Is there a pc version of solar?

Which version of Virtual PC (for Mac) to buy

• I'm a confirmed Mac fan who has finally decided to break down and get something real inexpensive for the four times a year that I really need a PC. (If I had one I might use it 15 or 20 times a year, actually.) Typically it's because of some small rinky-dink program included with some consumer product and it's just not worth it to them to do a Mac version (examples below). And I think I really need to use Internet Explorer on a PC every now and then (ditto). I'm more interested in a simple, authoritative answer (with maybe a paragraph of explanation) than an exhaustive review suitable for a computer magazine. Here's the kind of program I need to be able to run: (1) The board game "Make Your Own -Opoly" lets you print out a customized Monopoly-like game with your own streets, Chance cards, etc. It comes with mostly preprinted cards which you run through your printer to add your cusomization. And it comes with a simple PC program which makes this easy (the names on certain cards have to match the text in other places, etc.). I could just fire up a Mac graphics program and design the cards myself, but it would take time to get the formatting right, etc., and I might overlook something. Requirements are, basically, "Windows anything" and a few K of RAM (grin) so compatibility of the program with Windows is presumably not an issue. (2) The Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer My only gripe with Google is that they don't provide even an independent little tool to let us Mac users figure out our sites' pageranks. (Yeah, I've heard about what you can see for a directory listing for a site, but I want to find out what my sites' ranks are before I submit to the directory.) Most of my surfing will be done on my Mac for all the obvious reasons (viruses, spyware, etc.) but from time to time I'll want to run that Toolbar. (3) To see -- REALLY see -- what my web pages look like on the PC platform. I recently was shocked when I saw some of my photos on a PC screen; they seemed much MUCH darker than my carefully adjusted images on my Mac. This difference was not just a subtle one observable to graphics professionals; it was an enormous, gross difference so large that it would probably keep some PC surfers from signing up for my site ("his photos are too mudddy", etc.). I have learned that this is an issue called "gamma", and altho there are various workarounds (set my Mac screen to a PC gamma, etc.), I'd still like to just be able to see, simply and straightforwardly, how the average Windows surfer will see my pages -- so that s/he doesn't have to adjust a thing to get a good quality photo experience compared to how things look on my screen. (I also found that IE versions and other browsers set default type sizes to be different under different conditions, which I never would have observed had I not fired up a friend's PC browser once after a new version came out.) My local PC-only expert says that many many people are still using Windows 98 (yes, 98!), and he gave me reasons to stay away from all except one of the more recent Windowses (I forget which one, natch). Is he right? And I suspect that Windows 98 might even work for my needs. The rinky-dink little programs will run on it, and so will Internet Explorer to surf the net, and so on. (I'm not sure about how recent IE has to be to use the Toolbar, however.) And my local academic software store JUST HAPPENS to have a sealed, in the box copy of Virtual PC with Windows 98 (!) for a mere $225 (not much different in price, alas, from the up to date versions available through Microsoft today). That's about it. A couple of other items which might be important for your answer. I do NOT have access to any plain old Windows OS software or upgrades, so I can't just buy the Virtual PC part without an OS included. I am a pretty darned good Mac consultant, so I can decide for myself whether to install Virtual PC on my OS 9 system or my OS X system (although if you have a one-sentence opinion on this I'd love to hear it). And I absolutely positively completely want to avoid worrying about PC viruses wiping out my Mac disks -- so I'd also like to know if I have to additionally invest in Norton and other stuff just to protect the PC parts of my system. To me, an acceptable answer would be like one or more of the following. (The content of the answers below is, obviously, incorrect since that's why I'm asking the question...) (1) You should get Windows XP Professional. It'll handle all your current needs and possibly some future ones and it's only $20 more expensive than your $225 Windows 98. Just set the Internet Explorer prefs to block blah blah blah and you won't have to worry about viruses. (2) You really should buy a cheap PC and monitor because Virtual PC doesn't make your Mac monitor any different than your current setup. Keep your PC off the network and if it gets virus infected then just wipe it clean and reinstall. (3) What you want won't work in Virtual PC because Windows printing via the Mac is a nightmare. Get a cheapo PC instead or borrow your friend's. And there's this really great Mac program which lets you see exactly how your pages will look on the PC. (3a) [or]... there's this really great website which shows you your pages the way they will look on a PC. Thanks, in advance, for your authoritative but short, to-the-point answer!

• Answer:

  Hi jimwww, I am also a confirmed Mac fan, and have also used Virtual PC for specific work. However your question is a little out of my territory, so I have consulted someone who is very knowledgable about these matters. Here is his short authorative answer: ============================================= Either choice would work, I would do both - unless money is an object. Win98SE or WinXPPro or Win2000 would be my list of choices for an OS. 1. I have a midrange HP to understand and troubleshoot Windows. 2. I run Virtual PC 3, 4, and 5 mainly with Win98SE 3. I setup webpages and view them in a variety of browsers on both platforms. A. You can setup several Virtual PC's with different versions of Windows (or Linux) and boot from each one. B. You need gobs of memory to get VPC to work correctly. (512Mb would be nice). C. As long as you DO NOT want to run games, you will find it acceptable. D. You CAN have problems printing - mainly with non-Postscript printers. E. The display of VPC on a Mac is not quite the same as a WinPC (unless that monitor was hooked up to a PC with similar video card and driver) but it is closer than guessing. ============================================= He also provided me with these links, which may be of use to you: Web Browser Resources http://webdesign.about.com/library/bl_browsers.htm?PM=ss14_webdesign Maxfixit - (especially the "Cross-Platform" Forum) http://www.macfixitforums.com/ MacWindows http://www.macwindows.com Macintosh Forums You can post questions and search at these forums also (do a search to see if the problem is already answered) http://discussions.info.apple.com/ http://www.macfixitforums.com/ http://www.macfora.com http://forums.macnn.com/ http://forums.maccentral.com/wwwthreads/wwwthreads.php?returnto=none http://www.techsurvivors.com ======================== Win PC Forums ExtremeTech Forum http://discuss.extremetech.com/n/main.asp?webtag=extremetech VirtualDr Forums. http://discussions.virtualdr.com/ PC Answers http://forum.pcanswers.co.uk/ DaLantech http://www.dalantech.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat= FAQ for Windows http://www.winnetmag.com/windowsnt20002003faq/ ======================== Virtual PC Links http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=824366&product=vpcmac http://www.vpccentral.com/Troubleshooting.html http://vpccentral.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro ======================== I hope you are satisfied with this information. If anything is unclear or you need to ask a follow-up question, please post a "request for answer clarification" before you rate answer, and I will respond to you as soon as I can. regards, jackburton