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Virtual PC for MAC

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Mike Mac

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I am a recent convert to Mac and I love it the one thing I miss is my printing program...Qimage. I just purchased a copy OF MS Office for the Mac and it comes with Virtual PC which seem like it would let me run Qimage on my Mac. Does anyone have any experience with this product, I do not want to pursue it if it is a real hassle to get working.
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TY
-Mike
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http://www.pbase.com/mmcatee43
 
The thing is, it's slow. The other thing is, you (technically) need to purchase a fresh copy of Windows to install on your Virtual PC. You may not want to go through the process of slowly booting up your VPC every time you want to play around with a slow copy of Qimage.

Just one major advantage, really: it works.
Mike Mac said:
I am a recent convert to Mac and I love it the one thing I miss is
my printing program...Qimage. I just purchased a copy OF MS Office
for the Mac and it comes with Virtual PC which seem like it would
let me run Qimage on my Mac. Does anyone have any experience with
this product, I do not want to pursue it if it is a real hassle to
get working.
--
TY
-Mike
pbase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/mmcatee43
Click to expand...
 
In my experience, VPC is fine for running something like a text database, but it will make you want to cut your throat in a very short time if you try to use it for graphics apps.
 
I am a PC convert too; at least at home anyway. Stuck my foot into the water a year ago with a 12" PowerBook (I'm using it now at Panera Bread - free WiFi) and made the switch a couple of months ago to an iMac due to some Windows problems. (Decided I'd had enough with Windows.)

I am a long time user of Qimage and it's a great program!

VPC itself is pretty solid and works quite well. (Be sure to use VersionTracker to get the latest update or download from Microsoft.) However, it does require quite a bit of system resources so I would advise you to max out your ram if possible. Some web searches will turn up tips on maximizing performance - one of which is to disable as many Windows XP interface enhancements as possible. I have not personally printed through Qimage through VPC, however, but I would expect it to run fairly slow considering the demands on the CPU.

If you still have your PC then give Microsoft's Remote Desktop program ("RDP" for short) a try. It works quite well, and is a free download and is included with Microsoft Office for Mac. I tried to switch Quicken and QuickBooks over to the Mac versions and found it's not possible due to the "lower" version of the Mac products so for now I remote desktop from my iMac to my PC in the basement until Jan 1 when I will make a clean switch to the Mac versions. I currently do this via a 100 Mbps network connection and it's very nice, however, a 1 Gbps connection might work better for you due to the display of graphics. (Make sure your Mac, PC, hub(s) and cables are rated for 1 Gbps operation. My rev. A iMac G5 does not support this speed.

You might think about abandoing your "PC thinking" for 3rd party utilities like Qimage and start thinking Mac. In the Mac world I have resisted to add tools to compensate for lack of features and functionality that is so common in the PC world. I am going to try and become more proficient in Photoshop rather than rely on Qimage. Also, I am shooting raw these days so I'm going to see how well Apple's Aperature software works and possibly switch to it at some point (which will require a new system in my case).

I hope my comments are helpful.

Best regards,

Adam
 
Lots of good advice, Adam H. For Quicken, you might want to check out Moneydance (moneydance.com). I haven't used it, but many of my friends have switched from Quicken to moneydance. For one thing it handles multiple currencies very well.

I agree, Remote Desktop and Panera Wifi are both great! :-)
 
I've been reluctant to switch from MS Money, since recent editions of both Money and Quicken get such lousy reviews on Amazon. Perhaps I'll check out this Moneydance....

As far as remote desktop software, also check out realvnc.com - it's simple, and works on XP Home Edition (as well as many other OSes). They link to a couple of different OSX clients.
Conchita said:
Lots of good advice, Adam H. For Quicken, you might want to check
out Moneydance (moneydance.com). I haven't used it, but many of my
friends have switched from Quicken to moneydance. For one thing it
handles multiple currencies very well.

I agree, Remote Desktop and Panera Wifi are both great! :-)
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to add some drives to my basement Windows PC and use it as a RAID file server for backup purposes so I might just continue to run QB and Quicken on it as the Mac versions seem to be 2-3 releases behind.

RDP is free and supported by Microsoft. You don't get much better than that!

I've used pcAnywhere for years and RDP blows it away in performance. I've tried some of the VNC applications (though not the one you specifically mentioned) and found it's performance from Mac to Mac lacking. RDP works great in the Windows corporate world, too. I actually thought about purchasing the Apple remote desktop solution, but I don't need it that badly.
 
My experience with Virtual PC is that it is so unbelievably slow that I gave up on it shortly after installing it. And this was on a PowerMac G5 Dual 2.0 which is normally fairly fast. I eventually bought a Dell laptop for Windows related software needs.

Jack
 
right now Virtual PC runs about about 30% or less of a true widows machine.

In 2006 when the intel macs ship, Virtual PC will take a huge jump in speed. I would expext 90% of full speed. Of course, you'll have to wait for a new verison of Virtual PC, but it's just around the corner when you'll be able to run any PC app at 90%.

--
http://www.highsee3.smugmug.com

'A camera maker that simply copies others' idea has no right to call itself an original
maker in the first place.' -Mr. Maitani, creator of the OM photographic system.
 
I run vpc/qimage on my imac under tiger with 2 gigs of memory... The speed is equal to qimage on my old intel running xp with 1 gig...

It works great,,,

willie
 
Instead of fight it, I'll keep my PC around and use a KVM switch to hook the two machines to one monitor, keyboard and mouse. When you need a Windows app, just push a button and your using your PC, when you want to go back to the Mac, push a button and you're back.

Matt
 
It's all a matter of opinion, but I find RDC much more convenient than a KVM, as long as your computers are networked, FWIW.
 
you are correct about the application support, but not re the performance, though.

Performance is better when running VPC on a Windows system. Running it on a G4 1.67 Ghz = PII 266 Mhz in the Wintel world.
 
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