Best Installation Practices

[AlanF]

I recently purchased one of the latest vintage iMacs through the Apple store on Fifth Avenue. Actually, truth be told, it's been sitting in my office for around three or four months now. The reason I had not opened the box so far centered around my confusion with regards to Virtual Machine Technology Platforms. You see, I do lots of photography and I have a degree in recording engineering so I bought a MacBook Pro around 3 years ago. My wife however (not a Geek...about as far removed from Geekdom as it gets) does the books for my dental office using Quicken for Windows. She also uses AOL (it kills me) as her browser. One last thing, I love to play chess On the Internet Chess Club's Windows interface, either Blitzin or Dasher. There exists a number of other available MAC interfaces for this chess site but the interfaces pale in user functionality v. the Windows versions.

I'm fairly computer literate. Around 25 years ago I assembled my first P.C. from parts obtained through PC Warehouse. DOS 2.1(text based OS), Dual 360k floppy drives (awesome huh?), 8086-2 processor (the"2" stood for "Turbo Mode" which changed the clock speed of the processor from 2.44 to 4.77 Megahertz), and 1 meg of RAM (DOS could only access the first 640k of RAM..special programs were required to break the "640k" barrier to allow the user to access it as "extended or expanded RAM"). Note there was no hard drive. Incidentally this machine cost me somewhere in the order of $7,000 at the time....we've come a long way.

So much for the background.

I therefore bought the Mac desktop with the intention of seamlessly blending the two worlds using Parallels 4.0. I have watched a number of YouTube videos on the subject of Parallels installation but I remain a bit confused on a number of issues that I would like answered:

If I use Boot camp to create a windows partition first then install Parallels 4.0 and then create a windows virtual machine in Parallels will I have installed two separate copies (read redundant volume utilization of the Hard Drive) of the operating system? If so what would be the advantage in doing this. Would I be better off just installing Parallels without first creating a Bootcamp windows partition and then just Windows as a virtual machine? Please answer this in terms of performance and utilization of the computer's resources and of the parent operating system (OS X).

Once Parallels is installed, I assume that the program does not become active until you "click" on it. Is this true or is the performance of the parent OS's resources affected just by virtue of its being installed? In the old days of DOS we used to call those kind of programs TSRs or Terminal Stay Resident in memory..with only 640 k available in those days there wasn't much to work with. My iMAC has 4 gigs of RAM.

With regards to peripherals. Do I need to install and connect all the drivers and peripherals (printers, scanners, USB hub etc.) to the MAC and its OS before I install Parallels 4.0 and create the VM (Virtual Machine)? It seems logical but is this correct?

Will the VM that I create for Windows XP sp3 be able to access these peripherals and their drivers on the parent OS or will I have to install them again into the VM's OS?

I assume that if I create a Boot Camp partition and boot to it in start-up I must in fact load all drivers for peripherals into this partition as a separate step in order to obtain functionality of these peripherals, correct?

I want to get to setup my MAC ASAP but I am hesitant to go forth without a clear understanding of the the above. I just want whatever installation I choose (BootCamp yes or no) to give me the most efficient use of the computer's resources.

Thank you for your attention,

Alan P. Friedler, DMD

 

[desgael]

Hello Alan, check the replies below:

If I use Boot camp to create a windows partition first then install Parallels 4.0 and then create a windows virtual machine in Parallels will I have installed two separate copies (read redundant volume utilization of the Hard Drive) of the operating system

This is not exactly so. What actually happens is that you:

1. Install Windows on a Boot camp partition.

2. Create a virtual machine (VM) based on this Windows installation.

So, basically, this is the same Windows which is now available from the Mac side due to the fact that now you have Parallels Tools installed in it.

Would I be better off just installing Parallels without first creating a Bootcamp windows partition and then just Windows as a virtual machine? Please answer this in terms of performance and utilization of the computer's resources and of the parent operating system (OS X).

