Parallels vs Boot Camp

[kerbouchard]

Advantages, disadvantages of each? I already partitioned a hard drive for windows. Then I got a Parallels copy for twenty bucks. I like the option of not having to reboot. Do I have to get an antivirus for windows in parallels? I know I do if I run boot camp but not sure about parallels. Just not sure which way to go. Any advice appreciated.
_________________
2010 mac mini upgraded to 2.66mghz. Very First Mac Computer
Airport express and Airport extreme
4th gen ipod touch 32g

[Ranter]

I use Parallels on my Mac Pro to briefly run Winders so I can see what my own websites look like to the hoi polloi. Usually I put on a pair of latex gloves before booting Winders so I don't get any virus infections on my hands.

Because my Mac Pro has 8 3GHz cores and 16GB RAM running another OS is trivial. On a dual core system with less RAM it is going to be noticeably slower.

You definitely do need to take precautions against the hundreds of thousands of pieces of malware designed for the crappiest and least secure operating system in widespread use. It is conceivable that malware running in a virtualized Windows abomination could infect or damage files in your Mac OS X partitions, since Parallels does cross mount the file systems by default.

On the other hand when you use Boot Camp to run the amazingly crappy junk from Redmond your Mac OS X installations are almost completely safe because Winders can not mount a Mac OS X HFS+ partition. there may be still a very slight danger in that if one of the nearly a million pieces of Winders malware damages the boot record on your hard drive it could render the Mac non-bootable. This is an extremely unlikely event that you could almost certainly recover from.
_________________
http://skeptichosting.com/

Weapons are the tools of violence; all decent men detest them.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

[edgardito]

It pretty much depends on what you need from Windows.
In my case, I work with several IDEs, and most of the work can be done with Parallels (in my case VmWare Fusion).
Nevertheless, when I need horsepower, i have to boot into the windows partition. I have a FPGA IDE that requires lots of RAM and Cpu power, and works pretty bad on Fusion.

About the Antivirus... if you use boot camp, you should get one, because if you get pretty infected, you would have to reinstall from scratch the OS (windows). If you use Fusion, then make an Image from the Guest OS Virtual Machine File/Folder, and you can recover that with ease.

Hope it helps...

[ReliantLion]

I'd recommend doing a normal boot camp install, THEN doing parallels using that boot camp. Try using parallels for a while, if it's not your thing, just reboot to boot camp. I've found it easiest to do it one way or the other. Constantly switching between Parallels and boot camp can drive you crazy.

[MJL]

Perhaps it is my impression but the 2010 Mac mini temperature of Windows 7 x64 running under bootcamp seems to be lower than running Lion on its own.

If you run windows virtual then you are running OS X + Windows so it would logically follow that you'll get more heat developped.

[mark40]

I use Parallels on my Mac Pro to briefly run Winders so I can see what my own websites look like to the hoi polloi. Usually I put on a pair of latex gloves before booting Winders so I don't get any virus infections on my hands.

[mark40]

THEN doing parallels using that boot camp. Try using parallels for a while, if it's not your thing, just reboot to boot camp. I've found it easiest to do it one way or the other. Constantly switching between Parallels and boot camp can drive you crazy.

[MJL]

I have not used any anti-whatever for the past 10 years. However I am very picky about which websites I go to and how my email is handled.

Windows 7 has natively Defender built in and I suggest you keep that running. Also MSN's own anti-whatever has become reasonably good but I do not use it.

Once in a blue moon I'll use one of the free on-line AV products and they have not found anything since the one time about 11 years ago that I got a nasty one that infected both my machines and took a month to get rid off. None of the then common and recommended (paid) AV products detected it.....

How I manage is that I have a backup from a fresh install made when the machine was not yet connectedd to the internet. My router uses NAT and statefull inspection. Then when MSN notifies me about updates I do a restore (about 5 minutes) apply the updates and make a new backup. Next month repeat.

The reason why I am not running Norton (or any AV) is that is slows my machine down and I need to squeeze all possible data speed out of it. (it is a business decision and the machine does not get used for generic web browsing - only a few specified websites get visited)

There is quite a performance impact using Windows as a virtual machine but for some that does not matter. I am running it natively (Bootcamp).

[Y-Guy]

First question is what programs do you need to run under windows? Web surfing and most basic apps will be fine in a virtual window, but if you are gaming that probably means bootcamp. I have bootcamp for one windows game, I run a free AV program to be save but I really don't do any websurfing while in windows so its overkill and as little as I use it the AV is way out of date.
_________________
iMac 24" 2.4 GHz 4GB | Logitech S530 | Z-2300 speakers | NewerTech Guardian MAXimus RAID
MacMini HTPC 2.26 GHz 2GB | Panasonic Plasma TV | Logitech diNovo Edge | Mercury Elite-AL Pro 800
AppleTV1 unhacked | Panasonic LCD