Y'all, I'm running VPC v7.0.1 on a Mac G4 and have installed virtual w2k. As others have rightly pointed out, you need not install w2k in the VPC environment. If you wish to run only DOS programs, you can, of course, install DOS alone in the VPC environment. I chose to install w2k because I have other apps to run, not only Xy. VPC allows the installation of multiple virtual OSs under different profiles, and they can be run simultaneously. I appreciate that what Lisa has installed, Parallels, is slightly different to VPC. Just so yuz can see what we're talking about, I attach some screen shots from the VPC environment. Maybe Lisa can find equivalent functions in Parallels and keep us up-to-date on her progress in navigating around the Mac file system in virtual DOS/virtual Xy. As several people have pointed out, there is no equivalent to the c:\ root in Mac. DOS simply finds no such thing on the Mac HD. The magic word in Mac is that you have to "mount" [sic] a hardrive. This is accomplished in the Mac HD utility. This was necessary to get DOSBox or iEmulator to see anything on the Mac HD. It was not necessary in VPC however, which has solved the file system visibility problem within VPC itself. So, to the screen shots: VPC7-0-new OS.jpg shows: a) the typical Mac OS in the background (Finder, aliases to InDesign, Illustrator, etc.). b) the app currently active is VPC where virtual w2k is running; I activated the "new" function which opened the window in the foreground. This is where you would install DOS or whatever. VPC7-0-share.pdf shows the menu function which allows the virtual OS to 'see' folders on the Mac HD. My virtual w2k 'saw' the Mac's CD-ROM and the network adapter off-the-peg; no configuration was necessary (apart from an IP address on the virtual NIC). This function may be available only after you have successfully installed an OS in the virtual environment, however. I don't know whether this function was available before w2k was installed because I installed w2k and VPC together as a package. As I was installing w2k from CD-ROM, it helped enormously that VPC recognized the Mac's CD-ROM out of the box. Trying to get a virtual DOS-only OS to 'see' the Mac HD appears to present additional difficulties. It may be that Parallels hasn't solved the visibility problem between the two OSs so neatly as VPC has done. We just have to wait and see. Keep at it, Lisa--we await further news with baited breath. VPC7-0-share-options.pdf shows the share options available, once a shared folder has been selected on the Mac HD. Incidentally, virtual w2k selected a different hardware address for the virtual NIC than the Mac's hardware address on the physical NIC. This means that, as far as the network is concerned, they are separate entities and can therefore share files by (T)FTP or SMB. VPC7-0-virtual-Xy3.pdf shows what Xy3 looks like in the virtual w2k environment in windowed mode; full screen is also available. I can shell out to DOS from the CL. VPC delivers in several forms. It delivers as a bare bones virtual platform w/o any OS; you supply the OS disks yourself. Or, it delivers as a package with w2k or XP included. I believe there may still be earlier versions of VPC available (from Amazon or wherever) which include(d) earlier Windows OSs. I'm not concerned whether Microsoft continues to support VPC or not. I've got it now and it runs. They can't take that away later. Finally, if you want to run Word (Excel, Access, PowerPoint, etc.) on a Mac, there is no need to run it in a virtual Windows environment. You can buy MS-Office for Mac; it installs right out of the box, and rather easier than in Windows I might add. Cheers,
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VPC7-0-virtual-Xy3.pdf
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VPC7-0-share.pdf
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VPC7-0-share-options.pdf
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