Crossover.
 

Anyone using it?

Any good/bad reports?

Crossover offers Demos. Crossover lists the Applications that work.

*For specific use cases it can be a good tool.

*For many people it is completely useless.

It uses API call replacement, it does NOT require installing windows.

Simple as that. If you have an App and its listed as working (they have levels Gold, Silver, Bronze compatibility, NO, and Not Tested).

They also take money to make a certain App get priority in being made to work if interested.

Do note you can have a situation where an Application works but not if it needs to use windows components that might be called say with ASP web page for IE.

Try the demo if you wish.

The app I need to use is a proprietary system from an insurance company for running illustrations, so it won't be on their list, I am sure.

Is it worth trying? It's a pretty simple app.

Absolutely it is a very good product within its limitations. It has a free demo for just that purpose. Basically Install App, Point App at your Application installer and it scans it for its installation properties and tries to create a "bottle" for it to run in/install it.

What Crossover and Open Source Cousin Wine to is amazing when it works and frustrating when it does not.

Crossover has been around for a long time. It works best when one has an Application or two that happen to work well with it. Then NO need to keep 2 operating systems installed and running etc.

Does not need to be on there list to work well.
Virtualization can of course do almost everything, but requires much more RAM, more HD space, CPU time, Antiviral software, etc. Before SSDs Virtualization while workable and valuable was only less painful then bootcamp reboots.

With an SSD Windows 7 Boots up to the Desktop in 10 seconds and Application load quickly and so Virtualization becomes quite pleasant to use assuming you have at least an i5 or i7 and 8GB of Ram (4 is doable with an SSD but tight and you really need to close all Mac applications when you have only 4GB before running).

Let us know and them if it works.

I have a two, maybe three year old version of VM Fusion, but it seems silly to boot it for just the one app. Don't even have it installed these days.

Agreed so go give Crossover a whirl. Its a very fast process. It Either can can bottle and run an App or it can't, generally. And then of course there is an issue of whether the App when running can do all you need under crossover which only take a little longer to figure out.

As to Virtualization I prefer Virtualbox because its free, and its default set up is free of extraneous functionality that can sometimes aggravate people.

Fusion and Parallels basically have to upgraded every year to keep functional along side new versions of OSX.

Virtualbox gets new releases every few weeks to months, but I would never recommending installing a release that has not been out for at least a few weeks.

Parallels pissed me off severely when they wanted me to pay for an upgrade that came within a few weeks of the previous, so jumped ship to VM.

The app I need is a basic mathematical cruncher with a GUI, so it may work. I'll give it a go tomorrow and report back.

I've just seen the price, so I may as well use the Fusion that I have, or get Virtualbox.

That's almost exactly the same as the Upgrade pricing for Fusion.

Yes my friend was using Parallels for years must have paid them $500 in that time and I gave him a VM in Virtualbox and he was shocked that it was Fast and Easy. He kicks himself for not switching sooner. VMware is not much better, they came on the Mac scene years later and being the upstart wanted to be "nicer".

VMwware has there issues too, for example. At work we would love to give people a Play only VM where the Player is Free. Where end users would not be able to create a new VM. You can do this on the PC but on the Mac you have to pay for Fusion to run the pre-rolled VM.

Good Luck with Cross Over

I'm not paying fifty bucks for Crossover when I have Fusion already. I'm sure lots of dev went into it, but for my needs, I'll try VBox and revert to Fusion if that doesn't work.

Well you can try the demo, thats free. Agree Paying is Paying. The idea behind Crossover as we discussed no need to maintain and run two operating systems and it runs in a much smaller footprint (read perfectly happy on a 4GB ram machine).

Virtualbox would serve you well. There is some ability to import fusion/parallels VMs if you remove the add ons that get installed. A clean install of Windows someone else's pre-rolled is better. They do have Pre-rolled to but I have never tried them.

In any case Virtualbox consists of 1) The Application version, 2) the Extension pack and 3) Guest Additions which are installed from within windows via the Mac Tools Menu. Install Guest Additions.

I deleted my VM when I uninstqlled it. Perhaps not a wise together, but I was on a 120Gb SSD at the time. I could just continue emailing the firm when I need an illustration, but that means no access at weekends, which can be inconvenient.

Here's a System question: Does a Fusion VM use anything apart from disk space when it's not "on'?

I'd like to try Virtualbox on a virtual machine that Parallels 9 (and apparently10) will no longer run. I downloaded the VirtualBox and the PDF User's Manual but it speaks of using "Parallels Tools" to change the file format to whatever-the-heck Parallels 2 used ?@!?? Is this something you've done and can provide a "for Dummies" level walkthru?

No Virtual Machines uses system resources when not running. I believe there was a brand comparison once that they each install some low level stuff into the Mac system, but I have not seen any effect of that with Virtual box.

Stating the obvious too that Crossover also avoids ever needing a Windows licence or copy of Windows. And take up virtually no space.

A VM for Win 7 usually takes up around 30GB of space Minimum give or take With Windows and Applications and you would want to set the VM to think there is 50GB when you create it, but it would only really use /grow to that amount if the installed Applications required it.

Data I would Store on Mac Documents/Deskop folders which there is an option to share in the Virtual box settings.

VMware makes converters too. I do not have much experience converting. There is also P to V taking an actual Physical system and converting to a VM.

On the VM to VM format conversion its important to remove add ons prior to conversion. Unless your set up was really involved your likely better spending your time making a fresh VM which will work 100 percent. Conversions can fail to boot.

