Virtualizing Windows by Using Parallels


Although being able to run Windows on your Mac is a fairly amazing thing, you may find that having to reboot to move between OSes will quickly become tedious. If you need quick access to Windows while you work within a project on your Mac, having to save all your Mac data, close all your apps, and reboot can be quite an interruption.

If your particular Windows needs don't require your Mac hardware's full performance, you might be able to skip Boot Camp and go with a virtualization scheme instead. In the simplest terms, virtualization means that Windows can run in a window within Mac OS X, right alongside your other Mac applications.

The advantage to a virtualization scheme is obvious: quick and easy access to both your Mac and Windows applications, the ability to copy and paste data between Mac and Windows programs, and no rebooting. The down side to virtualization is that the Windows operating system is not running directly on the hardware in your computer. Instead, Mac OS X is sitting between Windows and the hardware layer, and this extra software layer slows Windows' performance.

Microsoft's Virtual PC is a Windows emulation program that has been around for years. It can also run Windows on your Mac desktop, but previous versions have required the Virtual PC software to translate all low-level PowerPC commands into low-level Intel commands. With Apple's switch to Intel chips, however, this type of emulation is no longer necessary, and so virtualization is far more practical than it used to be. Virtual PC has not been upgraded yet to take advantage of the Mac's new Intel processors, but a beta of a new product from Parallels called Parallels Workstation was released just one day after Boot Camp. Parallels offers a virtualization solution that takes full advantage of your new Mac's Intel guts.

In addition to being more convenient, Parallels can run any version of Windows, DOS, or several other operating systems. If you need to install something other than Windows XP, Parallels might be your best option.

Parallels Workstation currently is available as a free beta and can be downloaded from www.parallels.com.

Parallels doesn't require you to partition your hard drive. Instead, it simply uses a document on your Mac as your Windows hard drive, which is a little more convenient than having to partition your internal drive.

Parallels ships with easy-to-follow documentation. You'll still need a Windows installation disc and will go through the same install procedure outlined earlier. When you're up and running, you'll have a normal Windows machine; it will simply run inside your Mac.

Note

The current beta of Parallels doesn't run full screen and doesn't support external USB or FireWire hard drives. As Parallels updates its beta software regularly, these features may be available shortly.


Whether it's fast enough for your Windows needs is up to you, but because the download is free, (for the time being) there's no reason not to give Parallels a test drive. Unless you're goal is processor heavy games, video or image editing, or 3D graphics work, you might very well find that Parallels offers all the power you need. If you tried Virtual PC in the past and found it too slow, know that Parallels is substantially faster than the Windows emulation programs of old, thanks to the new, underlying Intel architecture.




Apple Boot Camp Public Beta First Look
Apple Boot Camp Public Beta First Look
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2007
Pages: 16

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