I have a Macbook Air but now that I am done with school, I really struggle with the fact that I can't run a lot of my favorite programs from my windows desktop on my Mac. Does anyone know if I can run windows 7 on it? I tried searching microsoft website but didn't find anything outside of offce that indicated there was a Mac version. Thanks
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
To run Windows, you need to use Boot Camp, or install software like Parallels.
Boot Camp allows you to create a Windows parition on your Mac. It is included with OS X. With Boot Camp, you choose which OS you want to load when you start your Mac - OS X or Windows. To switch from one to the other requires a restart.
Parallels allows you to run OS X and Windows concurrently. Parallels is commercial software that you have to buy, and so is Windows. So at the very least, you need to buy Windows.
Last I checked this was the cheapest solution:
Since Windows is distributed on disc, and the MBA has no optical drive, you need to enable device sharing with a computer that has an optical drive. It's easy.
There are two way to run Windows on a Mac you can either run it natively by installing it with Boot Camp or you can run it under virtualization with software such as Parallels.
Suspecting you want to run games, I think running Windows natively via Boot Camp will give you bbetter performance.
Allan
Thanks John! Half the battle is know the right terminology when doing searchs, which clearly I haven't mastered this is my first Mac.
After doing some more reading (unsing the correct terms 🙂) it looks like I can control the size or amount of space to particion the hard drive for both operating systems...??? If that is correct, would you recomment I do a 50/50 split? Or should I allocate more for windows since windows programs probably require more space then Mac apps?
I'm not really sure how much I would switch back and forth. What I really miss is the integration with my home network. I used to install software on both my laptop and desktop and then put all my working files on a shared drive. Then it didn't matter what machine I was on, but I have 3 or 4 programs that I can't run on the mac. I have also had intermitant problems with the Mac connecting to the home network for printer and file sharing, I'm guessing becasue the two operating systems don't communicate well.
Thanks for the help!
Thanks Allan! After doing more research I think you are right, boot camp is the better way to go.
I'm not a big gamer but I have a few financial and graphics programs that I would like to run. I have MS Office in both operating systems so that hasn't been an issue. I have also had some intermintant issues with the two operating systems not communicating on my home network.
I was considering selling my Mac and going back to a windows laptop when someone suggested I look into this option instead.
Thanks for the help!
When I do this, will I have to install anti-virus like you do on a windows pc?
Of course.
One of the downsides of Windows which is true no matter where you install it.
Allan
If you need Windows anti-virus utilities, those are Windows programs that must be installed on the Windows partition - not the Mac partition.
The Mac cannot be affected by them. You have no need for any more Mac anti-virus protection than it already has. Using Boot Camp or Parallels has no bearing on the matter.
I understand some people using Boot Camp simply erase the Windows partition completely when it becomes infested with such ick. That seems like a good strategy to me.
I installed Windows 7 on my 11.6" MacBook Air this weekend. Had to build a bootable USB flash drive because it wasn't recognizing my external DVD drive. Win7 runs great on the MacBook Air.
Install Microsoft's Security Essentials on your Boot Camp Windows environment. It's free.
Hi guys,
Can someone advise if i can totally do away with the Mac OS and install Win7 on the MBA? I like the form factor of the MBA but there are too many restriction on the application support by my corporate IT. The onboard 128GB seems too little to run both MAC and Windows OS using bootcamp. Thanks.
You can probably do that but I would recommend against doing that.
The reason I say this if the is ever an upgrade to the EFI ( OS X version of BIOS) or other lower workings of OS X, you would have to install OS X again at that time to do it. That would a real undertalen at that time.
Instead I recommend you just make the OS X partition as small as possible so that is there if you ever need it.
Allan
Hi Allan,
Noted and thanks. Cheers.
You can run it using Boot Camp or run it virtually. I do both but I have 256 GB solid state drive. Running it virtually will be slower than running it natively in Boot Camp. You can download VirtualBox for free to run Windows 7 virtually and there are tutorials on the Web that describe how to set it up. It's not that hard. There are also tutorials on the Web that describe how to wipe OS-X off your Mac and install Windows 7 but it sounds like a royal pain. Also, some apps might not install on a virtual Windows 7 set up.
Hi Guys,
I ended up partioning the drive using boot camp. Within a week or two I realized that I misjudged the space (originally did 50/50 split on drive) and purchased a program called CamptuneX for $20 which allowed me to change the size of the partion without deleting it and starting over (Apple's only option using disk utility). Although Windows 7 does run, I found that it was a little slow and it grossly reduced my battery life even when I was in OSX mode to less than 2 hours (one of the main reasons I purchased MacAir was long battery life). When I was running OSX it would hang up at start up and/or shut down, not sure if this could have anything to do with Windows running updates or anything in the background. After roughly 3 months of running both operating systems, last week I deleted my partion and went back to 100% OSX.
can i run windows 7 on macbook air?
