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Gerry_Schultz
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-25-2013 04:07 PM

Installing 8.1 on my New MBP

I recently purchased a MBP that has a 2.6 GHz i7 Quad-Core, 16 GBs of RAM and 1 TB of SSD storage.  I purchased from Amazon a Win Pro 8.1 x64 English 1PK DSP OEI DVD.  I followed the disk installation under Fusion, but I found when I typed in the security code, it was very hard to read and I put it in incorrectly.  When the Win8 installed began, it reported the invalid code and the installation just looped over and over with the same message.  So, I started a new VM and this time put the code in correctly.  This time installation went well, but I had two VMs for Windows 8.1.  I figured out how to delete and rename VMs so it appears everything is working as expected.

My questions are what's the recommended number of cores and how much RAM to assign to the 8.1 VM?  I presently assigned two cores and 4 GBs of RAM.  I'm also interested in installing other VMs, like Ubuntu, but do I need to build my own VM or can I use prebuilt VMs?

Thanks so much for the great product.  This is the first time I've installed Windows on a Mac the I didn't use Boot Camp first.  Now I just need to figure out how Windows 8.1 works.

Thanks,

Gerry

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2 Replies
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal
‎11-25-2013 07:11 PM

The VMware Fusion 6 defaults for Windows 8 are 1 processor core and 2 GB RAM however if you're running apps that make use of 2 cores then setting it to 2 cores is fine.  If what you're doing in the VM really needs 4 GB of RAM then that's fine too.   In some cases you may find 2GB is suitable and actually provides better overall performance.  It really depends on what's going on, on the Host and Guest at the same time and how many VM's you're running at the same time.  Experimentation is the best way to find the sweet spots based on your own use case scenarios! Smiley Wink

As far as Ubuntu or any other Guest OS that there may be a Virtual Appliance for and you want to go that route vs building yourself that's up to you to determine what fits/suites your needs/wants! Smiley Wink

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MacsRule
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
‎11-26-2013 08:53 AM

Gerry Schultz wrote:

...Now I just need to figure out how Windows 8.1 works...   

If you know how Windows 7 works, check out Classic Shell; It'll let you reconfigure many things in Win 8 to behave like Win 7, including how Win 8 starts up. And it's free.

Tip: take a snapshot before you install Classic Shell to be sure you like it, and revert to the snapshot if you don't (one of the wonders of a VM as opposed to a real PC).

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