On 10 Mar 2005 at 12:05, Brad Beyenhof wrote: > The recommendation of VMware was a good one for Windows users. VMware > allows you to create an endless supply of "throwaway" virtual machines > on which you can continue to reinstall the OS from scratch every 30 > days. Of course, all you'll need to install on the virtual machine > will be the OS and Finale, so it won't take near as long as a > traditional reformat/reinstall.
If you had it on a separate hard drive partition, you could image it and restore the image. This looks pretty viable, actually, but it is dependent on 3rd-party software (VMWare) that is rather pricey ($200), and that is itself somewhat precarious, being a one-product company (though a division of a larger one). Assuming VMWare is still around when MM goes under seems to me to be just re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The only way you can really be certain you can keep a working version of Finale in the event of the demise of MM is to have: 1. your last-purchased version of Finale (assuming you only need the one). 2. the OS installation disk for the latest version of the OS on which your #1 version of Finale runs on. 3. a machine on which you are guaranteed to be able to install both the OS and Finale. The easiest way to accomplish this is simply to keep a dedicated PC, fully set up. You could add: 4. a copy of VMWare that runs on the OS in #3. and that would make it possible to circumvent the 30-day expiration, but if you've got a PC that is in running order with an authenticated version of Finale already installed, you don't really need that! So, I don't really see that VMWare adds much value to the equation. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
