The hates Windows person here whose most current exposure to Windows is Windows 2000. I have a need for at least a 30 day trial period to run a SW package that runs on Windows 7 and above as part of some testing of LambTracker Registry functions.
I do run VMWare on one of my Macs but performance is suffering and my VMWare Windows install is the aforementioned Windows 2000. My VMWare is also very old and I’d need to upgrade it too to get it to handle current Windows systems.
Initial thoughts were to buy a cheap Windows machine and just do it. But I have very little desk space with 3 computers and a spare monitor already fighting over my desk. So then the idea was buy or repurpose some existing machine and put it upstairs and use Remote Desktop to run it from my Mac.
We tried using Remote Desktop to the Win 7 machine but it’s a Home version and won’t run the server necessary for me to gain access. Tried to upgrade it to Win 10 Pro and it failed. Hardware not supported we think. It was one of hubby’s old tower machines.
Since neither of us do Windows we’re flying blind on whether to just buy a newer Win desktop or not. I really wish I could test it with the package I need to see first before paying for a whole new machine.
I’m also scrambling to get some LambTracker bugs fixed that I need to have working and the data corrected before 8am tomorrow. I’ve got critical sheep work that needs to happen then that requires the LambTracker code to be working. So I’m not really running on all cylinders but would like to hear other suggestions or ideas we may have missed. There is a big sale of Win machines at Sam’s Club on 9 November so I’d like to know whether to buy one then as it’s a lot less if that is the best choice.
I’m still on VMWare Fusion 8.5.9. Upgrading VMWare is on my list but pending new Mac HW.
I think I have a workaround for the 8AM deadline to update sheep alerts. I got it working this am just need to go set them all. Am working on that now.
Have a friend coming by with a Win 10 machine to do the remote desktop test at 1pm.
I’ll admit I don’t fully understand what you are trying to do, but if you want to run Windows you have approximately a billion options for doing it, from as mentioned VMWare/Virtual Box.
If you are looking for Remote Desktop, as I mentioned on the forums the other day, I am a huge fan of Chrome Remote Desktop, it’s a browser extension for everyone’s favourite browser
Another option for you is to simply rent a windows server or VM all the big cloud guys should allow you to use a windows server instance, particularly Microsoft’s Azure, most cloud providers give several months to a years free usage when you sign up.
Whatever option you go with, make sure your Windows image is fully patched and updated. There is a very serious flaw (discovered and patched a few months back) in the server side RDP implementation. This dates back many years and generations of Windows.
Update: Friend with Win 10 Pro version came by and we successfully installed the app I need to test and I verified I could use MRD to control it. Got Win 10 Home installed on one of the machines and are looking at the upgrade version now.
8 am sheep work deadline will be ok, got the required alerts set up in LambTracker and will be able to properly collect data for our researcher.
First look at the package that runs on Win and it’s a lot simpler than I was led to believe, so it should be relatively easy to replace it with modules in LambTracker. The big issue is going to be user interface. That is my bugaboo in general and for this package will be more important due to the complex displays/reports I need to produce. Does look like the Python code that is open source will be able to be integrated in and work for the more difficult equations so I don’t need to recreate it from scratch just modify to adapt to my specific use case. It will involve moving the database file on and off the handheld but I already do that regularly. I just need to clean up the interface for doing that so normal folks can do it without knowing the terminal app.
So, as soon as it’s light enough to work sheep we’ll get the experiment started and then I can come back in and focus on programming until we open up for our big farm tour event and end of season sale at 11.
Slightly off-topic, but I’m an annoying security guy at work, so why not here? Virtualization software is one of those categories that’s really important to keep up to date, or to get rid of.
Not off topic at all, Can I ask why? I had left the VM Ware stuff alone because it was working and the only things I did on that virtual machine are run one program, log into one secured web site and upload and download sheep registration transactions. No mail, no browsing, nothing else.
Visualization software integrates deeply into the host OS so bugs in it tend to become bug that affect the host. Couple that with the fact that it is supposed to enforce a barrier between host and guest, and that guest is often Windows and VMs (especially those rarely used) tend to be behind in their patching, Windows security issues can also become Mac security issues.
Update: Got a tower running Win 10 and got the remote stuff working from my own macs. Looked at my schedule for the next 2 weeks and decided not to get the 30 day trial of the SW until I will have a full 30 days to really run it through its paces. Currently thinking I’ll start after Thanksgiving and push hard to do the coding before Christmas.
Virtualization software is one of those categories that’s really important to keep up to date, or to get rid of.