The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Macbook Air 13 MAC OS + Windows 7 + 10 together

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by DackEW, Aug 3, 2016.

  1. DackEW

    DackEW Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    47
    Messages:
    178
    Likes Received:
    24
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Hey Gus, I am getting my first Apple laptop ever, an Macbook Air 13 early 2015. I know it sounds crazy, but near the MAC OS, I'd like also Windows 7 and 10. Windows 7 for to do my regular windows things and 10 just for fun.
     
    DackEW, Aug 3, 2016
    #1
  2. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    4,879
    Messages:
    8,926
    Likes Received:
    4,707
    Trophy Points:
    431
    Depending on what sorts of tasks you'll be performing, you could run both versions of Windows inside a virtual machine with Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Apple's Boot Camp will allow one version of Windows to run natively, but you'd have to rely on third-party tools to get multiple Windows installs on there - if it's something Apple's firmware would even allow.
     
    saturnotaku, Aug 3, 2016
    #2
  3. Rhodan

    Rhodan NBR Expert of Nothing

    Reputations:
    374
    Messages:
    1,222
    Likes Received:
    102
    Trophy Points:
    81
    I use Parallel and Fusion on my macs and both are very good at virtualizing Windows. You will need at least 8GB of RAM and enough disk space to store the VM files so that's something to keep in mind when purchasing your macbook.
     
    Rhodan, Aug 3, 2016
    #3
  4. DackEW

    DackEW Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    47
    Messages:
    178
    Likes Received:
    24
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Oh, it is already on the way with 4GB RAM, so my best option than to use Bootcamp and just one Windows?
     
    DackEW, Aug 4, 2016
    #4
  5. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    4,879
    Messages:
    8,926
    Likes Received:
    4,707
    Trophy Points:
    431
    With only 4 GB of RAM, that would be the way to go.
     
    saturnotaku, Aug 4, 2016
    #5
    DackEW likes this.
  6. bennni

    bennni Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    91
    Messages:
    450
    Likes Received:
    278
    Trophy Points:
    76
    Could you not just make two new partitions with the disk utility and install different versions of Windows to each of them? (Don't use Bootcamp). The Windows install should make its chosen partition into an NTFS file system. Since they're both on seperate partitions, there shouldn't be a conflict. I vaguelly remember making a new partition and installing Windows without Bootcamp before and it working fine.

    I run a Macbook Air with 4GB of RAM and it's Ok for basic Windows tasks when running through a VM - Ok means not necesssarily fast or smoothly but that that it works. Graphically intensive tasks and RAM munching processes are painful.
     
    bennni, Aug 5, 2016
    #6
  7. DackEW

    DackEW Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    47
    Messages:
    178
    Likes Received:
    24
    Trophy Points:
    31
    So, the problem is it's not possible to install Windows 7 on Broadwell based Macbooks. Apple's Bootcamp support for these machines only Windows 8 and 10, which awkard.
    That means I have to go with Windows 10 unfortunately. However first I would still need to install Windows 7 and than upgrading that to 10 to get genuine license. So I confused, seems I can't have at all Windows near MacOS.
     
    DackEW, Aug 23, 2016
    #7
  8. saturnotaku

    saturnotaku Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    4,879
    Messages:
    8,926
    Likes Received:
    4,707
    Trophy Points:
    431
    If you had Windows 7 installed on another machine and did the free update to Windows 10, then you can create a bootable USB drive with W10 on it and simply use your W7 key to activate it. This way you don't have to install the older OS first.
     
    saturnotaku, Aug 23, 2016
    #8