Intel Macs and Windows
With new Intel processor based Macs it is now possible to run both Windows and Mac OS on the same box. There are several options how Windows could be installed on a Mac. Let's list them here:
- Run Windows by booting into Windows at boot up time. This installation requires installing Boot Camp software from Apple.
- Run Windows as a virtual machine inside MacOS. This installation requires using Parallels software.
- Run two different Windows installations, one by booting into Windows and the other as a virtual machines inside MacOS. This installation requires both Boot Camp and Parallels. The downside of this is that you have to maintain two Windows installations on the same computer.
- Run the same Windows installation and have an option to boot into it at boot up time or switch to it from inside MacOS. This installation requires using both Boot Camp and Parallels.
The 4th option is the setup that we chose to be installed on our lab Macs. Here are the steps to make this happen:
- Boot into MacOS.
- Download and install Boot Camp
- Run Boot Camp from the Utilities folder.
- Create a MacOS driver disk for Windows as part of the Boot Camp's wizard.
- Create a partition for Windows
- Windows partition will be created - a regular Windows installation will start.
- Once Windows is installed, the Mac will by default boot into Windows. We need to boot into MacOS for our next step. To do this, hold down the option key at boot up time.
- Chooce MacOS for boot option.
- In MacOS, download and install Parallels
- Run Parallels desktop application from the application folder
- Create a new virtual machine and select Custom setup
- Choose Boot Camp partition from the Custom menu. this will create Parallels virtual Windows OS using the same Windows installation as the one we created with Boot Camp.
To finish up make sure to install all hardware drivers on the Windows. This is not necessary when you run Parallels from within Mac, but if you boot into Windows, the many hardware in not recognized.
Now that I have built one machine, I need to figure out how to image it and push the image to other lab machines. This will be the subject of my next post.