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Old 01-29-2010, 07:44 PM
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We have replaced our old Dell home computer with a new iMac. I still need Windows on some occasions for work applications so I need to load Windows. Being a small firm, our IT folks have little experience with Macs but they suggested I load Windows 7 (32-bit). My question is do I use Bootcamp or one of the virtualization programs? My main use would be to access an internet software package we use which seems to require Internet Explorer. I can access the website using Safari but the text editor in Safari is not compatible and I cannot type my reports for uploading. I suspect one of the virtualization options would be best so that I could toggle back and forth between Leopard and Windows but I was hoping for some insights. Thanks in advance!

Ken
Old 01-29-2010, 08:02 PM
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From what I heard from Mac users, VMware is the way to go.
Old 01-29-2010, 08:10 PM
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I use Parallels and it works fine though I'd much prefer to just run Mac software....

Did you know there's an Internet Explorer for Mac? Might your software work with this?
Old 01-29-2010, 08:13 PM
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Originally Posted by Leong
I use Parallels and it works fine though I'd much prefer to just run Mac software....

Did you know there's an Internet Explorer for Mac? Might your software work with this?
I did not! Did a quick Google search but came up with some old version of IE for Mac from years ago. I'll have to try and track that down... Thanks!

Edit: Just did another search all references to IE for Mac show it was discontinued in '05/'06 timeframe. If you have somewhere you can point me too, that would be helpful!
Old 01-29-2010, 08:50 PM
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Ken,

VMWare Fusion will let you use your Bootcamp partition so you can either boot right into Windows 7 and run it natively or you can boot into OS X and run Windows from within VMWare. Both work absolutely flawlessly.

But that's not the coolest thing.

If you use Fusion in Unity mode you can have Windows apps, including IE, run straight from your OS X dock. In Unity mode, your Mac doesn't care if the app is Windows or Mac - they all run like native apps, all at the same time. You can run Windows and Mac apps right from within OS X, all in their own windows, so for all intents and purposes your Mac becomes totally platform independent. You can have Mac apps and Windows apps in your dock and run whichever and whenever you like.

Another option would be to see if your organization runs Citrix. You could run IE and any other Windows software your organization makes available via Citrix right on the Mac. As an example, I access and run all of my firm's MS Office apps, our T&E system and a host of other work applications from my Mac (and also my iPhone which has a Citrix client too).

Finally, if you open up access to the developer menu within Safari you can have Safari tell the website or app that you are trying to use that it is Internet Explorer for Windows (or one of many other browsers). Many websites will test for IE and will reject anything else but will actually work just fine when you spoof the browser ID and announce Safari as IE for Windows.
Old 01-29-2010, 09:22 PM
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I would use VMWare as well. That's what I install on the 15 Macs I manage.

Originally Posted by swajames
Ken,

VMWare Fusion will let you use your Bootcamp partition so you can either boot right into Windows 7 and run it natively or you can boot into OS X and run Windows from within VMWare. Both work absolutely flawlessly.

But that's not the coolest thing.

If you use Fusion in Unity mode you can have Windows apps, including IE, run straight from your OS X dock. In Unity mode, your Mac doesn't care if the app is Windows or Mac - they all run like native apps, all at the same time. You can run Windows and Mac apps right from within OS X, all in their own windows, so for all intents and purposes your Mac becomes totally platform independent. You can have Mac apps and Windows apps in your dock and run whichever and whenever you like.

Another option would be to see if your organization runs Citrix. You could run IE and any other Windows software your organization makes available via Citrix right on the Mac. As an example, I access and run all of my firm's MS Office apps, our T&E system and a host of other work applications from my Mac (and also my iPhone which has a Citrix client too).

Finally, if you open up access to the developer menu within Safari you can have Safari tell the website or app that you are trying to use that it is Internet Explorer for Windows (or one of many other browsers). Many websites will test for IE and will reject anything else but will actually work just fine when you spoof the browser ID and announce Safari as IE for Windows.
Old 01-30-2010, 03:49 AM
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If you have a Windows PC on your network then you can get a remote desktop program from Microsoft that would allow you to access the Windows computer and use IE Explorer. It works well at my office, I almost never have to load VMWare/Windows Vista at all.

