[bkflyer]

My girlfriend has a new Mac laptop. It's a little differant but she LOVES it. She say she has to load that program tha lets you run both Windows and Mac. She says its to run a .exc or .exe program. If she loads windows on a Mac won't it open her up to all the problems of the pcs?

 

[Vaporware]

She is probably talking about either Parallels or VMWare Fusion, both of which are virtualization solutions that allow you to run Windows on top of OS X.

To answer your question, yes, this in fact does expose those virtual systems to all of the same exploits of a normal Windows installation. The good side is that both of these systems allow for making a "snap shot" of the guest OS (which should be done IMMEDIATELY after installation). At any time that it is suspected that the guest OS has become compromised, simply go back to the original snapshot. The one caveat to this is that you have to save all your files to disk space that is not on the guest OS otherwise they will be lost.

-Vapor

 

[jeffkoke]

My girlfriend has a new Mac laptop. It's a little differant but she LOVES it. She say she has to load that program tha lets you run both Windows and Mac. She says its to run a .exc or .exe program. If she loads windows on a Mac won't it open her up to all the problems of the pcs?

The answer to your question is, "YES!"

She will need to take every precaution recommended for a PC, if she is running any type of M$ Operating System. Make sure there is a robust anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall program (or programs) installed, updated, and operating.

My suggestion would be to set it up as a dual-boot, unless there is enough RAM available to support running VMWARE or parallels.

My $.07 worth,
Jeff

 

[Washington D.C.]

Sounds like two different things are being discussed here. One is running a full Windows OS installed and running it as Windows. The other is running Windows programs in Mac OS X.

Here is some ifo on running Windows programs in Mac Os X.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/


http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/...ut-dual-boot-boot-camp-or-virtual-pc-machine/


http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/

 

[TripleGlocker]

Why waste such a good machine on Vista or XP? Steve Jobs must have been held at gunpoint to ever allow this done on a MAC.

 

[ugly8604]

Hate to bring up old threads but,
Can a Mac run a PC video game like Company of Heroes using the Parallels software? I'm looking into purchasing one of those new All In One Macs which seems to have a fast processor and video card. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Apple%26%23174%3B+-+iMac%26%23174%3B+3.06GHz+with+27%22+Display/9611587.p?id=1218131141805&skuId=9611587

Thanks guys.

 

[IndyGunFreak]

Hate to bring up old threads but,
Can a Mac run a PC video game like Company of Heroes using the Parallels software? I'm looking into purchasing one of those new All In One Macs which seems to have a fast processor and video card. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Apple%26%23174%3B+-+iMac%26%23174%3B+3.06GHz+with+27%22+Display/9611587.p?id=1218131141805&skuId=9611587

Thanks guys.

In my experience, 3D game support w/ Virtualizaion is shaky at best. Supposedly it works w/ Parallels, but Google turns up users getting various errors when trying to install some games, some working well, etc. Seems very much that "YMMV".

I'm guessing your best bet, if you really want a Mac and you need Windows to play games, is to use Boot Camp. You would essentially have 2 different OS's on your machine, and choose an OS when the machine starts. Use your Windows OS to do your Gaming or any other Windows Only software you must use. Don't use it for general surfing of the Net, etc. If you want to do stuff like that, reboot into your Mac OS to keep Internet nasties away...

Hope that helps...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Camp_(software)

IGF

 

[checkyoursix]

Hate to bring up old threads but,
Can a Mac run a PC video game like Company of Heroes using the Parallels software? I'm looking into purchasing one of those new All In One Macs which seems to have a fast processor and video card. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Apple%26%23174%3B+-+iMac%26%23174%3B+3.06GHz+with+27%22+Display/9611587.p?id=1218131141805&skuId=9611587

Thanks guys.

I wouldn't count on it. I am not familiar with that game, but in general the virtualization solution do not work well on games. In order to play games on a Mac, you need a dual boot (the program comes with every Mac out of the box), a copy of Win XP or Vista, and basically you boot your Mac with the Win OS only.

Install your normal arsenal of antivirus, spyware, whatever.

 

[StuntPilot]

Virtualbox will let you run Windows OS on a mac, and it is free...

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

The new beta version will supposedly let you run OSx inside a virtual machine. So you could test things on the virtual mac, before changing your real mac.

http://lifehacker.com/5530521/virtualbox-32-beta-virtualizes-mac-os-x-on-macs

 

[IndyGunFreak]

Virtualbox will let you run Windows OS on a mac, and it is free...

http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

The new beta version will supposedly let you run OSx inside a virtual machine. So you could test things on the virtual mac, before changing your real mac.

http://lifehacker.com/5530521/virtualbox-32-beta-virtualizes-mac-os-x-on-macs

Running the OS is not the question, it's whether it supports 3D, which to my knowledge, Vbox does not.

igf

 

[Hunca Munca]

Hate to bring up old threads but,
Can a Mac run a PC video game like Company of Heroes using the Parallels software? I'm looking into purchasing one of those new All In One Macs which seems to have a fast processor and video card. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Apple%26%23174%3B+-+iMac%26%23174%3B+3.06GHz+with+27%22+Display/9611587.p?id=1218131141805&skuId=9611587

Thanks guys.

As others have said- not sure if it will work in Parallels. It will work if you use bootcamp.

With bootcamp you create a partition on your hard drive and then install windows on that partition. After doing this you have the option to boot in either windows or Mac OS.
With bootcamp, when you boot in windows your mac is now a windows PC and can run any windows program or game natively up to the limits of the hardware and memory.

 

[StuntPilot]

Running the OS is not the question, it's whether it supports 3D, which to my knowledge, Vbox does not.

igf

Thanks for the tip IndyGunFreak. I was answering bkflyer's question. You were answering UGLY8604's question.

 

[IndyGunFreak]

Thanks for the tip IndyGunFreak. I was answering bkflyer's question. You were answering UGLY8604's question.

LOL.. Joke's on me, I didn't realize this thread was over a year old.. :rofl:

Guess we can never fault that guy for not using the search.

IGF

 

[StuntPilot]

You got me! Caught in a time warp. Sorry dude!:supergrin: