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Virtual PC on my iBook

I

in2themystik2

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 28, 2005
74
0
Ohio
I am a student and just got Office 2004 Professional from my university. I installed the office disc, but do not fully understand what Virtual PC is. My understanding is that you put that on a mac, and are able to open PC programs on the Mac? That is as deep as my understanding goes. Is there anyone that can better explain it? Also, is this a necessary or recommended program? Would this be helpful if i have two computers, a PC and a Mac?

Thanks for any information! :)
 
VPC is a program that emulates a pc. You can install windows and run most windows based programs. It is not as fast as having a PC, but it works for the occasional Windows application.

If you want to use Office, I highly recommend you getting an Office version for Mac (which I'm not sure if you have a Mac version or a PC version).

If you do have a Mac version, then you do not need VPC to run it.
 
I got Office 2004, which is for Mac, but it came with Virtual PC, for other programs and applications I guess.
 
Ok, I understand now. As long as you don't have any Windows apps to run, then you do not need to install VPC. I use it for a windows only stat package required for work, and it works decent. It is slow sometimes and unresponsive, but sometimes it is the only alternative. Hold on to it until you need it.
 
grapes911 said:
Ok, I understand now. As long as you don't have any Windows apps to run, then you do not need to install VPC. I use it for a windows only stat package required for work, and it works decent. It is slow sometimes and unresponsive, but sometimes it is the only alternative. Hold on to it until you need it.
Click to expand...

On an iBook it's probably going to be very slow. I'm pretty happy with it on my iMac G5. Unless you can dedicate half a gig of RAM to Virtual PC, it's godawful.
 
in2themystik2 said:
I got Office 2004, which is for Mac, but it came with Virtual PC, for other programs and applications I guess.
Click to expand...
Yes, this is correct. Office 2004 is the Mac version of the Microsoft productivity suite. Virtual PC is a part of the Professional bundle. It is not included with Office 2004 Student and Teachers or Office 2004 Standard. Whether you buy it as part of the Office bundle or as a standard alone product, Virtual PC allows you to run just about any Intel-compatible OS (save MacOS X for Intel) and its applications on your PPC-based Mac.
 
The version they sell to us at my university is the professional version, that's what it says. It came with two discs, the Office 2004 disc and the Virtual PC disc, which I have not yet put on my computer, but will hang on to in case I end up needing it.
 
fancy selling me your virtual pc disk for cheap? i need it urgent and i aint got money to pay 200quid for it off apple or whatever
 
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