Hi everyone,
Just wondering what is the cheapest and quickest way to get Windows on my Mac today? Is Parallels still a viable option? I only need it for basic customisation of a couple of RGB peripherals I bought, so I don’t need anything too fancy.
Thanks!
I think it’s worth spending the money on a better Virtual Machine program like VMWare. Parallels has been sold to Corel, who are only interested in extracting as much money out of you as they can, which is a shame.
I use VMWare on my iMac to run Windows 10 occasionally.
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AFAIK there are 4 options:
- Wine
- VirtualBox
- Parallels
- VMware Fusion.
The last two cost money
The last three run virtual machines and you also need a Windows license
I understand that Wine is a good solution for some windows apps, but not all.
I have used Fusion in the past. It works well, but is not cheap.
and that is the limit of my understanding.
Is there no Bootcamp anymore?
Maybe worth a try: Crossover.
If it’s only for very simple and sporadic needs I would go with the free option, either bootcamp or Virtualbox, the latter means you don’t have to reboot which is nice.
Up to you which OS you run, but if you happen to have a Windows 7 (or 8.1) key laying about then you can just clean install Windows 10 and it should activate just fine with that key. (The old upgrade program that was discontinued apparently still seems to work 
). In many respects that’s a great move by Microsoft as it gets as many people off their old OSs as possible with little hassle.
Good thinking, I forgot about bootcamp.
The last time I was going to try it, it was not ready for Windows 10. Or perhaps El Capitan’s bootcamp didn’t support it.
If you are determined to go down the free path, then Bootcamp is preferable to that POS VirtualBox. The Linux and Windows versions of VirtualBox are reasonably good for free software, but the Mac version is, to quote a friend of mine, a fustercluck.
Also a big fan of VMware Fusion.
Yep however Dell hasn’t been really good as a steward for VMware especially Fusion (The Mac Version)
Bootcamp still exists and there is other multiboot tools as well you could also do a native install of Windows.
That’s a commercial product similar to Wine.
Thanks guys! Installed VMware which was perfect for my needs 
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Windows Virtual Desktop in Azure also a viable option these days
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I wonder if thats why my windows 7 key was invalidated. It was quite legal and not in use with anyone else… but I havent been able to install W7 for ages. Downloading W10 from Microsoft, it was a bit antsy about d/l on a mac but let me go ahead anyway. Its an ISO file, I’ll worry about how to manage it later. It should install to VirtualBox without much trouble, I expect.
Yes I know, but its easier to use for someone unused to Wine (like me)
Arguably a very viable option. Depending on one’s needs, having access to Windows via a browser could very well be preferable to having it installed on your own Mac.
It was more to just point that out to the OP in case they wanted to consider options that didn’t require windows.
Ditto 