Virtual PC with Excel

[Rickbw]

After doing much discovery it appears the best solution for me is to
purchase Virtual PC, load Excel 2000 and then I should be able to use
the add ins on my new iBook. Does this make sense? I really like my
new iBook, but also want to be able to use a couple financial
investment workbooks that I have set up. However, before going and
spending another $200 I wanted to make sure this solution makes sense
to those who would know.

Thanks for the help,

 

[Michael Vilain]

After doing much discovery it appears the best solution for me is to
purchase Virtual PC, load Excel 2000 and then I should be able to use
the add ins on my new iBook. Does this make sense? I really like my
new iBook, but also want to be able to use a couple financial
investment workbooks that I have set up. However, before going and
spending another $200 I wanted to make sure this solution makes sense
to those who would know.

Thanks for the help,

Not really. Seems like a waste to run Excel in VPC where you have to
maintain another computer environment. If all you want to do is run
these workbooks, why do you bother with an iBook and just get a cheap
PC.

If that's all you need a computer for, running XP in emulation seems
like such a waste. Buy a cheap PC instead.

 

[Rickbw]

You make an excellent point and if all I wanted was to run excel you
would be correct, But I want to be able to run one spreadsheet and
have the benefits of a MAC.

I was just curious if running excel with Virtual PC will allow me to
utilize the add ins. Anyone know????

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Rick-

You should be able to run the add-ins (although I can't say I've tried them
all). What you will probably find, though, is that performance speed -
overall - may not be to your liking. I run VPC7/WinXP Pro/Office 2000 on my
Dual 2GHz G5 w/1.5 GB RAM simply for convenience/researching purposes and
find the speed 'tolerable'.

If the add-ins you need are available in Excel 2004, however, you should be
able to run those workbooks without VPC.

HTH |:>)

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Rick,

I presume that you have encountered a situation where you want to use
some add-ins that were poorly written and run only on Windows.

At work and at home I've had the luxury of having the ability to use and
compare Virtual PC to a mixed environment of Mac and seperate PCs. I've
used the PCs as stand-alones and also using Microsoft's desktop PC
connection.

As far as maintaining the Windows environment is concerned, if all you
want to use is Excel and the add-ins without any network or internet
connections then keeping your PC (whether its a virtual PC or made of
hardware) up to date is not much of an issue. Just keep it disconnected
from all networks.

Having an extra hardware PC is a bit of a pain. It takes room, takes
time to start up and shut down, and then you need to move your files
back and forth between your mac and the PC.

The way to go is Virtual PC. You can "pause" a virtual PC so that it is
always in the state that you left it. It does not have to started up,
simply "restored" which takes very little time. You can have a shared
directory, so your Excel files can be accessed by both the PC and the
Mac without having to move the files at all.

For me, the convience of a Virtual PC is so great that it makes a
hardware PC (even a free one) seem like a klutzy distant second choice
solution.

-Jim

 

[Rickbw]

Jim,

Thank you. I plan on purchasing Virtual PC.

Rick

 

[Hylton Boothroyd]

The way to go is Virtual PC. You can "pause" a virtual PC so that it is
always in the state that you left it. It does not have to started up,
simply "restored" which takes very little time.

I've never needed to go beyond VPC 4 for DOS, which I still use
occasionally.

Saving the current state also freezes the emulated system clock. So the
dates and times of files fall behind actual time.