64bit Windows 7 with MBA

[financeguy]

I got a copy of the 64bit edition of Windows 7. I was planning on installing it when I get Fusion 3, but someone told me that running a 64bit version of Windows 7 with only 1GB allocated on VM will be horrible. I can't exchange the software to a 32bit version and don't know what to do now.

I really don't want to use Bootcamp and have to restart every time I need the other OS. Any advice?

 

[GoCubsGo]

You can resell the software (I would probably be interested in the pricing) but I would not attempt 64-bit Win 7 on my Air.

 

[ayeying]

You can use 64-bit. It won't be that much of a slowdown if that's what you're worried about. However, you won't see any major advantages using 64-bit vs 32-bit with the limited ram capacity.

 

[Scottsdale]

Why not just use Boot Camp? The virtual dual machine system really isn't made for an MBA. The hardware is great for either Mac OS X or Windows 7 but not both together.

 

[MythicFrost]

I would do this: somehow obtain a 32 bit copy of Windows 7 install it with Boot Camp and then if Fusion 3 is capable of this (like Parallels 4.0 is),
create a virtual machine from your boot camp partition in Fusion 3 so you can run Windows 7 on OSX or boot into Windows 7, the other option would be to do the same with the 64-bit version.

 

[financeguy]

You can use 64-bit. It won't be that much of a slowdown if that's what you're worried about.

That's exactly what I'm worried about b/c I will be using Fusion.

 

[financeguy]

Why not just use Boot Camp? The virtual dual machine system really isn't made for an MBA.

The only reason I need Windows is to work on Excel VBA files. It would just be easier to use Fusion to work on Excel while doing other stuff, and then email them. With Boot Camp I would have restart in Windows, make changes to the Excel file, and restart in Mac to send an email.

 

[joelypolly]

You'll be fine

I run Excel, Outlook, Project, IE, FF and Visual Studio 2008 all at the same time with 800mb of Ram through VMware Fusion running Windows 7. You should be fine with just Excel.