Tech Blurb

It’s been a while since I’ve played around w/ my refurbished macbook.  I’ll use it every so now and then at home, after work, to browse the Internet.  Occasionally I’ll check up on work on the computer, not often though because I simply don’t have the applications loaded up on the macbook.  I need Microsoft Office, and more importantly Excel.

Well, now that’s changed.  I had been meaning to install either Parallels or Vmware’s Fusion on the macbook so I could run Windows XP and Office 2003.  Finally got around to it after some brief research.  I ended up going w/ Vmware’s Fusion to run my virtual pc.  Parallels got good reviews.  But Fusion got better reviews.  Went with the 30 day free trial, which you can get through Vmware’s website.  Just download the program.

• Slightly more ppl favored Fusion
• Fusion a little faster in performance
• Fusion’s better handling of displays/graphics
• Better support for peripherals (usb/bluetooth)
• Easier installation (clincher for me)

So after installing Fusion, my refurbished macbook has become a hybrid.  It’s kind of cool.  I’m still playing around with it.  But I definitely wanted to share some hints for those of you guys installing Fusion.  I ran into some minor hiccups during installation that I wanted to comment on.

1. Installing of Fusion software was easy.  Just double click on the install program and it’ll walk you through the process.
2. I bypassed the “Easy Install” option for Fusion.
3. So I’m running the Windows installation process, you know… the blue screen, and I get to the part where I have to hit F8 to agree to the terms of installation.  However, when I tried hitting the F8 button, it activated the Mac Expose shortcut.  I found out that you have to disable the F8 function shortcut, either through Fusion’s preferences or in your Mac OS Expose Personal preferences.  You do this temporarily.  After you get past the installation process, you can turn the Expose feature back on.
4. Have your Windows XP serial number handy.  I had a backup copy w/ the sn written on the CD.  When I was prompted to enter the serial number, I had no way of ejecting the disc out.  Unlike PCs w/ their cd trays, the macbook uses a superdrive.  B/c the install disc was running in the Windows console, I had no way of ejecting the disc.  Mac OS X didn’t recognize it.  I hit the eject button on the top right corner… I did everything but couldn’t figure out how to pop the CD out.  Finally I found out that you can disconnect/connect the optical drive in Fusion.  After disconnecting, you can switch over to Mac OS and eject the CD.

Still playing around w/ the dual os setup.  I have to admit, it’s pretty neat.  If you turn on Fusion’s Unity feature, XP integrates itself into Mac OSX, rather than running as a separate console window.  You can run any of your Windows applications as if they were part of Mac OSX.  That’s awesome.