Remote Desktop for MAC
Old 01-30-2010, 11:07 AM
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Originally Posted by swajames
Ken,

VMWare Fusion will let you use your Bootcamp partition so you can either boot right into Windows 7 and run it natively or you can boot into OS X and run Windows from within VMWare. Both work absolutely flawlessly.

But that's not the coolest thing.

If you use Fusion in Unity mode you can have Windows apps, including IE, run straight from your OS X dock. In Unity mode, your Mac doesn't care if the app is Windows or Mac - they all run like native apps, all at the same time. You can run Windows and Mac apps right from within OS X, all in their own windows, so for all intents and purposes your Mac becomes totally platform independent. You can have Mac apps and Windows apps in your dock and run whichever and whenever you like.

Another option would be to see if your organization runs Citrix. You could run IE and any other Windows software your organization makes available via Citrix right on the Mac. As an example, I access and run all of my firm's MS Office apps, our T&E system and a host of other work applications from my Mac (and also my iPhone which has a Citrix client too).

Finally, if you open up access to the developer menu within Safari you can have Safari tell the website or app that you are trying to use that it is Internet Explorer for Windows (or one of many other browsers). Many websites will test for IE and will reject anything else but will actually work just fine when you spoof the browser ID and announce Safari as IE for Windows.
Guys, Steve nailed it on the head !!

Best advice is right here, especially for the last part regarding developer menu under Safari. To activate it go to: Safari -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Show develop menu in menu bar

Then go to Develop -> User Agent -> Internet explorer.

If that doesn't work, might i suggest using Firefox. If that doesn't work either try Windows in VMWare Fusion (my choice) or Parallels which is just as good, if not faster in terms of speed, but has slightly trickier administration pane.
Old 01-30-2010, 01:24 PM
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Originally Posted by BetterMakeWay
Guys, Steve nailed it on the head !!

Best advice is right here, especially for the last part regarding developer menu under Safari. To activate it go to: Safari -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Show develop menu in menu bar

Then go to Develop -> User Agent -> Internet explorer.

If that doesn't work, might i suggest using Firefox. If that doesn't work either try Windows in VMWare Fusion (my choice) or Parallels which is just as good, if not faster in terms of speed, but has slightly trickier administration pane.
Thanks for the reply! I have already tried Firefox with no luck. Just tried your suggestion above and also no luck. The problem is with the text editor that the website uses, won't load with Safari (even in the IE mode you suggest) or Firefox. Hence my search to run a real version of IE. I just bought VMWare Fusion and a copy of Windows 7 and will load them on this evening or tomorrow AM. Thanks again for the help.
Old 01-30-2010, 02:38 PM
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Originally Posted by swajames
Ken,

VMWare Fusion will let you use your Bootcamp partition so you can either boot right into Windows 7 and run it natively or you can boot into OS X and run Windows from within VMWare. Both work absolutely flawlessly.

But that's not the coolest thing.

If you use Fusion in Unity mode you can have Windows apps, including IE, run straight from your OS X dock. In Unity mode, your Mac doesn't care if the app is Windows or Mac - they all run like native apps, all at the same time. You can run Windows and Mac apps right from within OS X, all in their own windows, so for all intents and purposes your Mac becomes totally platform independent. You can have Mac apps and Windows apps in your dock and run whichever and whenever you like.

Another option would be to see if your organization runs Citrix. You could run IE and any other Windows software your organization makes available via Citrix right on the Mac. As an example, I access and run all of my firm's MS Office apps, our T&E system and a host of other work applications from my Mac (and also my iPhone which has a Citrix client too).

Finally, if you open up access to the developer menu within Safari you can have Safari tell the website or app that you are trying to use that it is Internet Explorer for Windows (or one of many other browsers). Many websites will test for IE and will reject anything else but will actually work just fine when you spoof the browser ID and announce Safari as IE for Windows.
swa,

just to clarify before I open the box on the Windows 7, your suggestion about the Unity mode sounds like I don't need 7 at all. Am I reading that correctly? Or do I still need to load Windows 7 but can then run Windows apps under the Unity mode? Thanks for the guidance!


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