• Drag the "Universal SoftPC" folder (located in the "More Information folder on the CD) to your Mac's hard disk
• Double-click the "Universal SoftPC" folder to open it
• Double-click the document named "Demo Hard Disk." (Don't double-click the "Universal SoftPC" icon. Double-clicking the document is necessary as a setup shortcut.)
• Wait for the C:\> (called the "C prompt") to appear on the screen
You now have a working PC clone. It will run for 15 minutes before shutting down. If you know how to use a PC, go for it! Experiment and see what it will do. Use it as you would use any PC clone. Try loading some programs (or run them right off the DOS floppies), try out a DOS CD-ROM, or just play with DOS. If you have any DOS utilities that analyze PC hardware, try them out. You'll find that they see PC hardware, not Mac hardware! For more detailed information, you may be interested in reading the following:
WHAT CAN I DO WITH SOFTPC?
There are tens of thousands of interesting programs written for PCs which aren't available in Macintosh versions. With SoftPC installed on your Mac, that won't matter anymore. SoftPC is a Macintosh application that uses software to emulate a standard IBM PC/AT compatible in a window on your Macintosh screen, and it makes your Mac's CD-ROM player appear to be a PC CD-ROM player.
Until now, Mac users have had to live with the fact that most of the software world was off limits to them. With SoftPC on your Mac, it won't be off limits to YOU. You'll have the best of both worlds. You'll still enjoy all the benefits of your Macintosh, but with a double-click on SoftPC, you'll join the world of PC clones, too. With SoftPC, you'll have access to the BEST programs available to solve your particular problems, not just the the best available for the Macintosh. You'll be free to use DOS software right off the shelf, share data on DOS floppies with coworkers, use DOS CD-ROMs, and enjoy most of the benefits of any other PC clone owner, all in addition to the wonderful capabilities of your Macintosh.
WHAT DOES SOFTPC DO?
Your "PC"
SoftPC emulates the hardware in a typical PC. (Don't worry. Since it's all software, it doesn't actually change your Mac. If you don't like it, just quit the application and it's gone!) Specifically, it emulates an 80286-based PC compatible with 640K of RAM, and CGA graphics, connected to an Epson LQ-2500 printer. This emulated "hardware" is what your DOS software will "see." It won't see your real Mac hardware. With only a few exceptions, no matter what hardware you actually have in your Mac, your DOS software will see it as the above PC system. Most DOS software is written to work on PCs with this configuration, but there are exceptions. Check your DOS program's manual or contact the developers of the specific DOS program you want to run to find out if it will run on a PC with this "hardware."
Your Hard Disk Drive(s)
SoftPC also lets you create documents on your Mac hard disk that appear to be DOS hard disks. These are used for the "C: drive" and "D: drive" in MS-DOS. (A one megabyte hard disk file, called "Demo Hard Disk," has already been created for you in this demo version, but with the real version of SoftPC, you can make them much larger and make as many as you have room for.) When you're running SoftPC, these documents appear as physical hard disk drives attached to your PC. When you're not running SoftPC, though, you can see that they are actually nothing more than normal documents on your Mac's hard drive, like a "Memo to Fred" document created with a word processor. Your Mac's hard drive is never "partitioned" or modified in any way. You can drag these DOS hard disk files into the trash anytime you want to get rid of them.
Your Floppy Drive(s), Serial Ports, Keyboard, and Mouse
Your Mac's floppy drive becomes your PC's "A: drive" which is the normal PC floppy drive. It will read, write, and format DOS disks whenever you are running SoftPC. (Our "AccessPC" product gives your Superdrive this capability ALL THE TIME. Contact Insignia Solutions--see below--for more details.) If you have two Superdrives, you can make the other one your "B: drive."
If you have an Extended Keyboard, you use it just as if it were a full PC keyboard. If you have the Standard Keyboard (with no F1 F2 F3 keys running along the top) you can get DOS Fkeys by holding down the command key (the one with the Apple on it) and typing numbers on the numeric keypad (over on the right, NOT the number keys above the letters!) In other words, command-3 (using the 3 key in the lower right, not upper left of the keyboard) will be the same as typing the "F3" key on a PC. SoftPC also lets you communicate through the Mac's serial ports, and it can make your Macintosh mouse appear to be a Microsoft mouse for those DOS programs capable of accepting mouse input. (Not all of them have that ability, so check their manuals.)
