Running Windows on a Mac

By Jason Johnson

Let’s get this out of the way right now: I’m a big fan of all things Apple. I love my Macs and when the time comes for a friend or relative to replace a computer, I unashamedly suggest a Mac. I may also drop a subtle hint about discontinuing support if they don’t buy Apple, but they know I’m too nice and may not really mean it. What really pushed my parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters-in-law and most all of my friends to consider a Mac is the fact that Intel-based Macs run Microsoft Windows; better than most PCs in fact, as several recent reports show.

Die hard Mac addicts consider it sacrilege, but there are plenty of good reasons that make great cases for running Windows on a Mac. There are two main options for running the Windows operating system and any accompanying Windows software on a Mac. The first is Apple’s Boot Camp, a proprietary option, or using a third-party commercial virtualization option such as VMware Fusion 3 or Parellels Desktop 5. For each you will be required to own a fully licensed version of Windows. Let’s take a look.

Boot Camp (free) – Since Mac OS X 10.5, known as Leopard, Boot Camp has been a native feature. The current version of Boot Camp, v3.1, allows Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 to be installed, running Windows and it’s applications at native speeds -meaning the operating system and applications have direct access to the hardware resources and no other software stands between them. Once set up, using Boot Camp is pretty straight forward. At startup you can select to boot into Mac OS X or Windows and from there the selected operating systems loads.

While Boot Camp is free and offers the best performance, the only way to switch between Mac OS X and Windows is by shutting down one OS and booting into the other. With Boot Camp it’s this or that. If you need the ability to work with Windows and Mac applications at the same time without rebooting, VMware Fusion and Parallels are the “cake-and-eat-it-too” solution.

VMware Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop 5 ($80) - Virtualizers bring the benefits of a Boot Camp installation (better performance) AND virtualization (you’ll be able to run Windows and Mac OS X side-by-side simultaneously). The new versions of each offer the best of both worlds in that they now recognize Boot Camp Windows installations. In other words, if you have a Boot Camp partition with Windows installed, VMware Fusion 3 and Parallels Desktop 5 will recognize it and can run it in a virtual session. Obviously, spending a little cash gives you some great options.

Need better performance to play a round of Team Fortress 2? Boot Camp into Windows. Going to be bouncing back-and-forth between Outlook, Office 2010 apps and Apple Keynote? Run that same installation as a virtual session while in Mac OS X.

Since purchasing my MacBook Pro two years ago I’ve been using VMware Fusion 2 to run Windows XP SP3 nearly every single work day at the office. While the applications I primarily run are not all that taxing (Internet Explorer 8, Office 2003 and some custom line of business applications that I use constantly) it performs well, allowing me to work seamlessly between both Mac and Windows worlds. At the time I opted for VMware’s Fusion 2 two years ago, it was simply because it happened to be on sale and offered a nice rebate for new users. While I have no complaints whatsoever about VMware Fusion, when I upgrade next time I may try Parallels Desktop 5, especially since they are offering VMware Fusion customers the chance to purchase Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac at a special price. Limited trials of both solutions are available if you’d like to give them a whirl.

The question to ask yourself is how do you want to work? No matter which path you choose, be it installation or virtualization, one thing is clear: A Mac can run Windows very well.

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