Windows running on the new iMac

Ok, I have lawyas liked windows little programs and stuff and windows itself. mac has been good to me for editing and junk. SO Here I have some questions.

The people at my local Mac store couldn't help and directed me to the wise men and women on the forums.

1. How much space is needed to actually have Windows XP run smoothly on a 1.83 iMac? ( I will probably be using Parrallels)

2. Can the Windows on the Mac run all the same programs as a Dell for example would run Windows? ( Like Spyware doctor, PC optimizer, and little other gadgets)

3. If I have windows on the mac, Would I need/be able to clean the registry and other things.

4. Will it show me how much space is free, and in use for the entire system or the amount of partitioned data on the selected OS? ( Ex. If I am on the Mac OS, will it only show the systen data for the Mac OS or the entire system?)

5. is it even good to run windows and be smooth.

6. Um, can all windows stuff run on the mac if i am using the windows OS?

7. How will the mac take to the Windows Vista when it is released.

I think that is all and I appreciate it alot for any help.

 

You have two ways to run Windows on a Mac. One is bootcamp which lets you run Windows OR OSX, but not both at once -- you have to reboot to switch. Bootcamp runs XP well, and will do everything Windows can do on the Apple hardware. When in XP it IS a Windows machine.

Parallels provides a VIRTUAL Intel box on which you can install any of a number of different OS's including most versions of Windows. The virtual machine (VM) runs in parallel (Ever wonder where Parallels got its name?), but it *is* a windows machine when it has the focus, and except for the limitations of the virtualized hardware, it has all the plusses and minuses of Windows.

So to address your questions:
1) 1.5 to 2 gig of RAM on the Mac with 512 or 768 Meg allocated to the VM, plus as much disk space as you need for your Windows stuff -- typically a few gig for the OS plus whatever you install.

2) Given the limitations of the virtual hardware, yes. There is no 3D video hardware for example.

3) Same as a Wintel box.

4) The "hard disk" for the Windows installation is a regular file in OSX and the OSX tools will show it as such. Memory is whatever you allocate, and in use while the VM is running. Windows will show Windows resources.

5) I use it without major problems.

6) I don't understand the question.

7) The current version of Parallels is not Vista compatible, but Vista support has been promised.

 

to my question u didnt undertsand

I guess I mean, can any program that was designed to run on Windows, run on the mac if i am running the XP OS


and

1) 1.5 to 2 gig of RAM on the Mac with 512 or 768 Meg allocated to the VM, plus as much disk space as you need for your Windows stuff -- typically a few gig for the OS plus whatever you install.

that is like almost all of the memory right? since its a 1.83 gig hard drive..unless I read it backwards

 

No, programs designed to run on Windows will not run on the Mac. They will run on Windows within Parallels though.

It's not a 1.83GB hard drive. That's the processor speed (1.83 GHz). You'll likely have 60, 80, or 100 GB hard drive. So, a few gigabytes for the VM is normal. I have 8 GB reserved for Windows. Back to the memory. If you have 2GB of RAM, then dedicating 512 or 768 still leaves most of the RAM dedicated to OS X.

 

Apples iMac can come with a 1.83 GHZ (speed) processor. This has nothing to do with how you run windows. It only affects the speed at which things run. You can not "use up" speed.

It comes with a 160 GB (amount of storage) hard drive of which you will need 2GB for Windows and maybe more for whatever you use. I use about 10gb total for Windows and my Windows apps.

It also comes with 512MB of RAM (temp storage space). You will need 1.5GB to 2GB of RAM if you intend to use Parallels. (approx. 1500MB - 2000MB) Apple charges extra for adding more RAM. Windows (basically) will not run at all in parallels unless you have 1GB of RAM. It won't run "smoothly" unless you have at least 1.5GB. My macbook has 2GB of RAM.