Updated: Tips, tricks and tools for the Windows / Mac switcher

Windows to Mac application alternatives

Useful Mac applications

For developers/sysadmin

Handy links

Entourage 2008

Rather than using Mail as my mail client, I’m using Microsoft Entourage (the equivalent of Outlook) because I need it for work. Getting data between Entourage and Outlook is not easy, unless you pay up for a tool to do it. However, if you install Thunderbird on your PC, you can export your Address Book and Email into a format you can import into Entourage.

You can sync your Entourage Address Book with the Mac Address Book by going to Preferences – Sync Services and ticking the appropriate box.

VMware Fusion

As much as I hate to admit it, we still need Windows sometimes – especially if you’re a Visual Studio developer like I am. Fortunately VMwave Fusion allows you to run a virtual machine of most operating systems – including Windows XP SP2 and Vista. And if you create a bootcamp partition for a Windows dual-boot, VMware Fusion will even allow you to run that in Mac OS X seemlessly!

I’m happy to report there’s no funny business with hosting IIS under a VM, and infact everything runs as fast – or faster! – than my old dual core Sony laptop. To make life a bit easier, I changed the Windows VM keyboard from UK to US to make the @ and ” keys the right way around (Control Panel – Regional and Language Options – Languages – Text services and input languages).

If you’re considering Parallels, I wouldn’t bother. Most users agree VMware Fusion is a more stable product and generally performs better. Afterall, it comes from a long line of VMware products.

Hosts file

Quite often I’d add a host to the Windows host file (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) when I was developing (it meant I didn’t have to wait for DNS updates to take hold). There’s a way to do it on a Mac too.

The missing # (hash) key

Update: see my post above to fix this in a Windows virtual machine, and make others keys work properly.

For some unknown reason, Apple didn’t put the hash symbol on the keyboard on European Mac Book Pro’s – but it’s there! Just press Alt + 3 and voila.

No right-click?

I don’t care what the Mac guys say (oh arse, that’s me now), I much prefer having a right-click on my mouse. If you do too, there’s the Mighty Mouse from Apple, or if you’ve got an old Microsoft mouse you can use that without any extra software (just plug it in) or install Intellipoint for Mac if you want access to the extra buttons.