Windows Woes on my Mac
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What a wasted day. I spent hours and hours trying to get some Windows programs running on my new Mac, using both VMWare Fusion and Parallels, and failed miserably. I'm not in a good mood.

Anthony's classes were canceled for the week because half the kids in his class came down with the flu, so he's home all day and was running a slight fever himself, so I wanted to let him relax all day. He wanted to do the flying game we have (RealFlight R/C Flight Simulator) and I tried it on Fusion and it almost worked, but didn't.

I then tried his JumpStart learning game and got the background music and a blank screen.

Fusion's website is pathetic, with no overall search.... you apparently have to know that there are various places where information might be found (help, forums, etc.) and search each individually. I wanted to post to the forum to ask about my issues, but require a business address and phone number before they'll let you. Sigh.

So I tried Parallels, and got the first few screens of the JumpStart thing to work, then got the blank screen.

What a frustrating day.

I've had a mixed bag with my Apple Time Machine as well. I installed it last week as my main home-network router, and the configuration was an absolute breeze... just wonderful, except the small hitch that Fumie's Mac Mini could not get an IP if I connected it directly to the Time Machine. Yet, oddly, if I connected it to a switch that I connected directly to the Time Machine, it worked just fine. Very, very odd. The only thing I can think of is that there's something about the physical connectors that's stopping a full connection when made directly, but that's not really very credible.

So, I decided to give Apple a call about it today, and talked with a lady in Tokyo with excellent English. We tried the standard things (full reset, etc.) and it didn't work, so without any fuss and bother she decided to send a new one out. Once it arrives (and hopefully works) and I get my machines fully backed up on the new one, I'll then send the old one back. The ease with which the support call proceeded is about the only bright point in the day.

Grumble.


All 6 comments so far, oldest first...

Both of these programs look like they may use 3D graphics. It may be that VMware/Parallels do not yet have good enough graphics emulation.

Bootcamp (dual boot) may be an easier option since it can get direct access to the GPU. Installation is not such a pain, since it can resize disk partitions (even the boot one) if you forgot to leave a spare one.

— comment by Gavin on November 10th, 2009 at 10:05pm JST (14 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink

I find Bootcamp the only way to really get games working reliably and with decent performance. I know it is nicer to run both OSX and Windows at the same time, and Fusion does that well for me for everything other than games or video card intensive programs.

— comment by Howard Messing on November 10th, 2009 at 11:01pm JST (14 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink

Bootcamp is the way to go.

— comment by Anonymous on November 10th, 2009 at 11:04pm JST (14 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink

If virtualbox works for Macs, try that. I think their latest version has support for 3D acceleration.

— comment by Eric Mesa on November 11th, 2009 at 2:50am JST (14 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink

virtualbox is a decent option to try and its free, and its has support for 3D graphics.

Can’t even copy files from an install CD with VirtualBox, due to a longstanding bug with their stuff. Oh well. —Jeffrey

— comment by Rachid on November 11th, 2009 at 3:56am JST (14 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink

As Howard and anonymous said, go with Bootcamp: it’s the only way to play games.

Or, just keep the old Windows box lying around. Sigh. —Jeffrey

— comment by giulienk on November 12th, 2009 at 1:09pm JST (14 years, 5 months ago) comment permalink
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