Bootcamp Windows 8.1

[Richard Balls]

Hi.
My girlfriends ancient laptop has finally died and instead of buying another one I'm thinking about using bootcamp on my Macbook and we can just share it.

A couple of questions first though.
1. The bootcamp wizard says i need a windows ISO downloaded from Microsoft but i thought if you buy then download you get an online setup thing. I don't have easy access to a Windows PC now, can this be done from a Mac?

2. Is the Windows 8.1 experience good on a MAC? Will the retina screen scale Windows ok or will everything be tiny?

I've tried to get her to use OSX Mavericks but she wants Office 2013 and Photoshop + Premiere Elements. i showed her the iWork suite, iMovie and Pixelmator but she's having none of it

The MAC:
Macbook Pro Retina
2.3 Ghz I7
16GB Ram
512GB SSD
Nvidia 750M
Intel Iris Pro

 

[dasyad]

Could just get the Mac versions of Office and Photoshop? For home use I don't even use Office, just use Google docs. For work related stuff I just remote into my work machine and use Office there.

 

[LiE]

8.1 is fine on Mac, just make sure you download the proper support files. Have a look at the matrix on here, which links to the correct files - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5634

 

[Mattus]

Doesn't running Windows on a Mac hurt the battery life quite a lot compared to OS X?

 

[MagicBoy]

Yes. It'll roughly halve it, mainly as it will run on the GeForce GPU permanently.

How about installing Window into virtualisation software like Parallels?