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vermonter16

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 19, 2008
185
1
Ok - so I FINALLY was able to copy the files of my husband's online poker stuff - NLOP, Poker Stars, Full Tilt....to the Mac...however, the Mac doesn't recognize them at all. What mode or virtual mode do I have to get into to make these things run. I know the guy at the Apple store said that we could do it in virtual windows mode but I have no idea how you get to it. I'm going through major Windows to Mac issues!
 

vermonter16

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 19, 2008
185
1
Ok - so I keep answering my own questions...for the moment. I had to put the poker stars into the applications folder for it to work - then I dragged the icon to the desktop...so that is good. I believe that I have to download the Full Tilt version for Mac... And nlop does not work on the mac....so, what is the easiest way to have virtual windows running to run this game. Will I have to get anti-virus?

This is my first mac so this is a HUGE learning curve. I've learned a lot in the last 2.5 hours though!
 

drichards

macrumors 6502a
Nov 30, 2008
803
0
Full Tilt has a mac client. I use it, its good.

PokerStars has a mac client too. I guess I missed this when I was doing my own transfer to mac.

NLOP needs dotnet framework v2.0, so you'll actually need Windows for that to run. They do say there's a mac client coming soon...

To run windows on your mac, you need an Intel mac. Most macs made in the past few years are Intel and it sounds like yours is brand new so I'm sure you're good to go.

To run windows on your mac, you need VMware fusion or Parallels, and a copy of windows itself. Alternatively, you can try for free VirtualBox. I've never tried it, by the time I heard of it, I already had Parallels. There's a tutorial on how to install and use it here.

You can usually use the windows CD and activation keys that came with your old or existing computer on your virtual windows installation.

Good luck, happy gaming, and welcome to the mac community.
 

BrooklynAMN

macrumors newbie
Dec 6, 2008
9
0
I'm in the midst of trying this myself, but you may want to consider the following:

Image your old pc with all the gaming stuff with vmware converter - http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/ -

You could then run your old computer as a virtual machine through vmware fusion which you can try for free - https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/?p=fusion

I'd back up the machine first if I were you, but you can give it a test run for free to see if it works to your liking. It's not nearly as complicated as it may seem.
 

vermonter16

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 19, 2008
185
1
Thanks for the advice. I'm glad there are other folks out there who play poker. I was beginning to feel like a doof. I'll give some of your suggestions a shot later on today. Thank you very much!
 

vermonter16

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 19, 2008
185
1
Ok - so all the while I'm sitting here thinking that I can just load one of these programs on and Windows will just pop up... But guess that I need to actually load an OS on the virtual windows? I'm confused. Can you take me step by step through the process? I think I've read too much stuff...and now I have no idea what I'm doing.
 

BrooklynAMN

macrumors newbie
Dec 6, 2008
9
0
you're on the right track, but i'll try to simplify the step-by-step. if you want to run windows on a mac you have two basic options. Boot camp and virtualization.

Boot camp comes with mac os 10.5. You will need to have a copy of windows with an activation key, and you should do some research about which versions of windows work (windows xp pro service pack 2 worked for me). Boot camp offers great performance but you have to reboot in windows and leave your mac os completely behind. Since you've got all the stuff on your current pc, I wouldn't go this route.

Provided you're not running graphics intensive programs virtualization is a great option and you can get a free trial to either vmware fusion or parallels. You are correct that you will need a copy of windows if you go this route as well.

You may, however, be able to image your current pc rather than install a new copy of windows in your virtual machine. the link i sent above for vmware converter claims to be able to clone an existing physical machine. In this case, you'd be able to run vmware converter on your old pc, make an image package of all your old windows stuff, install vmware fusion on your mac, transfer the image file from your pc to your mac, and then load up your old "pc" as a vm on your new mac.

I wish i could give you a better step by step than this, but I haven't done it yet myself. Planning to try it in the next week, and i'll repost with my results.

The biggest potential problem that i think might come up is actually transferring a massive image file from the pc to the mac.
 

vermonter16

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 19, 2008
185
1
Thanks BrooklynAMN, I appreciate you taking the time to work this thing through with me. My PC is running Windows 2000 right now..if that does not work at all with the other programs then I guess I can just buy a copy of the operating system?
 

BrooklynAMN

macrumors newbie
Dec 6, 2008
9
0
vmware fusion should play nice with windows 2000. i've only used xp pro myself, but vmware claims fusion is compatible with over 60 operating systems.

i don't know what sort of compatibility issues you'll have with windows 2000 and any programs you need to run in the future, but i do know that vmware fusion will control multiple virtual machines. Down the road you could have mac os x, windows 2000, and xp or vista running all at the same time.
 
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