needymacuser

Q: Boot Camp vs VMware Fusion 5

Is there any difference between Windows XP running in Boot Camp and running in VMware Fusion 5 on my MBP with regard to protection from malware? In other words, am I better protected by one rather than the other?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on May 12, 2013 12:25 AM

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Q: Boot Camp vs VMware Fusion 5

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  • by mende1,Solvedanswer

    mende1 mende1 May 12, 2013 1:04 AM in response to needymacuser
    Level 10 (93,324 points)
    Desktops
    May 12, 2013 1:04 AM in response to needymacuser

    It's completely the same, and here's why.

     

    In Boot Camp, Windows is installed in a second volume of your hard drive. If you get malware and it tries to copy to another volume, it won't be able to do that, because Windows can't write in the OS X volume, so you are safe. Also, OS X isn't affected by Windows viruses. In a virtual machine, the Windows hard drive is a file stored in Documents folder that acts as a virtual hard drive, but Windows can't copy to the OS X partition even if you install the drivers that VMware Fusion provides.

     

    Apart from that, as you want to run Windows XP, you won't get a big difference if you run it in Boot Camp, so you may want to use it in a virtual machine

  • by ssschmidt,Helpful

    ssschmidt ssschmidt May 12, 2013 1:23 AM in response to needymacuser
    Level 5 (4,793 points)
    May 12, 2013 1:23 AM in response to needymacuser

    To add to what Mende1 stated, the main advantage to running a virtual machine over bootcamp is that you don't have to reboot the mac to switch back and forth.  If you have sufficient ram and processor speed, the VM would be more accessible.  It depends on the resources of the system.

     

    HTH

  • by LowLuster,Helpful

    LowLuster LowLuster May 12, 2013 2:40 AM in response to needymacuser
    Level 6 (12,074 points)
    May 12, 2013 2:40 AM in response to needymacuser

    If you want to run windows xp there is only one option. That is to run it in a virtual machine because you can't install xp in boot camp anymore. Appl has limited boot camp to using windows 7 or 8.

     

    As to the virtual machine software program you use you should try oracle virtualbox. It is free and works very well.

  • by BobTheFisherman,

    BobTheFisherman BobTheFisherman May 12, 2013 6:15 AM in response to needymacuser
    Level 6 (15,344 points)
    May 12, 2013 6:15 AM in response to needymacuser

    Since you are so concerned, rightly so, about viruses it is a wonder that you want to run XP rather than a more secure Windows 7 or Windows 8. XP is getting very old and security on XP is not nearly as good as on the newer OSs.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis May 12, 2013 12:03 PM in response to needymacuser
    Level 10 (207,973 points)
    Applications
    May 12, 2013 12:03 PM in response to needymacuser

    Virtualization is safer than Boot Camp in the sense that you can take snapshots (not Time Machine snapshots) of the virtual machine and restore them easily if something goes wrong. Clearing a malware infection from a Boot Camp volume wouldn't be as easy.

  • by needymacuser,

    needymacuser needymacuser May 12, 2013 2:00 PM in response to mende1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 12, 2013 2:00 PM in response to mende1

    First, let me thank you for your information, it helped a great deal.

    I do have a question about your last statement, however.

     

    Apart from that, as you want to run Windows XP, you won't get a big difference if you run it in Boot Camp, so you may want to use it in a virtual machine.

     

    I don't fully understand the above statement, would it make any difference if I ran Windows 7 rather than Windows XP ?

  • by mende1,

    mende1 mende1 May 12, 2013 2:03 PM in response to needymacuser
    Level 10 (93,324 points)
    Desktops
    May 12, 2013 2:03 PM in response to needymacuser

    Windows XP is an operating system that requires less hardware than a newer version. That's the reason why I told you that performance will be similar if you run it in a virtual machine or through Boot Camp, thing that wouldn't happen if you do it with Windows 7, a more recent operating system that will run better through Boot Camp because it uses newer hardware and knows how to use it fully to get the best performance

  • by LowLuster,

    LowLuster LowLuster May 12, 2013 2:10 PM in response to needymacuser
    Level 6 (12,074 points)
    May 12, 2013 2:10 PM in response to needymacuser

    I disagree slightly with the post above. No matter what operating system you run, Win XP, 7, 8 or a version of Linux, it will always run better installed directly on the systems hardware than it will in a virtual machine.

     

    Now if you run xp in a vm and 7 directly on the hardware I think 7 would run better overall as it has direct access to all the physical hardware in the system. Any os running in a virtual machine uses virtual hardware, software that mimics hardware, and only has limited interaction with the physical hardware.

