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still in school

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 21, 2009
270
0
I'm currently running Boot Camp with Vista, but I'm getting tired of rebooting. If I install Parallel would I have to reinstall Vista again, or can I use my current partition?
 

electroshock

macrumors 6502a
Sep 7, 2009
641
0
I'm currently running Boot Camp with Vista, but I'm getting tired of rebooting. If I install Parallel would I have to reinstall Vista again, or can I use my current partition?

With Vista, I found that if I booted off the Boot Camp partition, all was well. But if I accessed it via Parallels, Vista would disable itself requiring a phone call to Microsoft (who didn't want to reactivate; I had to keep on using it via a boot) -- presumably because the number and types of devices (presented by Parallels) changed, triggering this issue.

So I eventually decided that I'd just wipe Boot Camp partition, reclaim it for OS X, and then consider installing Windows 7 on an external HD to be used with Parallels from day one if I still needed WIndows then.
 

ayeying

macrumors 601
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
With Vista, I found that if I booted off the Boot Camp partition, all was well. But if I accessed it via Parallels, Vista would disable itself requiring a phone call to Microsoft (who didn't want to reactivate; I had to keep on using it via a boot) -- presumably because the number and types of devices (presented by Parallels) changed, triggering this issue

You'd need to reactivate but it should only happen once. I'm running Vista in boot camp with parallels and vmware fusion. All are activated.
 

LAS.mac

macrumors 6502
May 6, 2009
363
0
Mexico
Why people is hurting themselves running Vista? That's the best OS Apple had in it's history. Because pushed many win users toward mac.
I kept using XP. Under Parallels is a breeze, fast and stable.

Oh, and yes. You have to activate it. You probably have to unistal it from Bootcamp and install it again under Parallels.
 

jdechko

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2004
4,230
325
You should be fine with running it under both if you want to. It will require reactivation, but MS shouldn't have any problems with it. After that, make sure you install the Parallels tools. That should keep some things, including activations, in order.
 

CartoonHeroII

macrumors member
Apr 21, 2004
32
1
Rigby, ID
Another alternative

If you do decide to wipe your Boot Camp partition, look into VirtualBox. It is a free alternative to Parallels/Fusion. It pretty much can do everything they can. One big exception is reading from a Boot Camp partition.

http://www.virtualbox.org/
 

nullx86

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2009
884
1
Wilmington/Jacksonville, NC
With Vista, I found that if I booted off the Boot Camp partition, all was well. But if I accessed it via Parallels, Vista would disable itself requiring a phone call to Microsoft (who didn't want to reactivate; I had to keep on using it via a boot) -- presumably because the number and types of devices (presented by Parallels) changed, triggering this issue.

So I eventually decided that I'd just wipe Boot Camp partition, reclaim it for OS X, and then consider installing Windows 7 on an external HD to be used with Parallels from day one if I still needed WIndows then.

Vista and Windows 7 actuallt are not allowed by Microsoft to be ran in programs like Parallels or VMware, unless its the Ultimate version. Its some thing microsoft did, why I dont know, but MS sucks anyways. If you need to have a VM, I'd use XP. Less overhead and more responsive. XP will cause less lag on your system rather than Vista. Just dont expect a lot of gaming in a VM. Thats what BootCamp is for.
 

Mugwumper

macrumors regular
Jan 19, 2008
245
8
Temecula, CA
Can you elaborate?

Vista and Windows 7 actuallt are not allowed by Microsoft to be ran in programs like Parallels or VMware, unless its the Ultimate version. Its some thing microsoft did, why I dont know, but MS sucks anyways. If you need to have a VM, I'd use XP. Less overhead and more responsive. XP will cause less lag on your system rather than Vista. Just dont expect a lot of gaming in a VM. Thats what BootCamp is for.

What exactly happens with Win7 on Fusion? I've been running the RC for a
while with no issues. Can you point me to where this is defined?

And I also found VirtualBox to be less stable than Fusion when running XP.

My $0.02 . . . ;^)
 

nullx86

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2009
884
1
Wilmington/Jacksonville, NC
What exactly happens with Win7 on Fusion? I've been running the RC for a
while with no issues. Can you point me to where this is defined?

And I also found VirtualBox to be less stable than Fusion when running XP.

