Thanks guys, I have another question…What kind of virus protection systems are you using on your windows partitions? I’ve read mixed reviews on a lot of the payed services, but I’m not quite sure I trust a freeware program to protect me, even though I’ve read some good things. It’s been so long since I’ve owned a Windows computer I kind of lost touch with all the worries that come with it.
I unplug the internet and cut on the television! For me, when I need to be in the zone of working hard, the internet’s just another distraction anyways. This is my first computer and I don’t want to bother with any viruses, so I simply disconnect the ethernet cord from the back and don’t worry about it. Sorry that’s my only input!..
If you’re just doing 3D work with zBrush and Max, you don’t need any virus protection. You run into issues when you start downloading music and videos and such…
Will this version of Windows Vista 64-Bit work for my intended uses? Can I install Zbrush 3.0 on this as well as 3dsMax and still utilize my full 4GB of ram through Bootcamp?
Yup, as far as I know. I would email pixologic support, as well as autodesk support, just to make sure that 64 bit xp isn’t a better choice (which is very possible). But any 64 bit windows version can use up to 4 gigs of ram, IF you have more than 4 gigs (you have to leave AT LEAST half a gig for the OS and background apps).
If you only have 4 gigs, you can use up to about 3.5 gigs, maybe a little less.
Do you guys know if you can generally run 32-Bit programs on 64-Bit Vista?
Oh yeah, programs don’t have to use the full potential of the OS, kind of like they don’t have to be able to use all of your RAM.
Thanks James, I appreciate your help and everyone else’s. I know some of these questions might be no brainers, but when I googled them it was hard to find a straight answer. My computer isn’t here yet, so I might end up asking a few more if I run into any troubles with the partition, but it seems fairly straight forward. Maybe I’ll stay active on the forums once I get some good work to show. I thank you for still taking the time to help a newbie even though you guys are still frustrated with the Mac situation.
The Mac version will be golden and we won’t have to ever wait again, so I personally am not too irritated. I also use other means of illustrating and I’m cool with bootcamp for now, which calms my nerves quite a bit on the topic.
No problem helping, happy zbrushing!
note on partitioning you need a usb keyboard! It claims that a bluetooth keyboard doesn’t work. By some miracle, after about an hour of messing around, it worked for me, but I highly recommend having a usb keyboard on hand during partitioning.
more like wait until the 4th quarter. 3.5 mac/win release. i recommend bootcamp. its gonna be a while.
Really? I posted this question and remember aurick saying i could use 64 bit with bootcamp…maybe he misunderstood, i’m sure he rolls through questions quickly…
officially it works for these machines, (your machine included).
support for vista 64bit
but you can make it work unofficially on other 64bit macs like the new imac for example.
Imac
my mistake. you seem to know more about the topic. Im running xp pro and it can only see 3 gb of ram of my 4. I wonder why the guys at my work arnt running 64 bit if thats the case.
zbrush is a 32 bit app
just load boot camp with xp
you wont notice the ram issues like you would on a windows machine with the ram cap
parallels IMHO runs better though
thanks for the clarification Cannedmushrooms! 
because it was not compatible from the beginning.
Compatibility started with the early 2008 MacPros and maybe the have older generation. For older generation is a little bit more complicated cause you may have to search for drivers by yourself.
Also it was not announced from Apple loudly, so they can missed it.
or maybe they are going to do it but you know…all the fuzz reinstalling and start all your setup from the beginning…
interesting mine is 2months old. and the set up was recomended.
As a long time Windows hack (who gets paid to hack on windows) it is my feeling that anti-virus programs based on scanning and definition databases is outdated technology. While it is important to protect your machine, anti-virus programs are resource hogs and are akin to closing the barn doors after the horses have escaped, as they will ALWAYS be behind the latest viruses in the wild.
That said, there are several things you can do that are effective. They are:
- Keep the OS updated
- Firewall
- Execution protection
- User permission control
- Registry control
- Startup control
- periodic spyware scanning
- Don’t download lamebrained cute programs from shady sources
- Don’t use a Windows based email client, particularly Outlook.
- Don’t connect it to the net if you don’t need to.