Although it seems you passed on ever trying the Crossover demo, I noticed that there are two purchase options, $39 for 6 months of updates and support and $59 for a year. Of course there is Wine too which is free like Virtualbox. I would start if your going to try with Crossover demo because its more polished does more.

Here by the way are three Free Wine programs for running Windows Apps for free.

http://winebottler.kronenberg.org
http://www.playonmac.com/en
http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-index.php

Not sure if you confused me with GavinBBK, were not replying to me at all, or if it's me that's not following you.

At the risk of being annoying, let me try again: I have Parallels. I have a virtual machine (happens to be Windows 3.11) which ceased working correctly as of Parallels version 9. Works fine under Parallels version 8. The MacOS 10.9.3-and-beyond virtual machine, on the other hand, requires Parallels 9.

I doubt they will fix the issue with Parallels 9 and Windows 3.11; other virtual machine environments are not affected. I'll probably keep Parallels for the other virtual machines.

You (anthlover) mentioned in post 11 that there is a way to import Parallels VMs into VirtualBox. The VirtualBox user's manual makes the following statement (the ONLY statement about Parallels):


I asked if you knew anything about the process of converting the modern Parallels format to the version 2 .hdd format that the user's manual mentions. (alternatively, since you used different wording, if there's some process by which one "imports ...parallels VMs if you remove the add ons that get installed", that also would be of interest & use to me). I do not have VMWare hence I don't have their converters. Is there a converter within Parallels somewhere?

For me, it's about simplicity. The cost is just annoying when I already paid for Parallels and VMWARE.

From what has been said above though, my slightly older VMWARE may mot run on MavX, right?

AHunter I am sorry I do not have great into for you on conversions. I did respond to your post in my Post 15.

Gavin ALL the paid solutions are more like a subscription requiring one to keep paying around once a year which is why we use Virtualbox, which works well for us. You started the thread about Crossover which in turn is related to Wine so I tried to help you there with those products also.

Good Luck no matter what you choose.

I'm not unappreciative for one moment anthlover! I was just looking for a quick fix and there isn't one by the look of it.

I still have my Windows 7 HP discs, so maybe an afternoon setting up a new VM to run it that way.

It also begs perhaps the main question of why, in 2014, these characters haven't got a web-based and/or iOS system available?

LOL, agreed as to why they do not. Its OK my original supposition was the Virtualbox windows 7 with 8GB of Ram and SSD and an i5 or better CPU is a pretty painless way to go now a days. Virtualbox is damn good, always up to date (turn off VB auto-update) and free.

Prior to SSDs booting up and launching applications and Windows updates could be pretty painful relatively speaking with VMs.

Crossover/and or Wine is interesting and worth considering and there are free virtual box like Wineplayers that are worth considering. In my work use case their not an option.

GoodLuck.

Is it better to create the VirtualBox VM with the 32, or 64 bit dic please?

Also, how much RAM do I allocate? I have 16Gb available.

64 Bit Windows 7 All the way. 32 Bit can not address even 4GB of Ram, it Maxes out @ 3.5GB. Even on Windows Laptops with only 4GB of Ram I always use 64bit Windows, much snappier.

Ram wise give the VM 4GB of Ram to Start. CPU wise Give 1 or 2 (hyper threading makes even a Dual Core Appear as Quad usually). Disc Size wise I recommend setting the VM for 50GB it will not take up any more space then you actually need and will likely be under 25GB from your description of the App with the OS, etc. Once the Disc size is set you can not revisit it, so its best to be a little generous since the space is not actually used unless needed.

Installing Win 7 on VB now.

With only one app to use (and not much space available) I allocated 30Gb for the VM. OK so far..

Setting higher disk use will not use more space, just keeps you from having to recreate the VM from scratch.

A few other niceties about Virtualbox...

1) Assume you installed Extension pack and Guest Additions already

2) You want to Define a Shared folder between Win and Mac (usually Desktop and Documents both)

3) Command F switches between Full Screen and Windowed

4) You want to check all the leave me alone Boxes that pop up about Mouse integration and Video etc. Most of these now crop up in the Top right of the screen during the VM start.

5) From Preferences Turn off Auto Update

6) Don't ever Visit the Mac About Box for VB you can not close the Window without closing the Application

7) There are two sets of VB settings Preferences and Settings (control Memory, Video Ram, CPU, Shared Folders, etc). Most Can only be set when the VM is not running.

Ok, cracked that.

All good except I can't seem to cut and paste between a link I was sent in an Apple Mail and the WE URL bar. Am I missing something obvious?

Its in the Devices Menu Called Shared Clipboard Bi-Directional Cut and Paste (Can't be in Full Screen mode).

This is also the same Tools Menu for Installing Guest Additions which has to be done first for lots of nice features including Proper Video Display to Work.

Also Make sure your Mac Dock is set to Auto Hide. VB like a lot of Applications will not use that space when not in Full screen mode unless its set to auto Hide.

Is it possible to clone this VB&VM complete setup to my Mini, or do I have to start from scratch again please?

Easy
 

Very Easy to Clone. In fact this is the best way to keep back ups of the VM should they ever get corrupt.

1) With the VM not running but Virtual box running Highlight the VM in question (you only have 1 at the moment).

2) From the File Menu choose Export, there are options for names and formats (you can go with the defaults).

Thats it. Once written copy it to another machine and instead of Export you Choose Import from the File Menu.