Can a Mac do these things?

[thebrass]

Hi Macrumors crew,

Work bought me a new Macbook Pro (for some bizzare reason) but insist we use Windows 7 thru Bootcamp. Most of the applications I use are Windows-based for work, but I'd love to just run OSX natively instead of Win7.

What I'm wondering is if the following functions would be replicable on the Mac side instead so I can finally ditch Windows at work for myself:



1. Email: Work uses Outlook 2010 and when it opens it requires a password in the 'credential tiles' section. Can Apple Mail (or other Mac client) replace this easily, even with the extra security it seems to have?

2. Remote Desktop: Work has a remote desktop icon that we have to use for the backend of our warehouse:

Which opens:

3. Shared Drives: I've been told that by December we'll be fully upgraded to a new server in the building running Win7 Server I think. I need to access shared drives each day at work. Does this also transfer to mac easily? Can I see them on there just as easily?:

Sorry if these are stupid questions. I just hate using Windows thru bootcamp another day...

 

[joelk2]

Question 1: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/outlook

outlook is available on the mac.

Question 2: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/remote-desktop-client

its the windows remote desktop client so im assuming it would run roughly the same way

Question 3: Yes, as far as network shares go its not really any different from pc to mac (on my basic knowledge)

 

[imthenachoman]

Mac cannot write to NTFS reliably though. Not yet. I think there is software available you can install that lets you write it but I don't think they are error-proof.

 

[mankar4]

I have been able to write ntfs without any noticeable errors using Paragon NTFS. There is also NTFS-3g which is slower but free.

 

[joelk2]

I have been able to write ntfs without any noticeable errors using Paragon NTFS. There is also NTFS-3g which is slower but free.

ive been using NTFS-3g since i got my macbook in 2010 without any problems.

 

[GGJstudios]

Mac cannot write to NTFS reliably though.

That is false. Writing to NTFS is very reliable from Mac OS X, once it has been enabled via a reliable app such as Paragon.

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
  [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
  • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon ($19.95) (Best Choice for Lion and Mountain Lion)
  • For Mac OS X 10.5 and later, including Lion, FUSE for OS X
  • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
  • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36), which is an enhanced version of NTFS-3G with faster performance.
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and later versions, but is not advisable, due to instability.
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
• Maximum file size: 16 TB
• Maximum volume size: 256TB
• You can use this format if you routinely share a drive with multiple Windows systems.

 

[hallux]

Writing to NTFS isn't an issue, over the network. Only the "host" computer (the server in this case) needs to be able to write to the file system of the drives installed in it, SMB takes care of the rest.

As others noted, there are solutions to the other issues as well. I can attest to Outlook 2011 working fine in an environment where you need to login to email with a different account from your NT login. RDC works nice for remote desktop, with a quirk here and there but otherwise reliable.