  • by needymacuser,

    needymacuser needymacuser May 12, 2013 2:54 PM in response to mende1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 12, 2013 2:54 PM in response to mende1

    I want to thank all of you guys for pitching in with information re: 'Boot Camp vs VMware Fusion 5', you have helped me tremendously.

    I now know which direction I am heading. I am going to run Windows 7 in Boot Camp and take advantage of the systems hardware, rather than a virtual machine.

     

    I have used a Mac just about as long as there have been Macs, but when it comes to issues like this one, I can only state the advantages of a discussion group such as this one, and you are all an important part of that.

     

    The only reason I have a need to install Windows on my Mac, is that I want to run a radio control simulator, and the program I want to run, 'RealFlight', is not available as a Mac version. Having said that, this would be the only program I would want to run in Windows, so having to boot in either Mac, or Windows at startup would not concern me because I would have no need to move files, etc., between the two.

     

    Now, if you guys could only tell me how to conect this to my big screen tv, I would be in Mac heaven. If it would help, I do have 'Apple TV.'

     

    Again, thanks!

  • by LowLuster,

    LowLuster LowLuster May 12, 2013 3:09 PM in response to needymacuser
    Level 6 (12,074 points)
    May 12, 2013 3:09 PM in response to needymacuser

    If that is the only program you are going to use in windows it is a waste of hard drive space to install win 7 in a boot camp partition. Do some checking on the programs forums, if there are any, or a Google search for running that program in a virtual machine. It may run just as well in a vm.

  • by needymacuser,

    needymacuser needymacuser May 12, 2013 3:29 PM in response to LowLuster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 12, 2013 3:29 PM in response to LowLuster

    Now I am confused! Are you saying that running Windows 7 in a virtual machine, such as VMware Fusion, is going to take little, or no, space on my hard drive compared to running it in Boot Camp?

  • by LowLuster,

    LowLuster LowLuster May 12, 2013 3:57 PM in response to needymacuser
    Level 6 (12,074 points)
    May 12, 2013 3:57 PM in response to needymacuser

    Yes I am. Whenever you partition your drive you set aside a certain amount of space that may or may not be used by the os and programs you install and you always need more space then the os and programs use so the os runs properly, approximately 10% (at least) more than is really needed. With a virtual machine you create a virtual drive of say 100GBs, remember it is a virtual drive. What is physically used on your physical hard rive is only what the os and programs take up. But to the os running in the virtual machine the drive looks like that 100GBs of space you allocated in the virtual drive. The only bad part about that is once the virtual drive grows, from installing program or copying files to the virtual machine virtual drive, it can never shrink back down. So if you installed 5 programs that take up 25GBs of space and then removed, uninstalled, 3 of them that frees up 15GBs of space the virtual disk size on your physical drive would still use that extra 25Gbs of space. With some vm programs there is a feature to compact the virtual disk, VMware Fusion includes that feature, but it will never recover all of that 15GBs of physical disk space you used installing those programs.

     

    All in all virtual machines are very hard drive space efficient. That is if you don't willy nilly install and uninstall program.

  • by needymacuser,

    needymacuser needymacuser May 12, 2013 4:12 PM in response to LowLuster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 12, 2013 4:12 PM in response to LowLuster

    So, if in trying to get things to work properly together, I had installed the simulator program into Windows using a virtuall machine, then uninstalled and reinstalled the same simulator program, this would have the effect of growing the virtual drive.

     

    Having said that, if I were to uninstall everything, including the virtual machine, could I then start again and get back to the original size of the virtual drive?

  • by Courcoul,

    Courcoul May 12, 2013 4:16 PM in response to needymacuser
    Level 6 (14,193 points)
    May 12, 2013 4:16 PM in response to needymacuser

    The smallest size I've managed to whittle an XP VM on Fusion is 6GB. But that's a barebones setup, no apps or anything.

     

    Also worth noting that a VM runs as an idealized PC. Fusion makes the guest OS think it is running on a very specific set of components, with no direct access to the real hardware. Fine and dandy for most uses, but some finicky or heavily DRM'd programs may refuse to run. Games that don't fall mostly in the finicky category.

     

    Lastly, VM is not equal to bare metal, performance-wise. Very I/O or graphics-intensive programs may underperform in a VM environment to cause an unsatisfactory user experience. Games are prone to fail like this.

     

    Edit: Fusion has an option to shrink a Windows VM once you've emptied out the cruft, to return to its original size, yes.

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