Running windows on your mac

[Peter Normington]

get rid of the mac and get a decent pc, 30 seconds should be maximum boot time, perhaps your’s has had its day
😉

Peter

[John Singh]

30 seconds!!

Mine take about 30 minutes 😕

[Robert Lambie]

some dont need cranked up from the front though john… 😉 :lol1:

i thought about puting windows on my mac then thought it beats the purpose of its stability etc if its a mac shell using pc interior.

[Phill Fenton]

quote John Singh:

30 seconds!!

Mine take about 30 minutes 😕

Count yourslef lucky John – I recently bought a new PC and it was already obsolete by the time it had finished booting up 😕

[Warren Beard]

I knew it 🙄 :lol1: non construtive advise was always a given to be shared 😉

Rob, I only want to run Microsoft Office and send to my printer (which gets used about once a week at the most 😕 ) on the mac without having to buy £200 software 😕 I will still be using my mac for everything else as I do now but like I said I have to have this PC on my desk just to use those 2 softwares and would prefer not to so was wondering if I could print using windows for mac as I know the office software will work.

The PC is not new but is a good old model and works well, it just takes a few minutes to boot up and because it is only used for office and printing I don’t always need to switch it on, but when I do because I need to input one figure I have to switch it on and wait for it which is time consuming and extremely irritating for a very impatient person like myself.

I would love to hear from somebody who does run windows on the mac.

cheers

Warren

[Simon Strom]

I haven’t done it, but I do have a little bit of experience with the internal workings (FreeBSD) of OS X. I would bet money that your XP drivers for your printer would work for your printer using (Parallels or VMWare) software, as the drivers are software based. Where you usually run into trouble a lot of times with those sort of things is when no drivers exist or are outdated for the hardware to work in the OS that you are using. For instance, I have a pc at home that a friend gave me. I put both XP and Ubuntu Linux on it. There were driver for the XP to get the wirelss card working, but none for the Linux side. (I did have a way to hack around that using ndiswrapper, but that’s a whole other story.) So, as long as the driver works with the OS you are using, it should work. I’m guessing this is an older USB printer? This also might be a dumb question, but have you tried finding an OS X version of the printer driver?

Two other things I want to mention. You should try out NeoOffice. It’s an open source alternative to Microsoft Office. It’s not entirely as polished yet, but they are getting closer and closer. They update this app really often.
http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

As for the printer, if there aren’t any native OS X drivers for your printer. Before spending any money you could also try the open source CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) drivers called Gutenprint.
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3

Keep us informed on how it works for you.

[Simon Strom]

I guess I should also ask exactly what model canon printer you have. I might be able to scrounge some more info for getting it to work directly with OS X.

[Warren Beard]

Thanks for the info and links Simon, I have a Canon W8400 pigment printer and the only drivers I know of are the ones that race cars 🙄 :lol1: No seriously, I know what drivers are but not sure how I would configure it if I had to change the driver.

I might just end up trying anyway after I research a bit more but hope it will all work.

cheers

Warren

[Frank Horner]

Warren,

I have just bought a new Canon IPF 8100 and it came with drivers for both Windows and Mac. I have the Mac for pleasure and backup and because the Rip for my Grenadier is windows only I installed windows using VMware Fusion and installed applications as normal and all works well.

Frank

[Simon Strom]

Here’s a page with OS X print drivers, manuals, and firmware updates.
http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/contr … elid=11258

I might be able to help a little if you need to customize the setting on this one. I’ve had the pleasure of messing around with our Fiery and our Creo.

[Warren Beard]

thanks Frank and Simon

I think I might just try it as it all seems like it looks like it will work OK. I’ll update the thread as soon as I have bought the software and tried it.

I think I might go for the Parallels package.

cheers

Warren

[Tomas Vidziunas]

It won’t be very constructive advice but…
You can run windows on Mac if your Mac is Intel based. So if you are asking if you can install windows then answer is Yes.
I don’t know if you are going to do it by yourself, but if yes then this might help you:
http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_do_i_i … amp_1.html

Also ins description of your printer, canon says that it supports Mac, but when I tried to search for drivers – no result. I would suggest to e-mail them and they might send you drivers or link to website or will confirm that you cant use it with Mac.