Your CD-ROM Drive
You now own a Macintosh and a CD-ROM player. With this combination, you have access to some great Mac CD-ROM software, but most CD-ROMs are made for the PC and are still off limits to you. Unless you have SoftPC, of course. With SoftPC, however, ALMOST ALL CD-ROM software will run on YOUR Mac. With SoftPC on your Mac, you'll be able to run Mac CD-ROMs and DOS CD-ROMs. No PC owner can claim that! Again, if it's a DOS CD-ROM, just check to make sure that the software is designed to work on an 80286-based PC with 640K of RAM and CGA graphics. Also, of course, make sure there is a disk in your CD-ROM drive when you access your F: drive (the CD-ROM's designation)! If you want to eject your CD-ROM, go to "Eject" in the "Setup" menu and you'll see icons for your Superdrive and your internal CD-ROM player. If you select the CD-ROM icon, your CD-ROM will be ejected from the drive.
Your Printer
As mentioned, SoftPC will make your Macintosh printer (even if it's a network printer) appear to be an Epson LQ-2500 printer attached to the "parallel port" of your PC. (The parallel port is sometimes called "LPT1:" in case your DOS program asks for it by that name.) The Epson LQ-2500 is a very common printer in the PC world and one with which most DOS programs are comfortable. All you do is tell your DOS software (read their manual for instructions) to print to an Epson LQ-2500 on the parallel port (or "LPT1:" port) and the printing will emerge from your Macintosh printer. The real version of SoftPC has other printing options as well, including PostScript, but the demo version uses Epson emulation even if you have a PostScript printer. By the way, you can change the font by selecting "PC Printer Ports" from the "Setup" menu and clicking on the "Options" button. This will bring up a dialog box with a variety of printing options including font selection. If you don't like the look of your printouts, you might consider changing the fonts to "Courier" and experimenting with different font sizes.
MS-DOS
Like many other PC clone manufacturers, we include a licensed copy of MS-DOS 3.3 with each of our "virtual" PCs. This is real MS-DOS from Microsoft, not an emulated or modified version. There are no special SoftPC DOS commands or anything "funny" about the DOS in the full version of SoftPC. It's the real thing. We HAVE removed some of the DOS functions to save space IN THIS DEMO VERSION ONLY, but the full version of SoftPC has the same MS-DOS 3.3 you'll find on any other PC clone.
By the way, Microsoft's Windows and DOS 5.0 can be installed in the full version of SoftPC, but not in this demo version. (Contact Insignia Solutions for more details.)
WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS OF SOFTPC?
Universal SoftPC, the version of SoftPC used in this demo, emulates a particular PC configuration as described earlier. If your DOS software requires hardware that Universal SoftPC doesn't emulate (such as VGA graphics or extended memory), it won't run, just as it wouldn't run on a real PC with that configuration. (Different versions of SoftPC are available which emulate different PC configurations. Contact Insignia Solutions for details.) It's also important to remember that SoftPC tends to run more slowly than most PCs because its "chips" are software, not hardware. For this reason, software requiring fast screen updates, such as most games, will not work well, while most text-based software (spreadsheets, word processors, databases, etc.) will work fine.
There are also some hardware limitations in the Macintosh itself. Copy-protected DOS software cannot be used. This is true whether the copy-protection is on the disk, or whether the program requires a "hardware key." Devices designed to be plugged into the PC's parallel port cannot be plugged into the Mac because it has no parallel port. Likewise, devices designed for the PC's serial ports are occasionally unusable on the Mac because the Mac's serial ports are physically different. At the very least, a different cable is required. Most products that communicate via modem work fine with SoftPC and your Mac modem. Most products that communicate with other serial devices work fine as long as they don't do "hardware handshaking." With products requiring serial communications, it's best to test first (either with this demo or at a dealer with the full version) to make sure that they work.
WHAT ARE THE LIMITATIONS OF THIS DEMO VERSION?
This demo has a one megabyte C: drive already created. MS-DOS 3.3 is also pre-installed in your C: drive, although some pieces of it have been removed to give you a little more room to test some small DOS programs. You have about half a megabyte of space to play with in this demo. If you run out of space when attempting to install a DOS program, it's because of the limited size of this demo hard disk. With the full version, you can create more useful DOS hard disks up to 32 megabytes in size, but it's not possible for you to do so with this demo version. Neither is it possible to use "PC network disks." This feature normally allows you to use a folder on your Mac desktop as an "E:" drive which makes it a gateway between the Mac and DOS worlds, but it is disabled in the demo.
The demo will allow Universal SoftPC to run for 15 minutes, then it will abruptly shut down. You can double-click on it and run it again, but it will keep shutting down after 15 minutes. Needless to say, the full version does not do this!
HOW CAN I FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SOFTPC?
Visit your local software dealer or...
You can call us from:
USA & most of Canada: (800) 848-7677
Elsewhere (except Europe): (415) 694-7677
Europe +44-494-459426 (U.K.)
Or, you can call our "fax back" system which will provide you with a menu of information. You then select the information you want from the menu and the system sends it immediately to your fax machine. (This system is only available in the U.S. and Canada at this time.)
We also have a worldwide network of qualified distributors and dealers who can help you find answers to your questions and can supply you with our products:
