Does XP come with a Mac? What about SP's?

[Beric]

I've always been a Mac user. However, there are a few games that are Windows- only that I would like to play on my Macbook. I've spent some time trying to look this up, but without avail. Anyway, I got several questions:

1. Does Windows XP come on my Mac? Or do I have to pay for it (It's like $200 just to run some games).

2. Will using windows compromise my security on my Mac? Do I have to spend additional money buying security software?

3. Do I need to buy a virtualization program like Parallels?

4. Will Windows run with reasonable speed on my 2.0 Ghz. Macbook with 2GB Ram?

5. Will I have to buy all the Service packs?

Anyway, you see my point. I saw somewhere that it's cheaper to buy a Mac and put Windows on it that to buy a PC. But it doesn't seem so, and it seems like I'd have to fork over $300-$350 just to play some games.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Eidorian]

1. No, you'll have to provide your own copy of Windows.

2. Virus on my windows partition and Downloaded a file that contains a Windows virus into my iMac, what should I do now?

3. No, you can natively boot into Windows.

4. Yes, but don't expect gaming/3D performance

5. Service Packs are free via Microsoft.

 

[72930]

XP does not come with your Mac, but it is cheap OEM from NewEgg etc.

The Windows side may get viruses, but these wont affect OSX

Parallels/Fusion are unnecessery and don't help for games, but if you have lighter apps you can run one of those to run XP apps at the same time as Mac OSX.

Windows will run fine, most games will not.

SPs are free.

EDIT: Argh, too late...

 

[atszyman]

I've always been a Mac user. However, there are a few games that are Windows- only that I would like to play on my Macbook. I've spent some time trying to look this up, but without avail. Anyway, I got several questions:

1. Does Windows XP come on my Mac? Or do I have to pay for it (It's like $200 just to run some games).

No Macs do not come with Windows XP or any version of Windows. The only OS that comes with Macs is OS X.

2. Will using windows compromise my security on my Mac? Do I have to spend additional money buying security software?

If you aren't connected to the internet while using Windows you're fine. But if you plan on connecting to the internet you will probably want to take all the precautions you would if you were running a plain windows box. If you do not care about any data on your Windows partition you can risk it but if someone creates a malware app that reformats the HD it could kill the Mac partition as well.

3. Do I need to buy a virtualization program like Parallels?

No, Bootcamp is free and comes with the latest Mac OS X and allows for dual booting between OS X and Windows. You only need a virtualization program if you do not want to reboot to get to Windows, but you will also suffer a slight performance hit by using a virtualization program.

4. Will Windows run with reasonable speed on my 2.0 Ghz. Macbook with 2GB Ram?

Windows will run as well as it would on a similarly spec'd Dell, HP, or other Windows only computer.

5. Will I have to buy all the Service packs?

No, Windows service packs, at least all that I've seen to date are free, although it can be a lengthy task to get all the upgrades depending on what service pack your Windows disk is at.

 

[Beric]

Ok, I think all my questions are answered, except for the security. Looks like it actually might be cheap!

Anyway, I would only have games in my XP partition. However, I might use the internet to download software and such. I have valuable files on my Mac, however, and dealing with viruses is a pain, even if it were only my games section. Can anyone provide insight on this?

 

[Eidorian]

Ok, I think all my questions are answered, except for the security. Looks like it actually might be cheap!

Anyway, I would only have games in my XP partition. However, I might use the internet to download software and such. I have valuable files on my Mac, however, and dealing with viruses is a pain, even if it were only my games section. Can anyone provide insight on this?

Use a limited user account and don't open file on the internet.

A little bit of caution goes a long way in any operating system.

 

[GavinTing]

Ok, I think all my questions are answered, except for the security. Looks like it actually might be cheap!

Anyway, I would only have games in my XP partition. However, I might use the internet to download software and such. I have valuable files on my Mac, however, and dealing with viruses is a pain, even if it were only my games section. Can anyone provide insight on this?

If you are talking about game patches, always get it from the official website. Try not to get it from some russian website on google.