[Andrew Boyle]

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/

I use crossover to allow my to use explorer for eletter stuff.

[David-Foster-]

Hi Warren, I run Windows on my Mac 🙂 I tried the demo’s of Parallels and Fusion which seemed the best idea, run Windows in a Window 🙂 but I couldn’t get along with them. I much prefer Boot Camp. You have a full PC then, run everything as a PC. Boot Camp is included in OS X for free, just need a Windows XP install disk and Serial No. I have a USB to Parallel Port and a USB to Serial Port as well so all bases covered 🙂

[Warren Beard]

HI David

The only thing I don’t like about boot camp is you have to restart the computer to change between mac and PC.

I was also reading more about the softwares and now know I need the original XP disk to install it on to the mac but my PC came with it pre-installed and no disc ( I went through this whole problem about a year ago when having problems with my PC, there’s a thread on it here too 😕 )

The plans are on hold for now to run the PC on the mac and might have to think up some other space solving solutions 😕

cheers

Warren

[David-Foster-]

Warren, if you can borrow a Windows XP install disk (it’s not piracy, they are all the same) what you actually need is the code on the hologram label which should be stuck on the outside of the PC. That is what you pay for in your XP license.

True the rebooting is a pain. I must confess, I still have a ‘PC’ which I use for my plotters in the shed.

BTW have you seen the new Microsoft ‘PC’ ads… sad lol. I’m a PC haha

[Tomas Vidziunas]

quote David-Foster-:

Warren, if you can borrow a Windows XP install disk (it’s not piracy, they are all the same) what you actually need is the code on the hologram label which should be stuck on the outside of the PC.

That is not all true. There are few version of Windows XP (OEM, Retail, Corporate) add that there are Windows XP, Windows XP SP1, SP2, SP3 all of them have different codes. So you have to get the same disc to match the code.

[David-Foster-]

Well I just had to do a reinstall of Windows on a friends Toshiba laptop a few years old, no disks. I used my recent Windows XP Pro disk, put in his code from the bottom of his laptop and it worked and he authorised it online.

I know what you are saying and the disk should be like for like for what version he has.

[Peter Mindham]

Warren are you using the PC rip that came with the printer? I might know of a MAC rip that may well run the Canon printer. Let me know

peter

[Warren Beard]

HI Guys

I had the problem before on the PC as I wanted to do a clean install but did not have the disc, it is windows media edition that came with it and could not find somebody with a copy of it for me to use as I do have the hologram sticker on the side with the code (I later found out that I could do a fresh install as the XP software is build in to the harddrive and it just does it directly from there, but no disc 😕

Peter, yes I am using the Photoprint 5 with the Canon and that is really my only worry about running it on the mac, I can print from the mac but cannot use the rip and then I have massive problems with the profiles and page sizes.

The software new (not from fleabay) is about £50 so thought that would be a good cost saver and not have to buy the £200 office software or a new rip 😮 Which rip do you think will work?

cheers

Warren

[Andrew Boyle]

VirtualBox free in this months MacFormat with a Step by Step…

Cheers

[Warren Beard]

I’ll have a look cheer Andrew 😉

[Peter Edwards]

Hi Warren,

I’ve run both Vista and XP SP2 nativly on my Mac Book Pro. XP SP2 runs like a dream, vista has some minor power/driver issues (was a while back though).

Make sure to install the Mac Tools for windows so you can use things like the screen brightness and a right click 😉

Even more strange is that I hardly ever use OSX on my Mac kit lol

[Warren Beard]

Picking up this old thread as I am in a pickle once again (or going to be) I want to run my PC Rip software on my mac but I would like it in a window on my mac and not have to reboot in to Boot camp. It will only be to run the rip as I don’t use it for anything else, my current PC is going to go next to my new printer with that Rip installed and is too far away from the old printer to run a cable 😕

Do I have any options that will run windows in a window on my Mac?

