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Windows on Mac

Entry 448, on 2006-12-23 at 21:55:26 (Rating 1, Computers)

I've spent a bit of time evaluating Windows on my new Mac Book Pro. I have a partition set up through Apple's Boot Camp software with Windows XP installed on it, and have the latest version of Parallels using the same installation to run Windows as a virtual machine inside Mac OS X.

I haven't had a chance to run too many different programs yet, but everything I have tried so far has run really well. Installation and setup are very straightforward and I didn't have any problems apart from what you would normally expect from a Windows install on a PC (seemingly endless OS updates, constant anti-virus updates, etc).

The new Coherence mode in Parallels is very nice. Windows programs run in their own window just like Mac OS X programs. The application and document icons appear in the dock, programs can be hidden and minimised just like any other program, and Windows GUI elements can be hidden. So apart from the different look of the Windows program (colour scheme, menu inside window, etc) its just like another Mac program. There are a few areas where Parallels is a bit rough still, but it is a beta and it just improves with every release.

I've got a few Windows games I want to test so it will be interesting to see how the speed goes with these. Of course, I can boot into Windows from Boot Camp and turn my Mac into a real PC, but I will avoid that where possible because I'm still dedicated to using the Mac for everything I can. I will only use Windows programs for testing and for the occasional program I don't have a Mac version of.

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