Windows Parallel on Mac

Yes, it works quite well. Just be sure you have sufficient RAM to run OS X plus a VM. 4 GBs is the bare minimum. 8 GBs or more is preferred.

Nothing wrong with Running Windows in a Virtual Machine. Try Oracle's VirtualBox as it is free as opposed to Parrallels or VMware Fusion which cost money.

Shippunden wrote:

Is it alright for me to use Windows Parallel? i hear it is not good for my mac, please advice.

It doesn't do anything bad to your Mac. The only way that it's "not good" is because you will be running two operating systems instead of one, and obviously that doubles the demands on your system. You need enough RAM and disk space for both OS X and Windows to run at the same time. I agree with Kappy that 8GB RAM or more will allow more room for Parallels to run smoothly.

I am running Parallels with Windows 8 and it seems fine. I have also used the free VirtualBox with earlier versions of Windows, but not with Windows 8 yet.

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 Labs- Virtualization Benchmarks, January 2013 | MacTechfor 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.

Parrallels has worked quite well for me for most everything Windows related with one exception. I use a CAD program called Chief Architect. The program runs fine except when I need to render plans in 3D. Then I get a lot of graphics corruption, because the graphics card is not being accessed directly by Windows.

So, since I prefer the convenience of using Parrallels, I only use Boot Camp when I need to make 3D presentations to a client.

As to Kappy's point, I installed Windows7 with an Apple USB Superdrive, and it worked fine.