Running Solar Fire On The Mac

Running Solar Fire and Other Windows Programs
on the Mac
We do not officially support Solar Fire on the Mac, but we have many customers who do
successfully use Solar Fire on a Mac equipped with an Intel chip, Windows, and a Windows
emulation program like Boot Camp, Parallels, Virtual PC or VirtualBox. Besides doing emulation,
these virtualization or "bridge" programs isolate the Windows environment from the Mac
environment so viruses can't jump from one side to the other.
Do I need to run anti-virus software on my virtual Windows?

ANSWER: This depends on how you work with your Virtual Windows. If you never connect to the
internet on the Windows device (no websites, no emails, no program updates, no downloads, no
Solar Live), then you do not need an antivirus for your Windows.
If you ever go online and visit websites, check email, or update programs (including Solar Fire or
the Solar Live notifications) then you DO need anti-virus and anti-spyware software for your PC
side. (Even if you have anti-virus software on the Mac side, it can't protect the PC side.) Your
virtual Windows can become infected by a computer virus or malware just like any other
Windows system.
Putting Windows on Your Mac

All of the Windows emulations on a Mac require that you have a Windows disk and a license key
(serial number) for Windows that you are not currently using somewhere else. An old Windows
installation disk from an old derelict computer should work. Solar Fire Gold v. 7 or V8 will work on
any Windows version from Windows ME and NT onwards, so you can use an old version of
Windows with Virtual Box or Parallels. See below for details about the Windows requirements of
the various emulator programs.
Here are notes on using each emulation program, and also on getting the Mac keyboard and
mouse to function more like the way they do in Windows.
Using Boot Camp

We recommend using Boot Camp, which comes free with newer Intel OS-X Macs (or can be
downloaded free from the net) and is simpler to use than Parallels. On our office MacBook
laptop, Boot Camp runs Windows programs as fast or faster than they run on a regular PC. Boot
Camp’s only drawback is that you can run either Windows or the Mac operating system, but not
both at the same time. To switch to Windows, you need to close the Mac op system and open
Windows, making it hard to share files between the Mac and Windows parts of your computer. If
necessary, you can copy the files generated in Windows onto a flash drive before rebooting in
the Mac op system and using the files there in applications such as email. For more info on Boot
Camp, visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1461
You’ll find instructions for installing Boot Camp by selecting your Mac’s Help menu and searching
for “Boot Camp”. There are also instructions at this
site: https://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/. It's easy to make a Windows partition, and you
can change your mind later and easily take Windows off again in a couple of minutes.
With Boot Camp you need to load a full version of Windows 7, 8.1 or 10. If possible, we
recommend getting XP or 7 rather than Vista. If you are installing an upgrade version of
Windows, you can't eject the upgrade CD when you are asked to insert the older Windows CD.
(However, if you have an external CD drive you can insert both CDs at the same time and it will
work. Put the older Windows disk in the external CD drive and just press Enter when the
Windows install program asks you to insert the old CD.)
By the way, Boot Camp will make a Windows partition and format it for you, but you still have to
let the Windows installation program format it again or it won't install properly. If you don't use
Windows much, then let it make the default a small-sized Fat32 partition (which OS-X can also
use). If you use Windows a lot, you might want to make a bigger partition and let Windows format
it with ntfs.
Using VirtualBox
Our second recommendation would be to use VirtualBox. Sun Microsystems sponsors
this free emulation program which lets you set up Windows inside a file on your hard disk, thus
enabling you to run Windows on the Mac desktop. It is fairly fast, and it also works on Linux. We
have tried it on the Mac. It's only a little harder to set up than Parallels and it works quite well.
There's more info on VirtualBox at http://www.virtualbox.org/. There is an overview on the
VirtualBox site here of how well VirtualBox supports various operating systems. There is also a
good introduction with a screenshot of VirtualBox running Windows 8 on a Mac in the beginning
of the online VirtualBox manual.
The VirtualBox emulator will work with older versions of Windows other than Win XP, but it
doesn't have drivers for hi-res video. The video driver that we used to load Windows ME and
Solar Fire on VirtualBox is no longer available, but you can try this one, which is the only place
we could find one any more: http://bearwindows.boot-land.net/vbe9x.htm.
Using Parallels
Parallels lets you run Windows inside a window on the Mac desktop, and you can run other
operating systems on the Mac without rebooting. You can find more information on Parallels
at http://www.parallels.com/ .
With the current versions of Solar Fire v. 7.0.1 and higher, Parallels users MUST turn off Shared
Profiles / Sharing.
The shared profile setting tells Parallels to share your documents folder with the Mac, but it's not
compatible with a lot of programs and Solar Fire can't find any user files when it's turned on.
How to get to the necessary setting in Parallels versions 8 - 10: http://kb.parallels.com/en/6912
How to get to the necessary setting in Parallels version

