Leopard DVD and found a Boot Camp directory with its own setup.exe and when I clicked on it, it gave me an Installation Error stating "Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model". I did some research and I found no mention of my iMac listed as an unsupported model.
    Any help would be appreciated.

    When I inserted Snow Leopard DVD, the autorun didn't show me an option to install Boot Camp Drivers. Just like the author of this topic, it only showed me 2 options: to Install Mac OS X remotely and to install CD/DVD Sharing.
    Then, I've run Windows Explorer, navigated to Snow Leopard DVD, opened Boot Camp folder and runned "setup.exe". The installer opened and Boot Camp 3.0 was installed successfully.
    I don't know if it could help you guys with that error message, but after the installation of Windows 7 64bits, I've rebooted my Macbook Pro. Only after the reboot I did the Boot Camp Drivers installation.
    You can also try to run the "setup.exe" as Administrator (right-click, Run as administrator).
    Also, my Snow Leopard DVD is that grey one with the white "Mac OS X Install DVD" labelled on it.

  • What does it take to run Boot Camp, Fusion or Parallels

    I am wondering about upgrading to Leopard to use Boot Camp, Fusion or Parallels. I have found that a significant amount of software that I want to run is not available in a Mac version. The other issue is that many programs I already have for Windows would be very expensive to replace with a Mac version. Thus I want to run a Windows operating system on my MacBook. I do not want to suffer from slow performance because the hardware is not robust enough. I would appreciate some honest chatter about what I need hardware wise to make this thing fly.
    1 How much main memory should I have? I currently have 1GB.
    2 How big should the hard drive be? I currently have a 75 GB drive with 45 GB available.
    3 Anyone that has run Windows or runs both; am I simply better off buying a new HP and running Windows programs on a native Windows computer? I hate this alternative. However, I would rather use my computer than spend time trying to figure out why it is not working.
    Thanx in advance

    1. Parallels (and probably Fusion) should run in Tiger, though you would almost certainly want 2GB of RAM. With Leopard, 2GB would be the absolute minimum, I think, for Parallels and Fusion. With Leopard and Boot Camp, 1GB should not be a problem, but it shouldn't cost much to upgrade to 2GB which will be better.
    2. Since you have 45GB available, you should be ok with Parallels or Fusion. With Boot Camp, you would probably be limited to about a 20GB Windows partition, but that is conceivably plenty. If you decide on Boot Camp, you would also want to back up your hard drive before installing Leopard, and then do an erase and install, not an upgrade or an archive and install, lest you both use too much disk space and/or run into the "some files could not be moved" problem. When installing Leopard, you may also want to select the option to not install languages and/or printer drivers, to save some disk space.
    3. I don't see why you should buy an HP unless it has a graphics card and you feel you need a graphics card.
    Boot Camp will run faster than Fusion or Parallels, but this is only relevant if your software is computation or resource intensive. Also, with Fusion or Parallels you would be limited to a smaller amount of Windows RAM, which, however, is also mainly relevant only if your software is memory intensive. With Boot Camp, you will get decent performance, but Leopard will take up more disk space, and Windows will require more disk space. This is why I supplied the disk-saving tip above, even though you don't currently have a lot of free disk space.

  • Which is better (Boot Camp) or (Parallel / VMware Fusion)???

    Hi guys,
    I want to install Windows along OS X...
    now what is better?
    to install Windows via Boot Camp or via Parallel / VMware fusion??
    and if through one of the virtual machine softwares, which is BETTER?? the Parallel for Desktop or the VMware fusion one???
    Thank you

    Guitarcal wrote:
    I use both boot camp and vmware fusion. A neat feature of vmware fusion is you can access your boot camp partition as a virtual machine from vmware. This way, you can have both. I believe parallels might also let you do that but I have never used it. This has been helpful to me if I need to access a file from the boot camp partition quickly and easily without rebooting my computer.
    I agree with dwb that xp is probably going to be the best os to run through a virtualization software.
    I honestly don't think you can go wrong with either parallels or vmware fusion. There is also a FREE software package created by sun called VirtualBox.
    Here is the link to there home page: http://www.virtualbox.org/
    I hear and read that it is excellent as well.
    Hope this helps.
    I just installed parallels and you can use your bootcamp partition for the vm with parallels as well. Its pretty slick. Use it for light applications with parallel, reboot to bootcamp for graphics intensive ones.
    Cheers.

  • I want to use microsoft office on my mac. I need it to run on windows platform. Which is better: boot camp or parallels 7 ?

    I want to use microsoft office on my mac. I need it to run on windows platform. Which is better: boot camp or parallels 7 ?

    Welcome to Apple Communities
    You can install Office for Mac. If you don't want it, Boot Camp uses all the hardware, so it has the best performance for Windows, and Parallels allows you to run Windows in Mac without reboot and without Boot Camp. To use only this, download Parallels

  • Expired Beta Boot Camp w/ disc consistency problems?

    On a Mac mini, I can't get Windows XP version to start under Beta Boot Camp under Mac OS C 10.4.11. It continues to restart by checking the FAT 32 disc for consistency, then gets stuck. Is this because the Beta version expired or corruption of the windows partition?
    I have a family pack upgrade for Leopard to upgrade, but I have some valuable files I can't lose.
    What is the right sequence: upgrade Mac OS and Boot Camp, or try to fix partition first, or some other path? I was thinking of using my Macbook as an external hard drive to pull off files with a data recovery software first, but unsure of the sequence.
    Any help would be highly appreciataed!

    I don't have the Leopard disc because a man updated it for me in the mac store when I brought my laptop in for repairs.
    You need to get that disk to use Boot Camp. Mac OS X 10.4 disks don't contain the drivers.
    So, I have this Mac OSX install disc.. do I just insert it? And then what? How do I go about installing windows after that? I'm a little confused about how to get to the drivers and what to do I'm just not sure.
    Once you've partitioned the drive and installed Windows, start up the computer into Windows and insert the disk. The installer should automatically start.
    (44923)

  • Can I use Windows XP Home with Boot Camp and/or Parallels or VMFusion?

    I am planning on purchasing a new Mac Mini with Snow Leopard. I have a copy of Windows XP Home Edition that came with a 7 year old Compac computer, can it be used with either Boot Camp and/or Parallels or VMFusion? I REALLY don't want to purchase Windows if I can help it. Thanks!

    Read the boot camp requirements. I believe you will need a Windows disc that is stand alone. By that I mean a Windows disc that is not designed for a specific computer like your Compac. I believe that applies for Parallels and Fusion as well. Some of the newer disc that come with new computers may work since some of them are stand alone. I think your compac disc maybe married to your computer. You can try it when you get your Mac but it may not work.

  • Install boot camp driver 4.0.1 on windows 8 beta in mba 2011, have error

    install boot camp driver 4.0.1 on windows 8 beta in mba 2011, have error
    Boot camp requires that your computer is runing windows 7
    I search in the net, and also this sait, somebody say:
    right click icon setup.exe, select properties , and check box windows 7
    or
    right click icon, select Troubleshoot compatibility, select windows 7
    I do this method, but the problem is still there!
    anybody can help ?
    please

    You really want to consider posting in the Boot Camp forum -
    https://discussions.apple.com/community/windows_software/boot_camp
    An unsupported OS using software not designed for that unsupported OS, probably going to be hard pressed to get concrete answers.

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