Unhappy Switcher

[Stanley]

Maybe it's worth looking at this a different way. You are trying to make a Mac into a PC and loading on all sorts of semi-compatible software.

Why not use the Mac as a Mac? Delete all the PC and antivirus software and just get the Printmaster files to work somehow? I mean this is a 19 dollar paint type program, new. 7 dollars used. And it's causing massive frustration.

I don't know if this can be done or not but it's worth a thought.

A quick search shows that there is a Mac version of Printmaster…it's called Printmaster Platinum 2.0. Can this handle your legacy files? If so ditch the other stuff and run 100% Mac.

It costs 38 bucks brandie new without searching much for price or educator discounts. Seems worth it to me compared to all the frustration and time and tech visits and posts and money spent on this matter.

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I converted to Mac last Summer…I had my best results once I learned to "let go" of PC ways of doing things. I use only the firewall that comes with OSX and have never had ANY virus or trojan or worm issues, period. The advice you are being given is good and will work.

I loaded XP into a virtual space in Parallels so I could use a datalogging program stuck on XP only. Works great. I tried out IE a few times and in one hour had multiple viruses using no protection. Shudder. No more net from XP. Back to Safari, fast, safe, secure.

Mac really is a lot better than PC for me. Just let go!

 

[Doug b]

I have officially been disturbed/unsettled/rattled/shaken..... freaked out!

+1 *shudder*

 

[Nethfel]

Hopefully after reading all your ideas I will be able to answer your inquiries. To begin with, the use of the term virtual PC was what the techie from the dealer used to describe what VMWare Fusion was. I bought the Mac in January 2010, they installed Microsoft Office 8 for Mac and the only other programs I installed on the Mac were Firefox and Thunderbird.

A very understandable issue that wasn't even caused by you - when you have software like VMWare Fusion (or Parallels or VirtualBox) one would normally refer to a "Virtual Machine" or VM or sometimes the Virtual Environment (although I've only seen it referenced like this a couple of times) when referencing a given install rather then Virtual PC.

Virtual PC is a specific Microsoft product (was originally made by a different company acquired by MS) - it was originally for an earlier line of Macs and is not designed for Intel Macs, and was later also ported to Windows (see: Windows Virtual PC - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia if you're more interested in it).

So far, aside from the anti virus, the only thing I could think of that could slow down your system would be the VM unless there was some other issue.

I went back to the dealer about a week later and purchased VMWare Fusion and XP Professional and had them install these. We needed to be able to use a number of PC programs for my wife’s work. As to why I did not purchase another PC, after three times having to reinstall Vista, save and reinstall data and programs I looked to Mac as a solution. Meanwhile when I got home I installed Print Master 18 Platinum, Quick Tax 2009, Kaspersky 2010, Jasc Pro Paint Shop 8, plus Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Works 4.0 and our printer drivers onto the PC side.

Some of those have easy to use Mac versions, some don't. I'm not sure why you installed Works and Office 2003 as those two products overlap, but that's neither here nor there - as long as the VM is not running, it shouldn't affect usage on the Mac side in terms of speed.

Why did I install an antivirus on the Mac you ask. I was concerned that since we were using the “virtual PC” on the Mac that we needed protection on the pc end and the Mac. That is why I purchased Kaspersky for both.

Already been addressed .

Have I repaired disk permissions or cleaned out cache was one question? No I have not. This is all new, I am still learning, slowly finding out where everything is and what it does. I thought from what I read before my purchase and from other friends who had Macs, that there was no need for tweaking on Macs. I guess I was wrong. Besides, I do not remember my old Apple II GS having to be tweaked.

No worries - and really, this isn't tweaking like you would on a windows box - this is more like general maintenance. Although there are some tweaks that some people do, it's not a necessity. Maintenance tho is a good idea for helping to keep your system operating normally. Links have already been provided in other posts, so no need to elaborate more

I change the settings for VMWare Fusion from dual core to a single and cut back the ram to 1000. I ran a speed test and got 23.92 download and .95 upload.

Did dealing with the CPU and RAM setting help the overall performance of the VM and the main OS while the VM was running (not referring to internet speed but general operation)? It should have unless Kaspersky is also causing a problem as well which it may very well be as it can be attempting to scan the overall VM as like it's a loaded data file, and depending on how your VM is setup the file that acts as the hard drive could be huge and Kaspersky scanning that file would really hose the system until it was done, and of course if something changed and K noticed it, then K would probably attempt to scan it again creating an awful vicious cycle...

Are you running this speed test on the Mac side or in the VM? Also, what is your speed normally?

I can not seem to uninstall Kaspersky from the Mac. There seems to be no uninstall file for it under applications and there is no icon on the dock and when I put the mouse over the icon in the top right of the screen it just turns to a colour wheel. As a result I can not test to see if the antivirus program is the problem.

Already covered for the uninstall. But, I'd have to guess if your beach balling (what many refer to that color wheel as is a beach ball) on that icon, there is a possibility that it is causing you grief.

And yes I am quite often have both the Mac side and the PC side open at the same time. I hope this helps and I will now try some of the rest of your suggestions.

Another question - and this isn't meant to be offensive, so please don't take it that way - did anyone explain to you how to properly quite an application on the Mac? I know it's a common problem for new switchers to click the red X in the corner expecting that to quit the application like the X would in windows apps. If that's what you've been doing to try to quit an application it could be that you're leaving a lot of things running when you don't intend to. IF that's what you're doing - to quit, you either should use the Application menu (the applications name right next to the apple icon in the top bar) and select quit, or press Command Q to quit the current application.

 

[ZorroAMG]

you see the route of your problem is BILL GATES!!!!

Root.

 

[Stanley]

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1) The core issue is using legacy Printmaster files made on a PC, on the new Imac.
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2) Why not use the Mac version of Printmaster?
.
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[Mac SK]

Root.

Maybe it was a long trip!

Wow We are on page 4.

 

[macwannabe]

Maybe it was a long trip!

Wow We are on page 4.

You guys write short stories for answers then everyone quotes each other that is why we are on page four.

The last post on page 3 sounds great thou get the mac version and uninstall windows completely. Problem solved