Suggestions for building a VMWare Fusion VM for Quicken

[InfoTime]

I'd like to build a VMWare Fusion VM for just one purpose: running Quicken. I don't care about any other Windows apps or features. The only reason to keep Windows around for this machine is Quicken. Period.

There are two approaches that come to mind. One is to use TinyXP. The other is a clean install of XP Home or Pro with nothing else added, plus possibly turning off some services.

TinyXP: I've played with it a bit. I noticed in Task Manager that it's using 82 MB RAM on boot . That may be the way to go, but I don't know if there's any services missing that may be needed. Printing comes to mind as one. If I recall correctly I had to install printing support after the fact.

XP Home or Pro: this is a known quantity, but may not be as efficient as TinyXP.

It would be nice to have the Quicken file stored on the Mac partition so that Time Machine would do all the backing up.

Any suggestions on how best to approach this?

edit: if you want to discuss the merits of running Quicken or something else, please see Think running Quicken for Windows on your Mac is a bad idea - post here. Please keep this thread's discussion about optimizing a VM for Quicken. Thanks.

 

[mhgator05]

Dump Quicken

Give up on the bloatware, and the constant stuff they install on your machine. Which, after you track it down and remove it, is reinstalled when the program defecates and support tells you to reinstall a couple three times a year.

Gave it up after 10 years and don't miss it a bit. I use Mint (although Intuit is bound to mess that up too) and bill pay from my bank.

 

[AshMan]

You can create your own streamlined xp if you have another windows machine to make it. Make an iso of xp and use a program called Nlite to sliptream in the ms service packs for xp and you can use it to remove the stuff you don't need from windows. Create a new iso and you are all set to go.

Check into it. I've done it before.

There is also a similar program called winlite I believe.

You may even be able to create the iso with quicken in it so it is preinstalled.

Vm may be able to access file on mac partition for your time machine backup though I suspect since vm file is actually on the mac partition it would get backed up with time machine

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

Any suggestions on how best to approach this?

Quicken is supported by CrossOver. Try it, Time Machine will back up the individual files and you won't have the overhead of a VM just to run one program.

 

[InfoTime]

Quicken is supported by CrossOver. Try it, Time Machine will back up the individual files and you won't have the overhead of a VM just to run one program.

Are you using it? Last time I looked they had spotty support for Quicken. Looks like it's improved now to the Silver level of Quicken 2010:

The Silver is awarded to applications that install and run well enough to be usable. However, in our testing, we find that these applications have bugs that prevent them from running flawlessly.

 

[balamw]

There is also a similar program called winlite I believe.

http://nliteos.com/ is probably what you are thinking of.

Funny how the other thread devolved into "that seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to do."

OP. You didn't mention which Mac and which version of Quicken you have. Do you use the online features of Quicken? Might make some differences in approach.

B