As far as I know, you cant access the mac side from the xp side.

The standard cautions like dont visit porn sites, don't click on stuff that says, "click here for free boobies and viagra" that blinks yellow and red =)

Get firefox!
Get AVG free antivirus
Get Adaware free!

 

[erikpmort]

lol!

what he said....

 

[atszyman]

As far as I know, you cant access the mac side from the xp side.

If you use NTFS for XP, then OS X can read but not write to it, and XP can neither read nor write to the OS X partition. However, if a virus comes along that reformats the HD regardless of the partition, or even reformats the unknown partitions in Windows it could kill the OS X system and files. I don't know of any virus that does this... yet, but as stated AVG is free and offers at least some protection.

 

[keysersoze]

What games are you thinking about playing? Any modern 3-d intensive game will not be worth playing on the Macbook. But if you are looking at older, less intensive games, than you should be ok.

 

[psingh01]

1. Does Windows XP come on my Mac? Or do I have to pay for it (It's like $200 just to run some games).

No, you have to buy Windows separately.

2. Will using windows compromise my security on my Mac? Do I have to spend additional money buying security software?

Windows on your MacBook will be independent of your Mac OS. So yes you will have to get security software, anti virus etc for Windows. Things to note:

If you use windows under virtualization (also see next question) then whatever a virus does, it will only (99.9% sure of this) do it to the virtual machine. So yes you can just chuck that away and start over but it doesn't affect the Mac at all. If you run windows in bootcamp then it may harm your mac if it does something extreme like reformat your harddrive (and only because you only have one drive in your laptop so both the mac and windows will be on it, though on different partitions). Honestly though, I've never come across anything like that in my life and I usually don't even bother with anti-virus or other protection. I just don't care lol.

3. Do I need to buy a virtualization program like Parallels?

Since you want to play games, chances are you can't play them in Parallels or VMware anyway. Even though they claim to have 3D support, it is spotty at best and it's not meant for the latest and greatest games. So No, you do not need a virtualization program because you'll be running it in bootcamp. You will need Leopard, because that comes with the bootcamp drivers you'll need.

4. Will Windows run with reasonable speed on my 2.0 Ghz. Macbook with 2GB Ram?

You'll have no problem with that. My MBP is 2.33ghz and 2GB ram and it runs Vista just fine

5. Will I have to buy all the Service packs?

You need XP to be at SP2. If you buy a new XP now it will come with SP2 already on the disc so no need to "buy" that. In anycase, service packs are always free from MS. You just download them and install when a new one comes out.

Anyway, you see my point. I saw somewhere that it's cheaper to buy a Mac and put Windows on it that to buy a PC. But it doesn't seem so, and it seems like I'd have to fork over $300-$350 just to play some games.

Thanks for any help!

I upgraded from a PowerBook to a MacBook Pro so I could play games on my mac Oh yeah and be able to work remotely when I'm on the road and not have to carry my work thinkpad + my mac. It's a great solution for games on the go for me, but I did build my own PC to play games simply because I don't like playing on laptops all the time.

 

[DaveF]

I've always been a Mac user. However, there are a few games that are Windows- only that I would like to play on my Macbook. I've spent some time trying to look this up, but without avail. Anyway, I got several questions:

But Windows XP Home OEM for $90 from NewEgg and install it with BootCamp on your Mac. XP will download all of its Service Packs (no charge). This will take several iterations of the Windows Update process, but it's smooth going. You want a 15 GB partition, minimum, to have space for WinXP and at least one game. I use this config for Half Life 2 currently and it works perfectly. The downside is having to reboot the computer everytime I want to game.

But you should check compatibility with games and your MacBook's video card to make sure it will work well enough with games of interest.

I've not tried CrossOver, and can't speak to it.

 

[The Flashing Fi]

Boot Camp requires that SP2 be on the XP CD for it to work, and SP2 is the latest SP for XP. SP3 is being worked on for XP, and it will be free.

You don't need to spend 200 bucks for XP.

Infact, XP Home, which is all you'll likely need is 90 bucks from Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116056