02-27-2009, 10:27 AM

Hi. I'm about to buy a laptop and I was thinking about getting an HP tablet PC but, to be honest, I've heard a lot of negative comments about the quality of the brand. I've always had a soft spot for macs but, being an advanced Excel user, I've always been forced to opt for the windows nightmare. Nonetheless the option of using Bootcamp and having XP on a Mac does sound very tempting. However, I have some questions:

1. Do all the keys in a mac keyboard work as win-keyboards in windows? I ask this because, as I mentioned, I need to use a lot of shortcuts in excel which means that I need to have ctrl, alt and function keys working properly.

2. Does the two finger swap for scrolling work as a scroll in XP as well? What about the right mouse button in windows?

3. Can both OS read what is contained in the folders of the other OS? I plan to use OS X for web surfing and non-work related things and use windows for gaming and excel. Therefore I would like to access any file on my HDD from any operating system at any time without having to switch OS. is this possible?

Thanks a lot in advance for your help.

02-27-2009, 11:00 AM

Originally Posted by chssvl

Hi. I'm about to buy a laptop and I was thinking about getting an HP tablet PC but, to be honest, I've heard a lot of negative comments about the quality of the brand. I've always had a soft spot for macs but, being an advanced Excel user, I've always been forced to opt for the windows nightmare. Nonetheless the option of using Bootcamp and having XP on a Mac does sound very tempting. However, I have some questions:

1. Do all the keys in a mac keyboard work as win-keyboards in windows? I ask this because, as I mentioned, I need to use a lot of shortcuts in excel which means that I need to have ctrl, alt and function keys working properly.

Yes. For the most part, the keys map over logically. For example, the Command key works as a Windows key.

2. Does the two finger swap for scrolling work as a scroll in XP as well?

Yes.

What about the right mouse button in windows?

On a physical mouse, yes. On the trackpad, you'll hold two fingers on the track pad and click for a right-click. If you're using Windows in a VM (this would be my recommendation), tap with two fingers on the trackpad for a right-click.

3. Can both OS read what is contained in the folders of the other OS? I plan to use OS X for web surfing and non-work related things and use windows for gaming and excel. Therefore I would like to access any file on my HDD from any operating system at any time without having to switch OS. is this possible?

In Boot Camp, you would need a product that can read the OS X filesystem. Conversely, in OS X, you would need a product that can write to NTFS (the OS, by default can read, but not write to it).

If you're running Windows in a VM, that's another story - you can run both operating systems simultaneously and easily drag and drop files between desktops. The only time a VM is not advantageous is if you want to play games in Windows - VMs provide very limited support for 3D acceleration. But both Parallels and VMWare Fusion allow you to access your Boot Camp partition from a VM, while still maintaining the ability to boot directly into the OS from Boot Camp.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help.

See this FAQ for more information.

02-27-2009, 11:56 AM

Originally Posted by cwa107

In Boot Camp, you would need a product that can read the OS X filesystem. Conversely, in OS X, you would need a product that can write to NTFS (the OS, by default can read, but not write to it).

See this FAQ for more information.

Thank you very much for the answer. I guess that it could be possible to make a 3 disk partition as well: One with Mac OSX, one with WinXP and one with Documents with the latter being available to both OSs right?

02-27-2009, 12:50 PM

Have you even considered the fact the Office is available on Mac?

02-27-2009, 01:12 PM

Originally Posted by deer dance

Have you even considered the fact the Office is available on Mac?

You're right, but it's hobbled by a lack of VB support that any Excel power-user (as the OP mentioned above) would certainly miss.

02-27-2009, 01:13 PM

Originally Posted by chssvl

Thank you very much for the answer. I guess that it could be possible to make a 3 disk partition as well: One with Mac OSX, one with WinXP and one with Documents with the latter being available to both OSs right?

Yes, you could do that - but if you went with a virtualization product, the need would be negated.