7: http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v7/ga-
locales/documentation/en_US/Parallels%20Desktop%20User%27s%20Guide/
Go to Use Windows on Your Mac > Set How Windows Works with Mac OS X > Share Items
Between Mac OS X and Windows > Share Files and Folders
How to get to the necessary setting in Parallels version
6: http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v6/docs/en/Parallels_Desktop_Users_Guide/22694.htm
After you turn off the shared profile setting you must tell Windows to restart and also allow
Parallels to move your document files back to the default location if it asks you for permission to
do so.
For those using Solar Fire version 6 and earlier, you can leave the shared profile turned on.
Parallels users report that they can simulate a Windows right mouse-click by
pressing Control and Shift as they click.
Using VMware
There is a setting in VMware called 'Shared folders' that needs to be turned off. Be sure the
virtual machine is open in Workstation and click its tab to make it the active virtual machine.
Choose VM > Settings > Options and make sure 'Shared folders' is turned off. More information
on shared folders in VMware is
at: http://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_running_shared_folders.html *
* Note that this linked article is for older versions of VMware Workstation, but the settings are the
same or very similar in newer VMware Workstation versions.
Using Virtual PC
This older emulation program does not run on any Windows version newer than Windows 7, and
if you choose to use it you will need to download fixes with the program. More information is
here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3702
When the Windows software says you need to press Control while you click, in Virtual PC you
have to instead press Control and Option while you click.
Using Crossover or Wine

Nova Chartwheels will work on a very limited Windows emulator called Crossover which you can
review at http://www.codeweavers.com/. The same is true for Wine; you can look at the Wine
website for more information http://www.winehq.org/.
However, Solar Fire will not work - probably because Solar Fire makes such extensive use of all
of the graphics, font, and internet capabilities of Windows.
Adapting the Mac's Mouse and Delete Keys in Boot
Camp
Using the Mouse
If the wireless mouse made by Apple doesn’t work in Windows, you might have to use a wired
USB mouse instead. Most of the time I plug in a PC USB mouse, simply because I love my
mouse wheel. This isn't as much of an issue as it used to be, especially since Apple has begun
offering two-button mice.
Adapting the Delete Keys

On the Windows keyboard, the Delete key deletes the next character, and the Backspace key
deletes the previous one. The Mac keyboard has only a Delete key, and this deletes the
previous character. If this bothers you, you can get a keyboard hotkey program and reprogram
the Mac’s right-hand Command key to be a Delete key that works like the Delete key on a PC.
(The Command key on the Mac is the same as the Windows key in Windows, but there are two
of them and you need only one.) Here's a link to a free hotkey program called
AutoHotKey: http://www.autohotkey.com/docs/misc/Remap.htm.
If you use this program, click on button #62 and change it to say 'Del'.
For workarounds in emulators other than Boot Camp, see the websites for those programs.

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Running Solar Fire and Other Windows Programs

Do I need to run anti-virus software on my virtual Windows?

Putting Windows on Your Mac

Using Boot Camp

How to get to the necessary setting in Parallels version

Using Crossover or Wine

Adapting the Delete Keys

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