Installing Vista on my iMac

[none]

Hi, i have an iMac and i want to install windows vista home premium
Hardware Overview
1.83 GHz processor speed
2GB RAM
160 hard drive
64 Mb of video RAM
would i be able to install it ?
What is the minimum space i have to give it?
If i can't install home premium which one can i install?

 

[Malke]

Hi, i have an iMac and i want to install windows vista home premium
Hardware Overview
1.83 GHz processor speed
2GB RAM
160 hard drive
64 Mb of video RAM
would i be able to install it ?
What is the minimum space i have to give it?
If i can't install home premium which one can i install?

Yes, as long as the Vista install disk is a full Retail one, not an upgrade.
You have a choice. If you want to dual-boot you can use Boot Camp, which is
built into Leopard. Boot Camp is free. If you want to boot into OS X and be
able to run Windows from within OS X, you will need to do virtual computing
with either Parallels or VMware Fusion, neither of which is free.

For more information about using Boot Camp, how much space to allocate,
etc., you should post in Apple's Boot Camp forum. For more information
about using Parallels or VMware Fusion, look on those companies' websites.

Malke

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

As Malke says, it is really an Apple question since the Boot Camp Assistant
is required to do a native installation. Tons of info is available on
apple.com. Use the Discussions groups or search on apple.com for bootcamp.

The Boot Camp software includes all the Mac drivers needed for 32bit Vista.
The edition does not matter. Upgrade copies of Windows are not supported
for the initial installation of Windows. Since you only have 2GB of ram I
would use Boot Camp and install natively rather than use Parallels on OS/X.
Vista Home Premium needs all 2GB for good performance.

Allow 60 to 80 GB of hard drive space for the Windows partition. Once
partitioned, you cannot change the size without completely removing the
Windows partition and starting over. Don't skimp on hard drive space. If
you can't allow at least 60 GB buy a cheap pc instead or use XP. While 60GB
is more than you need to install Vista you will find that Vista will quickly
consume more than half just in normal use. Then, of course, there are your
programs, files, etc. Don't skimp.

Consider XP Pro SP3 rather than Vista Home Premium. It is equally well
supported by Boot Camp but does not require nearly as much hard drive space,
no more than 30GB is adequate (or 40GB if you plan to use Windows a lot).
It would also run comfortably in Parallels with an allocation of 512mb of
memory.

Vista becomes a better choice with 3GB of ram and up and larger hard drives.

 

[none]

I found out that home premium needs 128 mbs of graphic Ram mine has only 64
mbs will i still be able to install it?

 

[Sinner]

none wrote:


Yes, as long as the Vista install disk is a full Retail one, not an
upgrade.

Wrong! I just did a clean install with an upgrade disc. Of course, you
have to install it twice. The first time without the Key, but it does work.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Vista needs 128mb of video ram in order to enable the 3d effects (Aero). It
will install and run with a 64mb graphics adaptor but in Basic mode. Given
the specs for your iMac I suggested XP instead and still do.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Malke is not wrong. The workaround you used is not supported. MS covers it
in a KB but it is not a supported scenario. Many things in KB articles are
not supported by Product Support Services and are therefore not recommended.

 

[Malke]

Wrong! I just did a clean install with an upgrade disc. Of course, you
have to install it twice. The first time without the Key, but it does
work.

Onto a Mac? If you were able to install an upgrade version of Vista onto an
Intel Mac, then I bow to your superior experience and admit I'm wrong. If
you haven't actually tried this, then I will go with what Apple says here:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.5/en/11889.html

"Important: You must use a single full-install Windows installation disc.
Service pack 2 is required for Windows XP installations. Do not install an
earlier version of Windows XP and attempt to update it later to service
pack 2. Use only 32-bit versions of Windows."

So if you have really used an upgrade version of Vista to install onto your
Intel Mac using Boot Camp, please post back with the details of how you did
it so I can add this to my notes.

Thank you.

Malke

 

[Dollar Yanaire]

Malke is not wrong. The workaround you used is not supported. MS covers
it in a KB but it is not a supported scenario. Many things in KB articles
are not supported by Product Support Services and are therefore not
recommended.

