Hi everyone,
I am pumped! After selling my m1 MB air several years ago due to financial hardship, I've been kicking myself for it for years. Mac OS on an intel mac was okay, but a bit slow, and I got the chance to trade the 2018 Air with a friend for an ElBraille, which I mostly wanted for the focus. With the 2018 Macbook Air, Bootcamp was nice, but it was also enough of a pain that I often just found myself sticking to Windows. However, for all its flaws, I still absolutely love Mac OS. I much prefer email management on anything Apple compared to Thunderbird or Windows Mail. Audio editting is so nice on the mac. I can still do it on Windows, but on the mac I feel like my work is just a bit better. I say all of this, because today I came across one heck of a deal, an m1 MB Air, for $400. Same exact specs as what I had before, 8 gb ram, 256 gb storage. While I do have concerns about only 8 gb of ram, and splitting that between Mac OS and Windows, I remember UTM working pretty well, and I would hope that the bugs I did have back then have been worked out. Last time I used it was back in 2021. Can anyone specifically using UTM give me any info on how the newer versions are doing? One thing that was incredibly frustrating before was that the computer would glitch, audio would just get stuck, and the only way to fix was to restart the VM.
How do you have your virtual machines configured?
I am not, nor have I ever been, a crazy multi-tasker. In Windows, even on my Dell, with an i7 and 16 gb of ram, I may have three programs open tops, not including NVDA. I'll usually run Radioboss, the software I use for broadcasting, Notepad for show notes, and maybe one or two tabs in Edge.
When I am in Windows on the Macbook, I do not plan on doing absolutely anything else on the mac side itself. While broadcasting, I won't be in Safari or anything like that.
So, what is the max ram and processor config you would recommend to give me the best performance in Windows while I have that loaded up?
I know about sharpkeys for key remapping, and will have to do that for things like the regular insert, but did anyone ever get caps lock as NVDA key in UTM? I remember that was one of the few things that used to drive me nuts!
Lastly, are you able to pair a bluetooth device, like a Braille display, only with the VM, or do you absolutely have to pair it with the host in order to get it to work?
I expect to get the Macbook next week, and am just trying to prepare myself and refresh my memory ahead of time.
Comments
I had this exact audio…
I had this exact audio problem you described last time I tried utm 2-3 months ago. Vmware fusion is so much better, I pretty much abandoned utm after exploring vmware on mac for the first 5 minutes. It just works, the windows vm are more stable and almost more responsive...
@TheBllindGuy07
Thank you for this! Back when I last used it, UTM was the only accessible app for running a vm. I had no desire to mess with Paralels and VOCR. I have had experience with VMware in the past though, and yeah back in the intel days it was pretty good.
So, what is your vm config for ram and processor?
I wish that someone would give us an arm64 image
I lost my utm vm and can't reinstall it due to some circumstances, and I need it.
could someone make a vm disk with installed windows and NVDA?