It was me versus Microsoft and Apple on a computer, not the corporations but their manifestation in the computer. My wife needed to use a PC for engraver that runs on a PC. There was no Mac version of the software. Her lab is completely Mac, but according to the online ads at Apple, this isn’t a drawback. I know that because I’ve used Parallels to play some PC games on my Mac Book Pro.
But, her situation was different. One of the machines that she received from another school, that graphics program had changed, had used BootCamp with Windows XP Professional. She activated the virtual PC, installed the engravers software, and discovered to her great satisfaction that everything worked. But, there is always a but, she couldn’t get the computer to hook up to the her local network. Try as she might, nothing worked. She has set up the network and oversees it from her desk. She knows how a Mac network works. I know that Parallels’ virtual PC works with our wireless network, and BootCamp should to. So I went to school with her today to see if I could ‘fix’ the situation.
After running a Mac/PC lab for three or four years, I sort of familiar with the operation of the two operating systems (OS). I set up a bridge Mac that was recognized by the Pcs and we could transfer files between the two OS. Anyways, I sat there opening the properties of the various network components, both Ethernet and the wireless components, tweaking the settings. I did this for a couple of hours. You know how it is ‘man versus the machine.’ I knew I could get it to work. Whatever was not happening, was because something was missing. When I had exhausted all of my options, it was time for the internet search to begin. In hindsight, I should have started here, but I knew Windows.
Some of the items, missed the issue, but finally, modifying the search, I ended up with information that described the initial setup of the application with the operating system. There it was, the magic word. The word that I should have remembered from my previous experiences with Windows - DRIVERS.
As best as I can figure, the techs at the previous school, probably wanted to see how BootCamp worked. They installed a basic setup, fired it up and left it right there. They never installed the Windows drivers that would allow the virtual PC to recognize various Mac components. I manually installed anything and everything that might be of use. I had to manually install the drivers because the XP version running did not have Service Pack #2 on it, so the Windows installation wizards wouldn’t work. Well, to prevent this entry from becoming a chapter of a book, after some minor property adjustments, the connection to the network happened, and we were on line. I tried installing Service Pack #2 but the hard drive that the techs at the other school had set up wasn’t large enough (5.5 Gigabytes) to hand the temporary files - Ratz.
I found some fixes for this problem, but they were all time consuming, and I was running out of time. This operation took way longer than it should have. All because I didn’t remember ‘drivers’ soon enough. Oh, Windows, Windows, Windows! I hardly know you.
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