You have two good options for running Windows on your Intel iMac: Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. I use and recommend Parallels although lots of people prefer VMware. If you aren’t the adventurous type, just get Parallels. If you are using the same thing I am, there’s a much better chance that I’ll be able to help you.
If you plan to run Windows XP or Vista, make sure you have at least 3 and preferably 4GB of RAM. Any less and you’ll have severe performance problems when your system runs out of memory and starts paging. It won’t be an enjoyable experience.
If you have an older Intel iMac that only supports 2GB of RAM, then forget about either and use Boot Camp which comes with Mac OS X 10.5. Then you can partition your drive and use part of your disk for Windows. The disadvantage is that you’ll have to reboot to use any Windows apps. But that is far better than trying to run Windows without enough RAM.
I run Parallels with an XP guest system on my older iMac with 2GB of RAM. I only allocate 604MB to the guest OS.
It all depends on which programs you’re wanting to run in Windows. MS Money works well on my setup. Solitaire and Minesweeper work as well.
Coherence mode is the best. 🙂
Jason
Sure, you can run XP under Parallels with 2GB of RAM, but wouldn’t you agree that doing so is fraught with mudpits? It requires not running any memory hog apps (like Safari and Firefox) on your Mac while Parallels is running, not running memory intensive apps under XP, and tweaking XP and Parallels to minimize RAM usage.
If you forget and launch Parallels without quitting those memory hog apps, your system enters swapville and it takes minutes to recover. That has ahappened to me more than once on my work issued MBP with 2GB of RAM. I avoid using it there. Such nasties have never appeared on my iMac with 4GB of RAM.
Jen uses XP for work. At the turn of the year she resigned and now contracts for AAR. The first thing I did was get that work issued (and LOUD) Dell out of my house. I migrated her XP install to her MBP with 3GB. While using Parallels as she previously used her Dell, she complained of visits to swapsville. I cured the problem by buying a 2GB RAM module for $40. There have been no complaints since upgrading to 4GB.
Geeks like us know how to deal with those issues. For the less technically inclined, I think it’s much safer to just say you need at least 3 and preferably 4GB of RAM to run XP under Parallels or VMware. With 4GB of RAM, you can be confident that anyone capable of getting Windows installed on a PC can get it working well under Parallels.
I ran a single gig and allocated it down the middle.. it hung up here and there but not enough to bother me. i just got another gig of ram and it runs smoother than a babies bottom