How do you run Windows on your Mac?

[d000hg]

To answer the OP's question, Parallels 8 will download the the Windows 8 Preview and install it for you.

Optional or forced? I don't have much interest in W8, I just need to demo some Windows software!

[chef]

Parallels for me, no cause for complaints so far.

[Sysman]

Optional or forced? I don't have much interest in W8, I just need to demo some Windows software!

Optional.

[NickFitz]

I've used Parallels since my first Intel Mac in 2006. I had VMWare on a ClientCo MBP running Leopard back in 2008 and wasn't very happy with its performance compared to Parallels on my lesser MacBook, although I also didn't think much of Leopard (brand new at that time) and waited for Snow Leopard to upgrade.

I assume VMWare is fine now, but as an existing user I get discounts on Parallels upgrades, and as I've always been happy with it I've stuck with it.

However I don't really use Windows for much, seldom having a VM running longer than about twenty minutes for debugging/testing on IE; maybe VMWare has advantages I'm not aware of for intensive use.

[craig1]

I use VMWare Fusion. As mentioned above, not much in with VMWare and Parallels. I also have a Win7 Bootcamp for more modern games that don't work smoothly in a VM.

My main two uses for the VMWare now are:
- as a published app service for MS Project and Visio. Works fairly flawlessly in the Unity mode meaning I don't have to interact with the main Win7 UI too much
- as a downloading sandbox for torrents. If it gets trashed by a nasty then I just delete the VM and copy back in the backup vanilla hardened VM image (well... as hardened as you can get Win7 with only barebones stuff on it).

[d000hg]

This sounds like an obvious 'no' but are VM images cross-compatible at all between any of these tools... if I want to test several it would be lovely not to have to re-install Windows every time!

On another topic, my laptop has no optical drive, and all my copies of W7 are on CD/DVD. Is there an easy way using my Windows desktop to get an electronic copy I can stick on the Mac via network/USB?

[stek]

How do you run Windows on your Mac?

I think there is the ova format for cross compatibility not sure if they can be easily converted from the proprietary ones tho.

U can install via cd, DVD, mem stick or even iso...

[Sysman]

This sounds like an obvious 'no' but are VM images cross-compatible at all between any of these tools... if I want to test several it would be lovely not to have to re-install Windows every time!

VirtualBox can access other VM image formats but I am not sure it copes with the latest variations of Parallels or Fusion formats. I have certainly migrated from both VirtualBox (via an OVA export) and Parallels into Fusion. I am pretty sure I managed an import from VirtualBox into Parallels as well.

Beware that OVA export from VirtualBox can be painfully slow. The one I set off last night started out with an estimate of 5 hours, though when I got back from the pub 45 minutes later it had finished.

On another topic, my laptop has no optical drive, and all my copies of W7 are on CD/DVD. Is there an easy way using my Windows desktop to get an electronic copy I can stick on the Mac via network/USB?

ImgBurn is the way to go. Installations from disc images can be significantly faster if you put them on a separate drive from the VM target drive.

[NickFitz]

This sounds like an obvious 'no' but are VM images cross-compatible at all between any of these tools... if I want to test several it would be lovely not to have to re-install Windows every time!

On another topic, my laptop has no optical drive, and all my copies of W7 are on CD/DVD. Is there an easy way using my Windows desktop to get an electronic copy I can stick on the Mac via network/USB?

From Parallel's docs: "Parallels Desktop supports virtual machines created in Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, Microsoft Virtual PC, and VirtualBox."

I've imported a Virtual PC VM to Parallels a few times; it can take a little while (not a huge while though) but worked perfectly. EDIT: that was on an older version; it's possible the latest version doesn't need to run the conversion process and can use the other formats directly, but I haven't upgraded yet so I don't know.

The latest version of Parallels (well, next-to-latest version 7, and possibly earlier ones, not sure) has the option to "Migrate Windows from a PC" by installing a bit of software (free to download) on the PC and hooking them up over the network, but I've never tried that.

It can also run a BootCamp partition as a VM, if it's on the same Mac. A BootCamp partition on a different Mac can only be imported as a new VM.

[d000hg]

Just to make sure I understood that last part... I can install BootCamp and create a W7 partition, and then I can have the choice of booting natively into Windows at system startup, OR loading that partition as a VM from within OSX? That sounds pretty neat.