can you run windows 7 as vmware on mac or ipad

No

You can run Windows on your Mac, but not on an iPad.

Windows on Intel Macs

There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.

1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows

XP w/Service Pak2, Vista, or Windows 7. For Boot Camp

4.0 and above you can only use Windows 7 or later. Follow

instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on

installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and

installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the

computer into OS X or Windows.

2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business,

Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7. Parallels is software

virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently

with OS X.

3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate,

or Windows 7. VM Fusion is software virtualization that

enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.

4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows

applications without having to install Windows. The

Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.

5. VirtualBox is an Open Source freeware virtual machine such

as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris.

It is not as fully developed for the Mac as Parallels and VM

Fusion.

Note that VirtualBox, Parallels, and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system. See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion. Boot Camp is only available with Leopard or Snow Leopard. Except for Crossover and a couple of similar alternatives like DarWine you must have a valid installer disc for Windows.

You must also have an internal optical drive for installing Windows. Windows cannot be installed from an external optical drive.

"You must also have an internal optical drive for installing Windows. Windows cannot be installed from an external optical drive"

I would guess that the above statement is somewhat dependant on which mac, maybe?

I bought a MacBookpro Retina about three weeks ago and have installed both Windows 8 (unmittigated disaster for a number of reasons which do NOT include installing from an external optical drive) and Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit multiple times. I wanted a blue ray player and since the Apple super drive is not super enough to play blue ray, I picked up an external LG model to use. Installed from the Windows DVD just fine.

I am about to start another thread about the issues I am having with the Windows install (driver related) but in general it works great.

It's independent of which Mac your own because it's a restriction imposed by Windows. In few instances of Mac computers like the MBAs and some new models that do not come with an internal drive, OS X automatically identifies an external drive as internal so Windows will install properly.

The benifits of having a newer one I guess. thanks for the reply