Macbook running Windows - Parallels Desktop

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Guest2

Guest2

Soldato
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I am thinking of getting an Ultrabook and the Dell XPS 13 looked like a good option. However I went into an Apple store and the Macbook 12" is beautiful, thin and light (0.92 kg compared to 1.2kg of the XPS 13) Even the Macbook Air 11" is 1.08kg.

I asked if Windows could be ran on a Macbook and was told it could with software called Parallels which you can partition the HDD with and run Windows 7, 8 and 10 plus other operating systems alongside OSX. Brilliant

The Macbook has a USB-C port and Macbook Air has 2x USB 3 ports.

My question is. Does anyone use Parallels to run Windows as their primary OS on their Apple device and how well does it cope with applications and games. Also, how well does USB support and driver support work?

I have watched a few youtube videos of the OS running (Windows 7, 8 and 10) but does not show gaming, USB support or mention battery life running Windows and hardware support (Wifi and USB hardware support) This seems like a great way to run a perfect device with the versatility of a Windows OS.
 
Parallels just runs a virtual desktop on top of OSX, it's Boot Camp that you want: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201468

It should also install the drivers for Windows as well, so it will be up and running after the install with everything working. You will still need a product key for Windows however.

Bare in mind the Air and the lower end Macbooks uses integrated Intel graphics so don't expect much from it for gaming. Battery life should be decent however with light usage.
 
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Thanks. I started noticing bootcamp being used intead of Parallels. Someone is managed to play Crysis in 4k (low settings) on a Macbook pro!

I would be more interested in light gaming on the Macbook 12" via Boot camp (and the other stuff like USB hardware support)
 
Bootcamp will provide the drivers so you don't need to worry about hardware support.

Seems both models of the Macbook 12" uses an Intel HD 5300, which performs ok but majority of games will need to be run on low detail, but I still would not expect good FPS. You can however drop the resolution which will help, but Windows DPI scaling is pretty poor. OSX DPI scaling on the other hand works a lot better, so seeing as Bootcamp will keep the OSX partition anyway, you could try use both to see what performs better for games.
 
Thanks. Is it possible to also run Bootcamp on an iPad Air 2 or iPad Pro? (then connect a bluetooth USB keyboard) and Windows 8.1 / 10 for touchscreen support
 
Completely different devices, they also use Apple's custom SoCs which uses the ARM instruction set instead of x86, which Windows does not support. Not to mention they're locked down so it's near impossible to flash a new OS on them.

Have a look at the Surface Pro line if you're interested in a tablet with Windows. I have the Surface Pro 4 and it's a fantastic tablet/laptop hybrid.
 
Our company is having this exact quandary at the moment. The XPS13 is the standard issue laptop but a few people have requested MacBooks instead and run Paralells or BootCamp.

Seems like a pointless thing to me, to spend more money on a laptop plus an additional Windows license all on hardware our IT don't support all so you can have an Apple logo on the lid. The only reason its approved is because the MD has a MacBook.

The XPS13 is great, especially the newest version with the tiny bezel. I'm starting to pester for an XPS15 for the larger screen though, using just a 13" becomes tiring.
 
Skeeter said:
Our company is having this exact quandary at the moment. The XPS13 is the standard issue laptop but a few people have requested MacBooks instead and run Paralells or BootCamp.

Seems like a pointless thing to me, to spend more money on a laptop plus an additional Windows license all on hardware our IT don't support all so you can have an Apple logo on the lid. The only reason its approved is because the MD has a MacBook.

The XPS13 is great, especially the newest version with the tiny bezel. I'm starting to pester for an XPS15 for the larger screen though, using just a 13" becomes tiring.
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Snap! Well sort of.
Our primary laptop base are upgraded Dell Latitudes such as the E74XX and many other models but our company support Apple devices (iphone, macbooks and imacs) More and more people are using their own Macbook's (and Macbook Airs) with out private Citrix architecture which was initially just designed for home use, Citrix Xenmobile for email on company and personal iPhones and AppController for private wrapped apps. All work very well but require a fair bit of management and support - Thinks like ios updates which cause apps to stop working and generally different versions of apps / ios
 
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It sounds line your planning on using Apple hardware but running Windows, so you should avoid any OSX update issues, although Windows 10 updates may still bite you in the butt :)
 
Skeeter said:
It sounds line your planning on using Apple hardware but running Windows, so you should avoid any OSX update issues, although Windows 10 updates may still bite you in the butt :)
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I turn off Windows updates, hate the damned things. I manually install security updates etc
 
Orcvader said:
This. Good luck trying to turn them off ;). Pro at best only has defer but that only delays it.
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You must be able to use registry or group policy to disable them in professional and enterprise editions, otherwise it would not be usable in a corporate environment where patches are managed via WSUS, SCCM / other deployment product.
 
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