Who cares if it isn't "supported" You can install the software twice and it
works. No need to buy the retail version when the upgrade works just fine.

Bill Gates won't be losing any sleep over it

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Malke, the only difference between an XP upgrade cd and a Vista dvd using an
upgrade product key is that the XP upgrade cd will require a disk swap
during the shiny media check. Its the impossibility of doing a disk swap in
the middle of setup that prevents XP upgrade cds from being usable.

As you no doubt know, Mac optical drives do not have any sort of mechanical
means to eject a disc. Since the Mac keyboard Eject key is not enabled
until after XP is completely installed and the Mac keyboard driver
installed, there is no way during XP setup to eject a disc.

The reason the keyless installation worked with Vista on a Mac is that no
disc ejection is involved until Vista installation has completed.

The inablility to complete the shiny media check is the only problem with
using an XP upgrade cd.

 

[Sinner]

Malke is not wrong. The workaround you used is not supported. MS covers
it in a KB but it is not a supported scenario. Many things in KB articles
are not supported by Product Support Services and are therefore not
recommended.

By the time the second install is made neither you nor MS can tell the
difference. It can be done, Malke was wrong, period. I don't deal with
shades of gray.

 

[harvey]

Vista needs 128mb of video ram in order to enable the 3d effects (Aero). It
will install and run with a 64mb graphics adaptor but in Basic mode. Given
the specs for your iMac I suggested XP instead and still do.

Ubuntu 7.10 GG is another good choice;

( Free ! )

It boggles The Mind as to why anyone would want to take a perfectly
good IMac ans defile it
by putting Vista on it

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

No problem, it already has a *nix, OS/X.

Ubuntu 7.10 GG is another good choice;

( Free ! )

It boggles The Mind as to why anyone would want to take a perfectly
good IMac ans defile it
by putting Vista on it

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Neither MS nor Apple support that installation. Apple does not distinguish
between XP and Vista when it states that a full edition disc is required.
Talk to Apple.

 

[Malke]

Malke, the only difference between an XP upgrade cd and a Vista dvd using
an upgrade product key is that the XP upgrade cd will require a disk swap
during the shiny media check. Its the impossibility of doing a disk swap
in the middle of setup that prevents XP upgrade cds from being usable.

As you no doubt know, Mac optical drives do not have any sort of
mechanical
means to eject a disc. Since the Mac keyboard Eject key is not enabled
until after XP is completely installed and the Mac keyboard driver
installed, there is no way during XP setup to eject a disc.

The reason the keyless installation worked with Vista on a Mac is that no
disc ejection is involved until Vista installation has completed.

The inablility to complete the shiny media check is the only problem with
using an XP upgrade cd.

Thanks, Colin. I did wonder about that but since I have no intention of
running any flavor of Windows on my MacBook, I wasn't about to test it. ;-)
Thanks again.

Malke

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

You're welcome.

Thanks, Colin. I did wonder about that but since I have no intention of
running any flavor of Windows on my MacBook, I wasn't about to test it.
;-)
Thanks again.

Malke

 

[Canuck57]

Ubuntu 7.10 GG is another good choice;

( Free ! )

It boggles The Mind as to why anyone would want to take a perfectly
good IMac ans defile it
by putting Vista on it

Does seem stupid does it not. What a waste of a quality PC.

 

[Canuck57]

Neither MS nor Apple support that installation. Apple does not
distinguish between XP and Vista when it states that a full edition disc
is required. Talk to Apple.

Who freaking cares if it works? Even been on the support line for OEM
Vista?

Realize it or not, support sucks for Vista. You are lucky if you are on a
broken VoIP connection to god knows where and they are awake and can speak
english. Know the OS? A challenge. I get the calls being the family
computer guru, fixed one once in 20 minutes, first time I saw Vista at my
finger tips before that day. The people who bought it spent 6 hours with
tech support getting no where.

Now I tell them if tech support can't fix it, take it back for a refund.

Supported, ha.

http://tinyurl.com/659c44