Mac Discussion

Background: My wife uses a program that only runs under Windows for her genealogical research. For years we were able to use Virtual PC (first on a G4 and then a G5 iMac) to allow her access to this software. Recently, her G5 iMac died and was replaced by an Intel iMac. We were able to save all the flies from the G5's hard drive to the new computer. Naturally, Virtual PC no longer works and she no longer has access to Windows or her family history data files.

Questions:

1) Is there anyway I can use Virtual PC's copy of Windows XP Professional (so I don't have to buy another license)? I've got a valid license for Windows XP (that came with Virtual PC) so it would be a shame to have to buy the same software again. (Unlike the first versions of Virtual PC, the most recent version does NOT have separate Windows CDs.)

2) Assuming I cannot use my current Windows XP license, what are good sources for a valid copy of the software? A search on Amazon yielded factory fresh copies of the software in retail boxes for more than $200 -- more than I might pay for a full home version of Windows 7.

3) Given what we want the software for (just to run one Windows specific program), is there any reason to go with Windows 7 as opposed to XP?

4) Which of the various Windows-on-a-Mac solutions would your recommend for our situation? Boot Camp is free, but I'm worried about teaching my wife how to boot up in Windows as opposed to OS X. (She's smart, but she delights in remaining as technologically ignorant as possible.) Even though it would cost more, I'm tempted to go with VMware Fusion 3.

5) Once I have Windows up and running, any idea how to access the data files from within Virtual PC's "saved state" file? Our G4 iMac still runs reliably and still runs Virtual PC. My thought is to move the Virtual PC file over to the G4, open it within Virtual PC and then save the data files to a CD. Can any of you think of a better approach?

I was able to do this last year using an ebay copy of VPC, migrating to Parallels and then to VMWARE. The licensing issues with Microsoft are dicey at best. It probably took me about 6 hours and I came close to giving up several times.

Conclusion: buy the least expensive copy of Windows 7 you can find and VMWARE FUSION 3.0 (not Parallels, for sure). Or if just one program, boot into a partition and skip the VMWARE.

Windows XP is about $100 at newegg, just look for the OEM version, it works fine.

Bootcamp is pretty dang simple. Restart with Option key down. Choose Windows drive icon. Done. Restart with Option key down. Choose Mac drive icon.

The easiest way to transfer those files is probably with a USB flash drive if you have one laying around.

Might be an excellent time for a Dropbox account. Easy, free, 2 gigs storage. Upload from the old iMac, download on the new.

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Posting And You: [www.albinoblacksheep.com]

DWalser Wrote:
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> 5) Once I have Windows up and running, any idea
> how to access the data files from within Virtual
> PC's "saved state" file? Our G4 iMac still runs
> reliably and still runs Virtual PC. My thought is
> to move the Virtual PC file over to the G4, open
> it within Virtual PC and then save the data files
> to a CD. Can any of you think of a better
> approach?
>

Cheap, easy, fast: pick any two. Since it is Windows, easy might not be an option. ;)

It is certainly the cheapest way. I don't remember enough about VPC images to say how easy this will be. Try it.

> Background: My wife uses a program that only runs
> under Windows for her genealogical research. For
> years we were able to use Virtual PC (first on a
> G4 and then a G5 iMac) to allow her access to this
> software. Recently, her G5 iMac died and was
> replaced by an Intel iMac. We were able to save
> all the flies from the G5's hard drive to the new
> computer. Naturally, Virtual PC no longer works
> and she no longer has access to Windows or her
> family history data files.
>

If #5 does not work, I hope you still have the G5 hard drive in an untouched state. If the drive is supposedly in working condition, the best option is to buy a similar age G5 iMac somewhere, swap the old drive into the new-used model, export the files in Windows format and verify that it works, erase the hard drive and sell the iMac.

> 1) Is there anyway I can use Virtual PC's copy of
> Windows XP Professional (so I don't have to buy
> another license)? I've got a valid license for
> Windows XP (that came with Virtual PC) so it would
> be a shame to have to buy the same software again.
> (Unlike the first versions of Virtual PC, the
> most recent version does NOT have separate Windows
> CDs.)
>

M$ has forked WinXP serial numbers. With a little work, you can get an install CD for $10 to $20 but the question is if your serial number will validate on it. I do know some serial numbers will not work with different versions. WinXP Home serial numbers will most likely not work with WinXP Pro OEM CD's. A serial number for the original version of WinXP Home might not work with a system builders version of WinXP Home SP3.

> 2) Assuming I cannot use my current Windows XP
> license, what are good sources for a valid copy of
> the software? A search on Amazon yielded factory
> fresh copies of the software in retail boxes for
> more than $200 -- more than I might pay for a full
> home version of Windows 7.
>

$90 Windows XP Home OEM for system builders. [www.newegg.com]

> 3) Given what we want the software for (just to
> run one Windows specific program), is there any
> reason to go with Windows 7 as opposed to XP?
>

My understanding is Win7 will only easily work on a 2008 and later Mac running 10.6.x.



From a Raines Cohen T-Shirt: "The day Microsoft makes a product that
does not suck will be the day they start making vacuum cleaners."

Just a few thoughts/things to add:

* from what others have said, once you have used a Windows license code to install Windows on a particular set of hardware, you need to officially de-authorize that copy of Windows on that hardware before you can install it on a different set of hardware. Windows makes you do this in order to prevent you from buying 1 Windows license and then installing it willy-nilly on multiple computers. So if there is any chance at all of you using your old WinXP license to install on a new computer, you need to de-authorize the old computer. If your old computer died, that might be tricky and might only be possible via a phone call to Microsoft. Since you aren't dealing with a "full" WinXP but a license obtained via a third party app, I am not optimistic of Microsoft being very cooperative.

* whenever you get your hands on which ever version of Windows you plan to use on your new computer, you can currently download a free, 30-day trial of VMware Fusion 3 from their website. I did that a few days ago and must say, I am extremely impressed. Several years back I had tried using Parallels (so granted, that is an older version of Parallels), but my experience with Fusion is much better.

* whether you use Fusion, Parallels, or just Boot Camp, no matter what I would suggest you partition your drive and establish a Windows partition. That way, you can use Boot Camp when you want to (or need to) run Windows without being in emulation mode. It also makes it easier because if you partition & establish the Boot Camp stuff first, then you can tell Fusion just to use the Boot Camp partition that already exists. For a lot of reasons (too many to list here), that is a much better idea than installing Fusion (or Parallels) and making your only existing Windows installation to be within a virtual machine.

Thanks to everyone who replied. I appreciate the help!

I just had to chime in: upgraded a not-certified-by-Microsoft copy of XP using the 20-digit code for XP on my Virtual PC kit. No having to uninstall or deauthorize it before hand.