Keep the OS updated-- this should be a no-brainer. You have Windows Update-- USE IT. I prefer not to have it run on automatic but do run it regularly to make sure I’ve got the latest security patches.
Firewall-- the Windows one is an option, but getting a good firewall router and putting it between all of your machines (and if you are running boot camp, you have more than one-- the mac & the PC at least), and you thus get protection for your whole local network, rather than managing it for each individual computer. That’s not to say that you should then just disable the windows one, but it takes some of the pressure off managing it. Close all unnecessary ports, and use a free service like Shields Up (https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2) to check how you look to the “outside” to help tighten up things.
Execution Protection-- check out the low-cost/free Process Guard if you’re not on Vista-- and if you are on Vista, turn UAC back on (you probably turned it off). Any virus that hits your computer is going to try to run a new executable that hasn’t been run before, and these features will intercept that and allow you to block things that try to run that you don’t intend. It also helps you to learn what exactly is running on your system and when. Process Guard has a darn good free version, but I’ve been using it long enough now I recently paid the $30 or so to get a multi-computer license for it and that provides some additional features, such as monitoring programs that try to install drivers or services and the like. Process Guard does not seem to add any noticable overhead either, UNLIKE anti-virus programs. The only issues I’ve had with Process Guard is some backup programs (Maxtor, for instance) seem to crash when it is running-- so I turn off it’s protection long enough to run a backup (and disconnect from the net while I do). You’ll find Process Guard at http://www.diamondcs.com.au/software.php
User Permission control-- I mention this here because it would be a useful feature but can be hard to use on Windows. The idea here is to NOT run as an administrator as a matter of routine!-- Set up a more restricted user and do your stuff there. Problem is, in many cases you may find there are things you need to do you can’t do as a less-privileged user and end up switching to an admin and end up staying there. This is actually a little easier on Vista because it is in place even when you are logged in as an admin, you have to specifically enable each executable to run as admin manually even in that case which is a bit more secure.
Registry control. There are several free registry modification monitoring programs that will pop up every time something tries to tweak the registry and allow you to approve it. Like with Process Guard, not what you’d like to spend your time doing when it happens (usually an easy click that you do when you’re installing something andshould be alerted of at other times), but if you want security-- there’s no rest for the weary. RegistryProt is available as a free download at the same site as Process Guard.
Startup Control – Microsoft has a free program called “Autoruns” that does a pretty good job of showing you ALL the things that are starting up automatically on your computer and you can selectively disable or enable them as you see fit.
Spyware Scanning-- I use both “SpyBot Search & Destroy” and Ad-Aware. Both have free versions and I run manual scans periodcally ( I don’t leave them on automatic scan as I don’t want a performance hit).
Don’t download cute junk-- do a little research before you grab a “hot new” utility-- find some users that have been using it and would know if it’s a trojan or not. Common sense.
Don’t use a Windows client for email, especially Outlook. Use Gmail, Yahoo or a web based service, or your Mac client, and don’t run executables sent to you via email. One of the biggest attack vectors is Outlook because it is so ubiquitous-- but you DON’T need to use it, so find something a little more secure!
And lastly, if you’re on a Mac running it in a VM, do you really need it connected to the internet at all? And even if you do, do you really need to be using a web browser or email client on it (the two biggest vulnerabilities)… Use a little common sense. I spend much of my time on a laptop and I love that I can just pull the plug on the net connection anytime I realize I’m not doing any networking stuff…
All of the programs I mentioned here are free or have free (and non-expiring) versions. I use them all on an array of computers on a daily basis, so I’m speaking from personal experience with them. I’m very concerned about performance and have long since discontinued use of Symantec, McAffee products and freeware virus programs because they produce slowdowns, lockups, and after years and years of use had NEVER detected something I needed to know about.
And yeah, Windows sucks. You don’t need to tell me, I’ve had to use it for years (it pays the bills & runs ZBrush cheaper than Mac!). Put me down for a Linux version of ZBrush though, I use that a lot too and would love to migrate-- I’d use a VM but they usually don’t take advantage of multi-core very well and I’m a performance nut…
Hope this helps,
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Sync