Running OS X in VMWare over Windows 7

PointZero

December 13, 2010 7:58:54 AM

Can anyone advice on the limitations of running OS X in VMWare using Windows 7 as the host OS?

Will audio, ethernet and wi-fi all work?

And roughly what will the penalty in speed be like? Is the experience of the slow-down similarly to running Windows using VMWare Fusion on OS X?

Thanks!

More about : running vmware windows

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roagie

December 20, 2010 7:24:13 PM

Getting everything to work well will depend quite a bit on the hardware being used.

The penalty is roughly the same as running the other way, on comparable machines, but in most cases the Win7 Machine will have better hardware.

May I ask why you would want to run OS X in a VM environment? Just out of curiosity..

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PointZero

December 20, 2010 10:37:47 PM

Thanks for your reply.

I was using a 15" MacBook Pro for about the last three and a half years and recently it died. The cost of reply is almost equivalent to buying a new set so that option is out. Previously I was in graduate school (Computer Science) and the MBP was used very heavily, but now I am working and the MBP is just used at home and the usage is pretty light, mainly to surf web, reply personal emails, upload family photos to iPhoto and running iTunes.

I am thinking now of switching to use a Windows 7 laptop, since they are relatively inexpensive compared to a MBP, especially comparing those that are 15".

My wife is a stay-home mom and has her own MBP. She is quite sticky about me using her MBP, as she says that I tend to install things and slows things down

(she's not a techie). If I am able to run OS X in VM, I am still able to access our iPhotos and iTunes libraries, which are hosted in a home NAS.

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PointZero

December 21, 2010 8:50:31 AM

Ijack said:

If you are using VMWare the hardware on your computer is irrelevant; all devices are emulated. OS X works fine on VMWare and runs pretty fast (I'm not sure how it compares to a real modern Mac, but it's a whole lot faster than my PPC Mac Mini). The only thing that doesn't work (for me) is Safari.

But if you main concern is iTunes, why not just run iTunes for Windows? There's no iPhoto for Windows, but any photo application ought to be able to access the images.

Running OS X in a VM seems overcomplicated for what you want to do.

Thanks for the info.

I'll check out iTunes for Windows, but I will probably still have to be able to run iPhoto. We have quite a large photo library, with tags and all, and I am not sure whether they can all be ported over to some other photo manager.

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electrontau

December 21, 2010 2:48:40 PM

if you are using the original OSX discs for installation, it will not work since the hardware is not certified/compatible with Mac OS.

There are alternative of running Mac OS on PCs. It is called hackintosh and you need to find the right "version" that will work with your PC hardware (you need to find the mobo model, graphics card type and model, etc). You will have better luck if your PC is Intel-based. Harder if AMD.

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Ijack

Windows 7 Expert

December 21, 2010 5:47:54 PM

electrontau said:

if you are using the original OSX discs for installation, it will not work since the hardware is not certified/compatible with Mac OS.

There are alternative of running Mac OS on PCs. It is called hackintosh and you need to find the right "version" that will work with your PC hardware (you need to find the mobo model, graphics card type and model, etc). You will have better luck if your PC is Intel-based. Harder if AMD.

All you need is a very small boot CD.iso. You then install from the genuine OS X disk. It works. No need for a "right version"; as we're dealing with VMWare the m/b, graphics, etc. are irrelevant. But you do, AFAIK, need an Intel processor. Google for "darwin.iso". And as it uses the open source Darwin code for this ISO it's totally legit.