windows for an imac- is it complicated?

eskimo26

My step dad wants to run some software that will only work in windows called i-form for horses.

Is it a case of buying and installing it and your good to go or is there a lot of techy work to get it going? i.e. it completely changes everything and causes issues.

Is there an option to log in to the platform you want or will it be permanently windows from here on out?

Cheers.

jbainbridge

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1461

Esqui

Installing Windows is not too difficult, as long as you have a basic knowledge of what you're doing.


There's also a bit of software called Parallels, which runs Windows inside of the Mac OS. When I installed it a while back, I was quite impressed with how seamlessly the Windows programs integrate with Mac. I know it's not incredibly Moneysaving to pay for something that you don't need, but it is pretty good

eskimo26

Thanks guys.

My dads generally happy to pay but his not very computer savvy and i haven't used a mac in years and years.

I've read the link about boot camp will check to see if his mac is new enough to go down this route tomorrow.

Seems to be there's several ways to access windows on a mac.

Johnmcl7

When it's just a single application he's wanting to run in Windows, I'd be inclined to look into the Parallels or virtual machine option Esqui has mentioned. It's a bit more straightforward to set up as instead of partitioning the hard drive and installing Windows separately, you can run Windows within OSX.

It doesn't disrupt anything else on the machine as it's just like having another piece of software on the machine and if you decide you don't think that's the way to go you can just uninstall the software and delete the VM's and that's it all gone.

John

Andy_L

eskimo26 wrote: »

My step dad wants to run some software that will only work in windows called i-form for horses.

Is it a case of buying and installing it

He will have to buy a copy of windows (about £70ish) as well as i-form.

eskimo26

I am thinking of going down the root of a free simulator called Oracle's VirtualBox solution but is it easy to install?

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

I have an i5 mac running snow leopard so meet all the system requirements as far as i can tell but their is a bit of techie speak that's throwing me off.

I can follow instructions to resolve issues quite well but i won't understand in depth techie stuff.

Thanks all.

almillar

That's not a simulator, it's a virtual machine - a computer inside a computer. It works great. For Boot Camp, or for a virtual machine, if you're capable of installing Windows on a PC, you'll be capable of doing it here.
You have to give it a virtual hard drive, and choose how many CPU cores, how much RAM the virtual machine is allowed, then install Windows. Performance won't be quite the same as running it natively, and there are a couple of keyboard shortcuts to learn, but for occasional Windows access, it's great. I've found that my installs can slow down a lot over time though.

buglawton

I installed Boot Camp with XP on an older Mac laptop. It was a faff to do at the time but is stable now. The fiddly part was getting an updated set of drivers ready, plus some installation crashes that had to be overcome via Google research,

Am hoping very much that if I have to do the same again with a newer Mac and Windows 7 it will be a lot more straightforward.
Have been reading about Parallels in case it is easier to do than Boot Camp but still not sure myself.

The loss of some keys on the keyboard compared to a full Windows keyboard can be a bit annoying too.

DevCoder

Theres also crossover by codeweavers, doesn't need windows license, isn't a VM but instead is based on WINE type libraries that translate the windows API into osx api

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/crossover-mac/

almillar

The loss of some keys on the keyboard compared to a full Windows keyboard can be a bit annoying too.

That's a hardware issue, which can be easily solved with a Windows keyboard, which will work perfectly (unless it's PS/2!).