Approximately a year ago I bought a Macbook Pro and tried to figure out the best way to continue using Quickbooks. My conclusion was that it was best to continue running Quickbooks on my old Windows machine, but there were obvious downsides to this arrangement. One of the commenters on that post suggested using VMWare to install Windows on my Mac, but at the time I was still getting used to using a Mac, and didn’t want that added hassle. A month ago, I reread that post and the comments, and decided to give VMWare a try.
The results were so good it makes me want to swear at myself for not doing it sooner. Here’s how it works:
1. Install VMWare Fusion for Mac.
2. Install Windows. In my case I installed the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Professional.
3. Install Windows programs on your Mac, within VMWare.
4. Run Windows and Windows programs on your Mac.
It’s really a piece of cake. Right now I’m typing this blog post on my Mac, within the Mac OS. But I’ve got a window up for VMWare, and if I switch over to it, which I do just as I would switch over to any other program, it shows a Windows screen. It’s like a window into Windows, or a window containing Windows. In there everything works just as though I were on a Windows machine. So now I run Quickbooks in there, along with my check scanning software my bank gave me which also doesn’t run on a Mac. It’s a beautiful thing, and VMWare Fusion is a mere $50 bucks. Try it out for 30 days for free, I think you’ll be as happy as I am with it.
