Windows XP on new iMacs

Sorry for what might be an obvious question but it seems you can't ask pre-sales questions of the parallels team, they require a product code, but of course I havn't got a product yet because I havn't asked my presales question... you get the idea.

I am going to buy a new iMac and Apple say that you cannot use Windows XP in Bootcamp. I have a Windows XP SP2 disc, will I be able to use that with Parallels?

 

In Parallels's help they say XP Home SP0, 1, 2, 3 is supported as 32-bit versions; XP Professional SP0, 1, 2, 3 is supported as 32-bit versions and SP 2 as 64-bit also.

So - if it's a regular XP disc or a system builder version mentioned above: Yes - you can. If it's a recovery disc that came with a PC or laptop, then it might be that the version is built especially for that physical machine and for that is not usable with Parallels.

 

I am on a 2009 iMac 27" running OSX 7 Lion.

I just paid for my parallels & I am running XP home SP 3.

No issues yet.....

 

Thanks folks, that's reassuring.

 

Hi

You can use Bootcamp to install XP on your machine, i used bootcamp to run xp for ages before i installed parallels..

 

Dannymac, are you using Lion to run XP on bootcamp? I heard it only liked Windows 7.

 

Yupp, that's true - Apple says the Bootcamp version coming with Lion doesn't support XP or Vista anymore.

Consider a VM being the better solution over a bootcamp partition except you're looking for highest possible speed for gaming. Bootcamp drivers are not that advanced - you will experience fans blowing at high speed all the time and battery draining as energy saving possibilities of the CPU are not fully supported by Bootcamp.

As long as you are not a gamer, go for a VM without bootcamp.

 

Hi yes i purchased parallels then upgraded to lion the next day i already had a boot camp partition with XP installed witch parallels now uses, when i first upgraded to lion it didn't work for some reason but parallels support done a screen share and fixed if for me.

 

I heard bootcamp is having some issues nowadays, my experience with bootcamp is also bad. A lot of bugs when you run xp using bootcamp. IMO