Philippe,
Thanks for the lateral thinking to try a different keyboard to get
a 'function' key.
I didn't have one that I could connect to my iMac, but what it did
prompt me to do was to look more closely at the iMac keyboard. The
function key is not one that I have ever needed, but there is one
there - over under the F13 key to the left of the 'home' key.
When I tried that - fn plus F8 it all worked perfectly. I could
accept the Microsoft terms and conditions.
Now have Win XP Professional installed and it runs very quickly.
Bootups are amazing fast. (Maybe because its a new installation, and
the additional speed of the iMac).
Seems to be a few funnies (which I hope are operated error):
(a) The need to press the left apple command button each time you
want the mouse to leave the Win XP system. This definitely disrupts
the flow of work between the VM system and the native iMac system. Is
there any way around this?
(b) The Window size for the VM system is fixed. Even if you make
the underlying window bigger, the actual Win XP window stay the same
size. I was able to change this a bit by changing the Win XP screen
properties.
(c) Copy and Paste between the iMac and the VM system doesn't work.
Similarly, click and drag from one system to the other has no effect.
(d) Have set up two shared folders (these are already shared in my
Parallels system). Windows Explorer did not recognise them at all
(maybe operator error).
(e) Like you, I didn't have much joy with USB sticks - didn't
recognise them.
So at this stage my feelings are:
(a) As someone else said - remember that this VirtualBox is free. So
if you just want to run the occasional application and have a spare
Windows licence, it is ideal. Also good for trying out other
operating systems (eg Linux).
(b) It seems to work efficiently, and very quickly.
(c) Has a number of operational funnies (like the pressing of the
left apple command to get the mouse to move out of the VM environment)
that make heavy use a bit of a chore.
(d) Some functions (like sharing folders, access to USB drives) etc
not obvious how you make it work. (They are listed in the VM's list
of things, but Windows Explorer doesn't know about them).
So good for playing around and trying things out, but Parallels
(in my case) provides a much more reliable and flexible interface.
Thanks to all who helped in me satisfying my curiosity on this.
Happy to try out any suggestions to resolve the above issues.
Cheers ... Clyde
On 23/09/2009, at 12:21 AM, Philippe Chaperon wrote:
Hi Clyde,
I had the same problem when I was installing VB on my MacBook. Instead
I plugged my spare Logitech keyboard (a cheap $18 one) and completed
the installation of XP Home Edition. XP works very well and I even
installed the whole Office 2007 Enterprise edition without the
slightest problem.
I do however have one thing which does not work. I cannot get XP to
recognise thumb drives plugged into a USB Hub, or for that matter any
of my two external drives one of which is FW and the other USB. There
must be way to do so but have not found it yet.
Best of luck if you try again.
Regards,
Philippe C.
2009/9/22 Clyde McLennan <cmcle...@westnet.com.au>:
Hi Ronda, Bill & James,
Did as you suggested (ie, changed the preference) but still no joy.
I'm running on iMac with leopard 10.5.6.
There is no function key (like on many PC's) so couldn't try that
suggestion.
Thanks for the help - at this stage I will stick with Parallels,
but I was
keen to try the VirtualBox, but can do without it.
Cheers ... Clyde
On 22/09/2009, at 10:43 AM, Ronda Brown wrote:
On 22/09/2009, at 9:22 AM, James Devenish wrote:
Hi Clyde,
2009/9/22 Clyde McLennan <cmcle...@westnet.com.au>:
Following on from the helpful discussion and comments about the
three VM
programs, I thought I would try the free one, VirtualBox.
No problem installing virtualbox, but didn't get far installing
windows
XP. Came unstuck during the installation when it asked me to
press F8 to
accept the Windows terms and conditions.
With some keyboards (especially laptops), you might find that you
have
to hold down the Fn (function) key while pressing the F8 key.
This is
because F8 might be assigned to some other function in Mac OS X,
like
'Play/Pause'.
I use VirtualBox for running several versions of Windows and Linux,
and have to say I don't recall encountering this issue at all.
I think this is a rare issue, so it would be helpful to know what
Mac
OS X and hardware you are using.
James
Hi Clyde,
Check in System Preferences > Keyboard - Keyboard Shortcuts to see
what
keyboard shortcuts you have set on your Mac.
Normally F8 Activates Spaces (if you have Spaces 'Enabled').
You could take the 'tick' out of the Activate Spaces F8 in Keyboard
shortcuts just until you install XP (if it requires F8).
Cheers,
Ronni
17" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo
2.4 GHz / 4GB / 800MHz / 500GB
OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard
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