02-27-2009, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

You're right, but it's hobbled by a lack of VB support that any Excel power-user (as the OP mentioned above) would certainly miss.

Quite right. My boss has a MacBook air with office for mac and although working in Ppoint and Word is even better, running complex models in excel is a nightmare and if you're using macros forget it. Actually, whenever he needs to work in excel he always turns to the piece of junk-PC that we have at the office.

I guess that my best option would then be to run OS X VM and perhaps have a bootcamp XP partition used solely for gaming....

BTW I'll be coupling my laptop with an external HD. I would imagine that there wouldn't be any problems reading the files (PDFs, AVIs, MP3s, etc.) from the external HD from either OS right?

Thanks a lot for your help. I'm leaning even further towards a mac

02-27-2009, 02:19 PM

Originally Posted by chssvl

Quite right. My boss has a MacBook air with office for mac and although working in Ppoint and Word is even better, running complex models in excel is a nightmare and if you're using macros forget it. Actually, whenever he needs to work in excel he always turns to the piece of junk-PC that we have at the office.

I guess that my best option would then be to run OS X VM and perhaps have a bootcamp XP partition used solely for gaming....

BTW I'll be coupling my laptop with an external HD. I would imagine that there wouldn't be any problems reading the files (PDFs, AVIs, MP3s, etc.) from the external HD from either OS right?

Thanks a lot for your help. I'm leaning even further towards a mac

It shouldn't be a problem as long as you format it with FAT32. FAT32 is an older filesystem that was more common in earlier Windows versions. The latest Windows versions still support it, but Microsoft imposes an artificial limitation of 32GB partition size. If you format it as "MS-DOS" on the Mac, you can overcome that limitation. The only other limitation is that FAT32 doesn't support individual files of over 4GB in size.

Alternatively, you can format it in NTFS (the default filesystem for Windows XP/Vista), but you'll need a third-party driver on the Mac for full read/write support. The reason for this is that NTFS is a closed standard and in order to develop a driver for full read/write support, a company must license the technology through Microsoft. So, you can pick up a program like Paragon NTFS for Mac, or use the free, open-source MacFUSE (difficult to setup), developed by Google.

02-28-2009, 08:11 AM

Thanks a lot for the help. It has been really useful. One final querstion. I'm thinking about going for the basic White Macbook and buy an aftermarket 4GB of ram kit. Since 32 Windows doesn't support over 3GB of ram, could I end up having problems with Fusion and/or bootcamp?

Thank you very much once again.

02-28-2009, 10:26 AM

Originally Posted by chssvl

Thanks a lot for the help. It has been really useful. One final querstion. I'm thinking about going for the basic White Macbook and buy an aftermarket 4GB of ram kit. Since 32 Windows doesn't support over 3GB of ram, could I end up having problems with Fusion and/or bootcamp?

Thank you very much once again.

No, it won't cause any problems in Boot Camp or Fusion/Parallels. Going with an aftermarket RAM kit is a really good idea too, since Apple's memory prices are exorbitant.

02-28-2009, 02:34 PM

Originally Posted by cwa107

No, it won't cause any problems in Boot Camp or Fusion/Parallels. Going with an aftermarket RAM kit is a really good idea too, since Apple's memory prices are exorbitant.

Absolutely. Apple charges USD 150 for the upgrade but you can get a 4GB kit from newegg for less than 50!!....and I get to keep the old modules.

Thank you as always.

Newegg.com - Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Memory for Apple Notebook Model KTA-MB667K2/4GR

03-01-2009, 12:52 PM

If your primary reason for running Windows in a VM is running office, 3 GB should suffice. Fusion runs XP and Office perfectly well with only 2 GB on my BlackBook. For Office apps, there's really no need to muck about with partitions or Boot Camp - those applications run very fast in a virtual machine.

My advice: download the free trial version of Fusion (or Parallels), install windows and Office in a VM, and work with it for a bit. If you like it, just keep it - if not, you can try Bootcamp.

Cheers