My $0.02 . . . ;^)

The RC is the Ultimate version, so its going to let you run it. You must not have read all of what I said or you would have seen that. Its only the non-ultimate versions (Starter, Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, etc) that will not load via a virtual machine. Also, virtualbox for mac sucks. Fusion or Parallels are the only way to go for a VM on a mac.
 

milbournosphere

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2009
857
1
San Diego, CA
I would actually recommend using Fusion with your Bootcamp partition. I used parallels in exactly the same situation you are proposing, and had various performance\speed issues with the software. VMWare Fusion is much better software, it is much more polished and far less buggy in my experience. You can tell it to use your Bootcamp partition as a virtual box and all works fine with my Windows 7 install (which I use for gaming; I love OS X, but the availability of popular games can't hold a candle to what is available for Windows). Hope this helps!
 

macboy4

macrumors regular
Feb 17, 2009
241
0
I would actually recommend using Fusion with your Bootcamp partition. I used parallels in exactly the same situation you are proposing, and had various performance\speed issues with the software. VMWare Fusion is much better software, it is much more polished and far less buggy in my experience. You can tell it to use your Bootcamp partition as a virtual box and all works fine with my Windows 7 install (which I use for gaming; I love OS X, but the availability of popular games can't hold a candle to what is available for Windows). Hope this helps!

Unfortunately Windows doesn't run as fast this way. I had the same setup, but I installed Windows via Fusion (rather than pointing to boot camp) just to test it. It's significantly faster and seems to be less of a resource hog. I've been told this has something to do with the file system difference between the two.
 

bartzilla

macrumors 6502a
Aug 11, 2008
540
0
Vista and Windows 7 actuallt are not allowed by Microsoft to be ran in programs like Parallels or VMware, unless its the Ultimate version. Its some thing microsoft did, why I dont know, but MS sucks anyways.

Clearly they did it because they suck. Only a company who sucked would stop people running their operating system in a virtual machine.

On an unrelated note, can anyone remind me how to install Snow Leopard in VMWare fusion? I keep trying and trying and it just doesn't seem to work...
 

nullx86

macrumors 6502a
Jun 26, 2009
884
1
Wilmington/Jacksonville, NC
Clearly they did it because they suck. Only a company who sucked would stop people running their operating system in a virtual machine.

On an unrelated note, can anyone remind me how to install Snow Leopard in VMWare fusion? I keep trying and trying and it just doesn't seem to work...

Microsoft sucking: tell us something we dont know. thats why i converted, cause they suck. big balls.

AFAIK, you can only install server versions in VMware Fusion...
 

still in school

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 21, 2009
270
0
I just installed the latest version of VMware Fusion booting from Boot camp partition and it is SLOWW. If i upgraded to windows 7, would it help? or is it the MBA's 2gig ram slowing me down?
 

kate-willbury

macrumors 6502a
Feb 14, 2009
684
0
Clearly they did it because they suck. Only a company who sucked would stop people running their operating system in a virtual machine.

On an unrelated note, can anyone remind me how to install Snow Leopard in VMWare fusion? I keep trying and trying and it just doesn't seem to work...

hahahaha. are you kidding me?!?!?! apple is probably the most restrictive when it comes to software compatibility. you do realize its ILLEGAL to install osx on a pc right?
 

bartzilla

macrumors 6502a
Aug 11, 2008
540
0
yes, it was dreadfully sluggish slow!

In VMware? Not that surprised - I think both Windows Vista and OSX these days too really need 2Gb each to be comfortable. Windows 7 is better on memory use than Vista but again I think you'd really want more memory to be happy with a virtual machine setup..
 

cjmillsnun

macrumors 68020
Aug 28, 2009
2,399
48
The RC is the Ultimate version, so its going to let you run it. You must not have read all of what I said or you would have seen that. Its only the non-ultimate versions (Starter, Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, etc) that will not load via a virtual machine. Also, virtualbox for mac sucks. Fusion or Parallels are the only way to go for a VM on a mac.

I have to call BS on that.

For once I am actually going to use Paul Thurrott as my defence.... :eek:

UltimateWindowsFanboi said:
Virtualized Windows 7 installs
Finally, it's worth noting that the retail versions of Windows 7--that is, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate--are all licensed for installation inside of virtual environments like Windows Virtual PC, VMWare Workstation, and Hyper-V. Actually, Windows 7 Enterprise is also licensed for this use, and that version comes with a special extra bit of functionality: You are licensed to install the same copy of Windows 7 Enterprise in up to four different virtual machines, provided that each is installed on the same PC.

For individuals, virtualized Windows 7 versions will probably see the most use on Macs, where environments like Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion allow people to run Mac and Windows apps side-by-side, and in testing scenarios. But with Microsoft making a big virtualization push on the server, virtualized Windows installs will become more and more common in managed corporate environments as well.
 

ayeying

macrumors 601
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
In VMware? Not that surprised - I think both Windows Vista and OSX these days too really need 2Gb each to be comfortable. Windows 7 is better on memory use than Vista but again I think you'd really want more memory to be happy with a virtual machine setup..

I'm using 1GB and 1GB for each and it runs great. I'm even playing games such as Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations 2 and even Civilization 4 in VMWare Fusion running on a Windows 7 (formerly Vista, upgraded) virtual machine running off of boot camp.

That's not including the BOINC client running in the background
 
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