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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > Help - Powerbook in Windows workplace

Help - Powerbook in Windows workplace
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rs
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Jan 21, 2004, 07:52 AM
 
I have a powerbook 667 nonDVI w/ 768 ram running 10.2.x which I use for work.

I need perfect integration with an exchange server and with salesforce.com which tightly integrates with microsoft outlook and the windows version of internet explorer.

I have been getting around using safari and mail app for work but I can't continue like this anymore, as I am missing a lot of funcionality.

My work day is spent 80% of time working with need for microsoft outlook and microsoft internet explorer windows version, there is no way around it. I will soon need to use MSoffice for windows due to the same integration features with salesforce.

Virtual pc is unusable with XP and these two apps on my machine. I need XP to use the most recent MS outlook versions.

Either I find a solution to run VPC, windows IE and windows outlook in a powerbook or I have no choice but to swithch to a PC, which obviously i don't want.

Will using a new faster powerbook solve this? will a possible g5 powerbook, solve this? Or do I really have to buy a pc for work and keep my mac at home?

Thanks.
     
wildcard
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Jan 21, 2004, 09:34 AM
 
Why wouldn't Entourage (in the Mac version of Office) work for Exchange? I mean, you can set it up to interact with an Exchange server just like the PC version of Outlook. That would take care of your mail/calendar/etc. needs

As far as salesforce.com software, I'm assuming you've tried stuff like enabling Safari's Debug menu and setting it to the "WINDOWS MSIE 6.0" emulation., and trying the latest version of Mac Internet Explorer. You MAY be out of luck here, but I'd check in with their tech support to find out if they're just working with MS Java vs. Sun Java, or something specific like that.

Barring that, I'm not sure why you couldn't use an older version of Windows on VPC-Win2000 should work fine with Office XP. XP is definitely a performance hog as opposed to 2000 on PC's in my experience.

That being said, I'll have the XP version of VPC arriving with my newer Ti/867 'Book with 1 GB of Ram and I can let you know how much of a hit I take, to see if it's really worth it to migrate to a more expensive Apple product. Personally, given the fact that a new Powerbook would be much more expensive than a PC deskop, and that your employer might be able to provide the new PC for you at no personal cost, you may end up having to migrate.
     
fizzlemynizzle
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Jan 21, 2004, 09:44 AM
 
Entourage's support for Exchange is pretty limited. Entourage uses IMAP while Outlook uses MAPI. Because of this there are a lot of things that don't work the same or as well as they do w/ Outlook.

Does your company have Outlook Web Access configured? I typically use that when I have my powerbook at the office.
     
typoon
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Jan 21, 2004, 10:37 AM
 
Why not upgrading to 10.3 Doesn't it have better support for Windows Netowrks?
"Evil is Powerless If the Good are Unafraid." -Ronald Reagan

Apple and Intel, the dawning of a NEW era.
     
rs  (op)
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Jan 21, 2004, 11:06 AM
 
The support for exchange servers in entourage is lousy. I don't have access to most features we use.

I have looked around forums and people have the same problems I do.

The problem with sales force is mainly that they have plugins to use with pc's and not with mac's. these plugging are critical for me.

I know that I have no alternative but using IE,Office,Outlook for windows.

What I need to know is if there is a way to run them as a primary and critical work tool on a powerbook using VPC...
     
Thorin
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Jan 21, 2004, 11:09 AM
 
I have no experience using VPC, so I can't comment there.

But, would it be possible for you to run a windows desktop machine, and VNC into it from your powerbook? I do this at the moment and VNC into a WinXP machine (my ex-main machine in my pre-powerbook days) and a Linux box I use for odd things. It can get a little slow sometimes, but for the most part it's pretty useable. Might not be suitable for you at all, but I just thought I'd suggest it.
     
parsec_kadets
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Jan 21, 2004, 01:04 PM
 
One problem I see relates to your suggestion of getting a G5 PowerBook. That wouldn't work because VPC 6 does not support G5 processors. The next version of VPC will, but Microsoft won't release that for a few months. So you would have to be willing to buy that as well.

Oh yeah, there's also that whole notion that a G5 PB probably won't show up until the second half of this year at the earliest. That's probably too late for you.
     
wildcard
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Jan 21, 2004, 05:20 PM
 
Update re: VPC performance on a faster Powerbook...

My Stats: Tibook/867 with 1 GB PC133 RAM.

Comments: Just moving around seems a bit slow-turning off a lot of the XP Eye-Candy (i.e. adjusting all visual effects for best performance, turning off excess services that you don't use or need) helps a lot. I'd liken the performance on my system to someone running a PC that barely meets XP's system requirements. If part of what you need is working in something like Powerpoint or Photoshop for Windows, it's going to be laggy. I'd go with the secondary PC and VNC/remote connecting to it if you need major Windows horsepower. For running, say, Outlook in the background, and that's it? You could make do with a faster machine with more RAM (and it's also another reason to justify buying a new Powerbook to any relevant significant others
     
terrancew_hod
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Jan 21, 2004, 06:56 PM
 
You might take a look Groupcal. I believe it syncs exchange's calendar with iCal. And then there's also a free product to sync all the exchange address into the Addressbook.

As far as the browser, you may have to play around with Safari or get one of the other browsers available for the Mac that are more compatible for your needs...

The mail program works decent in Panther, although I don't do too much with it. I was however able (after a little configuration with the OS X user settings) to retrieve mail from our Exchange server, and log into my company's network.

Hope this helps,

Terrance
15.2" 1.25GHz Powerbook G4
(First official mac)

My Ghetto Hot Mess
     
Switched2Mac
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Jan 21, 2004, 11:36 PM
 
Many of these tools use Outlook API's to add "hook in" to Exchange via Outlook.

RPC all the way.

So it will never work on a Mac, even running Microsoft software.

This doesn't mean that someone couldn't code something to work around this, but it would be unlikely.

Your best bet might be in exporting the data at regular intervals to a format that you can use on your Mac. That is the route that I would investigate.

Perl, AppleScript, even VBA (office X) could be used to assist you in this effort.

You might even be able to get some other folks interested in helping you in this endeavor.

Just a suggestion....
     
   
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