The performance is definitely better with a virtual machine created as usual, not based on a boot camp partition. However, difference is not that big.
There are some other limitations however, if you would create a virtual machine based on a Boot camp partition:
1. VM cannot be suspended or paused.
2. such VM cannot have snapshots and the Safe Mode feature cannot be enabled for it.
3. compression or compacting cannot be performed.

Having Windows installed in a Boot camp, on the other hand, have the advantage that you can always boot natively. For example, if some specific program can not be run in a virtualized environment.

If you are still not sure what to choose, I would suggest to try out creating a usual VM, and if you would find it inconvenient, try the Boot Camp then.

Once Parallels is installed, I assume that the program does not become active until you "click" on it. Is this true or is the performance of the parent OS's resources affected just by virtue of its being installed? In the old days of DOS we used to call those kind of programs TSRs or Terminal Stay Resident in memory..with only 640 k available in those days there wasn't much to work with. My iMAC has 4 gigs of RAM.

You are correct. While the Parallels (virtual machine to be more precise) is not running it does not consume resources.

Additionally, you can always configure the system resources taken by the VM as you would find more suitable.

With regards to peripherals. Do I need to install and connect all the drivers and peripherals (printers, scanners, USB hub etc.) to the MAC and its OS before I install Parallels 4.0 and create the VM (Virtual Machine)? It seems logical but is this correct?

You can actually do it later, it does not matter much. If you connect and install, for example, a printer on a Mac side when the Parallels is already installed and VM configured, then you would just need to configure the printer for the virtual machine.
Some USB devices, like storage devices, do not need any additional work on a VM side, you just plug it in and it will appear as a network drive on a Windows side. This is possible due to the SmartMount feature.

Will the VM that I create for Windows XP sp3 be able to access these peripherals and their drivers on the parent OS or will I have to install them again into the VM's OS?

It depends on the device. For some, you would need to install drivers on the Windows side (most of them).
For some, it is not required.

I assume that if I create a Boot Camp partition and boot to it in start-up I must in fact load all drivers for peripherals into this partition as a separate step in order to obtain functionality of these peripherals, correct?

Windows OS almost in any case would require driver to be installed for any new device. This is true for both, Boot camp and usual VM. Some drivers, however, are already installed along with the Windows installation and hence, no drivers installation would be required.

I want to get to setup my MAC ASAP but I am hesitant to go forth without a clear understanding of the the above. I just want whatever installation I choose (BootCamp yes or no) to give me the most efficient use of the computer's resources.

Hope the above replies would help. For the most efficient use of the computer's resources I would still suggest to try the usual VM first, it is also faster to setup and easier to remove if you would like to try the Boot Camp instead afterward.

 

[AlanF]

Virus is VMs versus Native BootCamp Surfing Practices

Dear desgael,

Thank you so much for your reply...it's been a real effort to get some answers on this subject and although the manual is fairly thorough, to a newbie it's overwhelming. I believe a subjective discussion on this topic would be hepful. Although the manual's introduction touches on it, more subjective discussions such as this one would be appreciated.

One last Question concerns viruses/surfing within a Windows VM versus doing the same on a separate native partition (AKA BootCamp Partition)
Would the parent OS (OS X) be more at risk if one were to surf while in a Windows VM? What safety measures would you recommend? If a virus is contracted while surfing in a separate native Windows BootCamp partition what, if any, is the risk to the MAC OS partition.

Thanks again so much for your help,

Alan P. Friedler, DMD

 

[desgael]

Hello Alan,

Regarding the viruses and such, there are no (that I know of) viruses that can affect Mac side. Especially since all these possible viruses would be Windows-orientied and thus, would not be able to affect Mac side which is unix-based.

That said, there is no big difference whether your virtual machine would be based on a Boot camp partition or not.
By the way, I would suggest to try installing Parallels Internet Security in virtual machine which is based on Kaspersky antivirus, but designed specifically to work in a virtualized enironment. It comes with the Parallels Desktop package and has a 1 year free subscription. Again, it would work just fine if it would be installed on a Boot camp as well.