Cheers

Warren

[Simon Strom]

If you have a newer Intel Mac you can always use virtualization. Parallels and VMWare Fusion are probably the most popular of the commercial ones. There are also a few free ones. Virtual Box http://www.virtualbox.org/ and QEMU http://wiki.qemu.org/Main_Page

You will need a copy of windows to install though.

If you have an older PPC Mac your best bet is VirtualPC 7 from Microsoft.

[David Rowland]

there is a couple of programs that run it, i was looking into it recently. Some good bits on youtube about this.

BUT, as I wanted to do this with Wasatch plan I have, I decided against it as I cannot be certain that these program wont mess about with a USB dongle for security and raw speed worries me so I am planning to run as a seperate PC with plenty of power.

Cables, what are they? do you not have wireless networking?

[Peter Normington]

Dave
do you trust wirless for printing?

Peter

[Ryan Fairweather]

You want to use VM Ware Fusion.

We use it on all our Macs for PC based printers and software and it works very successfully.

[David Rowland]

no, probly not

[Ian Hatfield]

I have used both VM Ware and Parallels. Parallels was nothing but a pain, VM Ware has been very good.

[Warren Beard]

Thanks Guys, I’ll look in to the VM Ware, I am on an intel imac so will work but just wanted to know if will work well and not have to reboot to use it.

cheers

Warren

[David Rowland]

Dont forget Parallels, think Apple sell this one.

[Jamie Wood]

I have a spare license for Parallels, which I got as part of a MacUpdate bundle.
It’s never been used, and it’s not tied to any email address, so if you would like
to use this to see if it’s any good, let me know, and I’ll send you the details.

This is paid for software, so no piracy involved – I already use VM Ware, so this
was of no use to me. If any licenses need to be swapped, I can look into this.

[David Rowland]

There u go Warren 😛 win win!

[Warren Beard]

Cheers Jamie, would be interested in buying it off you if it does what I need. From my quick research it looks like it will do what I want but the last question I have is I know it works with USB devices but will it work with a dongle for the device?

Jamie, I’ll send you a PM soon as I think I can download the software but will just need the serial number.

Cheers

Warren

[Craig Ross]

I use Parallels on my mac for some of the those annoying programs that don’t work on Mac, why people don’t make software for mac before windows always annoys me, 🙂

Anyhow it works extremely well especially if you use it in coherence mode as you can copy and paste windows to mac and mac to windows plus have access to ALL files on both platforms easily.

Superb piece of software.

[TonyMoore]

Hi.
I am a mac man through and through, however the sign industry is generally pc based.
My solotion is
1. Get a decent mac and adobe design suite
2. Get a decent pc and make sure it has all the ports for your machines as a lot of older plotters etc… are not usb compatible.
3. Get a decent iT Company to link the two machines via a local area network.
4. You now have the best of both worlds.

Your pc is without doubt the tool to use for paperwork, email, diary etc…. Microsoft office,
Your mac will bury any pc for its creative packages.

IT should not cost more than £100 give or take

[TonyMoore]

Nearly forgot.

Dont whatever you do try to run windows on your mac, it is rubbish, and with the cost of pc’s these days its better just to get a pc and mac

[RayRosher]

Actually I’m just reading through this really quick I take it the main reason is to run MS Office on the Mac
Microsoft do a version of Office for the Mac i know i have a copy some were. And it was a free download when i got it straight from the MS website,
Worth maybe checking the ms knowledge base.
And As far as i can remember their is a free Mac utility for running windows xp 7 on a mac but it needs to be a Intel chip-set IE a newer mac and a fairly powerful one at that, and its also free from the apple website

[Warren Beard]

yes running windows on the mac is pants, won’t go there again.

I just wanted to do it so I could run my printer Rip on the mac without having to change machines to print but it’s not really a major issue and just keep the pc next to the printer and send the files to it on the network.

I don’t use the PC for anything else other than my 2 rips and run microsoft office for mac on the mac obviously 😛