Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
any good programs that'll let me run windows programs on mac??
- Thread starter Sambo110
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Microsoft Virtual PC.
Comes bundled with XP, but runs VERY slow on my 1.33 PB (equivalent of Pentium II around 300 MHz) so I loaded up W2K and use it only when I have no other option (usually MS Visio and MS Project).
Really it comes with XP?? COol but whats it on? Is it on it's own disc, on a disc with another program what??
you cannot run windows program on a PowerPC based Mac. they are different architectures.Windows program are compiled for Intel architectures.
but you can use VirtualPC to run windows inside it and run the program that you want..it will be really slow.
W2K is Windows 2000
but you can use VirtualPC to run windows inside it and run the program that you want..it will be really slow.
W2K is Windows 2000
It's an emulator - translating x86 programs into something your PPC architecture can understand. I think amnesiak means that you can't run windows programs natively on PPC hardware
VirtualPC works on PPC macs (infact only PPC macs if im not mistaken). However it will run painfully slow.
If you had an Intel Mac you have the option of Parallels or BootCamp.
If you had an Intel Mac you have the option of Parallels or BootCamp.
Virtual PC is an emulator, which translates X86 code to powerPC code, which allows you to run windows but very slowly. If you really want to run windows I would suggest upgrading to an intel Mac, possibly the Mac Mini depending on what you want to use it for.
Virtual PC runs on PowerPC machines and emulates an Intel processor and PC BIOS, so that you can run Windows as an application on your Mac. Although it comes with a copy of XP, it's much faster if you only run Windows 95 or 98 on it. This is fine if you'll only be using it occasionally.
A couple of points though. Firstly, it's not quick. Even on my 1.9GHz iMac G5 I only get equivalent performance to a Pentium 400MHz or so. Secondly, it's useless for games since it will only emulate an old S3 Virge graphics chipset.
However, if you only want to run MS Project, Internet Explorer to check website compatibility or some other piece of software that isn't available for Mac then it's okay.
Just as a matter of interest, what is the software you want to run? There may be a Mac equivalent program that runs natively on OS X.
Yes, Virtual PC is basically good enough to open a file and save it again -- hopefully as something you can open under Mac OS X.
Otherwise, it'll likely be more pleasant to punch yourself in the face than try running anything strenuous -- especially since there is no 3d support in VPC.
---
So an Intel Mac Mini is a good choice if you need to run both, as long as you don't have any OS 9 software left.
If you only need to open PC files that can be translated easily, something like DataViz's translator product may be a better choice.
Otherwise, it'll likely be more pleasant to punch yourself in the face than try running anything strenuous -- especially since there is no 3d support in VPC.
---
So an Intel Mac Mini is a good choice if you need to run both, as long as you don't have any OS 9 software left.
If you only need to open PC files that can be translated easily, something like DataViz's translator product may be a better choice.
Last time I checked, darwine didn't do anything useful on PPC machines...unless you had the source code for the application you wanted to run.