Windows Vista and Fusion

[JohnnyRules]

I have been looking at buying a copy of vista to put on my new macbook, but I have a few questions I hope you can answer.
1) Will Vista Home Premium install in boot camp?
2) Is vista home premium compatible with fusion?
3) OEM or Retail? I understand the differences, but will I have any trouble using OEM with my macbook if for some reason I have to reinstall it?
Thanks in advance.

 

[BileGhost]

1. Yes.
2. It will run, not neccesarily well, but it wll run.
3. Buy a new copy. Bootcamp requires a windows cd, not a OEM one. And theres debate as to whether its legal to install windows with bootcamp off an OEM disk (also, it requires a bit of work to get boot camp to accept it)

 

[pol0001]

1) I used Vista Home Basic in boot camp for quite some time. No problems.
2) If you want to use Windows also for gaming stick with boot camp to have enough hardware ressources. For Office use Fusion is ok.
3) You need a Windows DVD. (Important: a full version, not an upgrade) But for most uses Vista Home Basic is more then enough.

 

[mightymightymax]

1) I used Vista Home Basic in boot camp for quite some time. No problems.
2) If you want to use Windows also for gaming stick with boot camp to have enough hardware ressources. For Office use Fusion is ok.
3) You need a Windows DVD. (Important: a full version, not an upgrade) But for most uses Vista Home Basic is more then enough.

So trying to use the upgrade loophole (install without key, then re-install with) will not work with bootcamp?

I got the upgrade for another computer and didn't end up using it. . .so I was going to put Vista on my MBP. . .but will the upgrade definitely not work?

 

[telecomm]

I have been looking at buying a copy of vista to put on my new macbook, but I have a few questions I hope you can answer.
1) Will Vista Home Premium install in boot camp?
2) Is vista home premium compatible with fusion?
3) OEM or Retail? I understand the differences, but will I have any trouble using OEM with my macbook if for some reason I have to reinstall it?
Thanks in advance.

1) Yes, I'm doing it now.
2) Yes, check their forums, etc. (and search for other posts where people say this works). On their website they say only Business and Ultimate, but that's because initially the Windows license didn't permit other versions to run in virtualization (as they do with Fusion/Parallels). This has changed, and Microsoft now allows all versions to run in virtual machines.
3) Buy OEM. The only important restriction is that you're the license is locked to the motherboard. So, you can't buy a new computer and decide you'll take Vista off your current computer and install it on the new one. There's no sensible debate about whether or not it's legal. It is, provided you accept this license restriction.

OEM works just fine. I'm running Vista Home Premium right now.

 

[Dmac77]

So trying to use the upgrade loophole (install without key, then re-install with) will not work with bootcamp?

I got the upgrade for another computer and didn't end up using it. . .so I was going to put Vista on my MBP. . .but will the upgrade definitely not work?

Yes the upgrade loophole will work in vista, I've done it, but it can be a bit complicated (making sure that vista only "upgrades" the bootcamp partition, it renames it after the original install for some reason), but it is not technically legal to do this.

And yes, you can run Vista home versions in VM's. Just make sure that you have your RAM maxed out. I paged out nearly 4,500 times on boot up in VMWare, with 2GB of RAM.

Don

Don

 

[JohnnyRules]

Thanks for the advice guys. I picked up my macbook today, and I ordered Fusion and Vista Home Premium retail yesterday. I got the retail version for $122 on ebay, which is only $10 more than the OEM at newegg, so it' not that bad of a deal. Just need to order some more ram now...