Mac Users of Police Scanner Radios. Mac Users and Radio Programs (Updated June 2. The question about Mac software for the scanners and other radios comes up often here at Scanner. Master. The vast majority of radio programming software is made for Windows so the trick is to find a way to run Windows. Although many Mac users view Windows as a virus, it is kind of a necessary evil to do what you need or want to do. There are a few Mac radio programs out there but they are few and far between. If you spend any real time with a radio you will eventually need to run Windows applications. That last sentence is hard to say for this die- hard Mac guy but it is reality. There are cheap Windows machines out there that will work fine for most radio programming. Netbooks and tablets running some version of Windows 7 or 8 can be had for under $3. Just add a USB cable for your radio or a USB- Serial adapter and your favorite program and off you go. Be careful not to get a system running Windows RT or Windows Mobile. Software Radio Scanner software free downloads and reviews at WinSite. Free Software Radio Scanner Shareware and Freeware. Situational awareness is key. And with Uniden’s advanced Radio Scanners, you’ll have the tools at your fingertips to stay informed and prepared. RT and Mobile will not work with most . You could probably share a Mac monitor if the Windows box has a compatible connector and you may be able to use your existing Mac keyboard and mouse. You could use a KVM (Keyboard- Mouse- Video) switch or one of the applications like Synergy to share the monitor, mouse and keyboard between the Mac and your Windows box. Mac. Books and i. Macs however do not have outboard monitors, so unless you have a second monitor you are out of luck for this. Check your local tag sales, pawnshops or thrift stores. You can find working Windows machines or laptops cheaply there, usually already set up with Windows XP or even Windows 7. Make sure you are running real Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8. Be sure to run a good anti- virus program. Mac people have been lucky not to really need to worry about this for decades but it is a way of life in Windows. AVG and MS Security Essentials are good, free virus programs. Install, update and run the virus checker before doing anything else on any used Windows computer. Running Windows on a Mac. On the Mac itself you can use one of several methods to run Windows applications and Windows itself. This is especially easy if you have a recent Intel powered Mac. There are 3 popular ways to do this: Boot. Capitol Hill Monitors Scanner Radio Homepage: SAME Codes- for the US : Top: Last updated July 16, 2016 : Click here to visit Scanner Master . Programming Your Radio Shack Scanner. How do I program my (insert model number) scanner? The method of programming is confusing. Are there any shortcuts to make this. Police scanner free download - Police Scanner, Police Scanner, Police Scanner Free, and many more programs. Camp. Apple's own free Boot. Camp allows you to boot into Windows or the Mac OS (but not at the same time) and this allows most applications to work just as if the computer was made for Windows. You still need a licensed copy of Windows, but Boot. Camp itself is free, just download it from Apple if it isn. Once installed you can start your computer up in Boot. Camp, and have a system that looks, feels and works just like any other Windows computer. To go back to the Mac environment you then need to restart the computer. Parallels and Fusion. You can also use Parallels or VMWare's Fusion, these allow you to run almost any other OS, including Windows' several versions alongside your Mac programs. It can be set up so that the Windows part is almost transparent, your radio program just kind of runs and you don't even know that it is a Windows application if you don't look too closely. These applications are very similar in look, feel and feature set as well as cost (about $7. Again, you need to supply your own copy of Windows. If you have already installed Boot. Camp and Windows you can use that same installation when you install Parallels or Fusion. This allows you to use either Boot. Camp or the other application depending on which works best for you for that task. Some Windows programs might require more resources, thus work better in Boot. Camp, some work fine in Fusion or Parallels, so that way will save you from having to restart your computer. When running Parallels or Fusion the application will ask you if you want USB devices to work in the Mac or Windows environment when you plug in a device like a programming cable or thumb drive. Choose wisely, if you set a cable to work in the Mac. OS then Windows won. The wife and I have used both and they both work just fine for everything we have thrown at them. I stuck with Parallels since it seemed more Mac- like to me, the wife preferred Fusion. In reality they both do pretty much the same thing and it is like deciding between a Ford and Chevy or between a Uniden and GRE scanner. Look at the feature sets for both and make a decision. See if one is on sale this week. Flip a coin. Windows License. Boot. Camp, Parallels and Fusion all require that you obtain a licensed copy of Windows, you will need the install CD/DVD and a valid install key. Look at discount places like Costco or computer warehouses for copies of Windows but be sure that you get a Full Install disk. USB vs. Serial. If your radio already has a USB cable then you are all set. If it only has a Serial cable then you will need a USB- Serial adapter that will work in whatever version of Windows you use. Some USB- serial adapters don't work in 6. Windows 7 or 8 or need updated drivers, make sure yours does, it will say so on the packaging. Some scanners (such as the older Unidens) come with serial cables but have an optional USB cable. While it is really just a USB to Serial adaptor built- in to the cable, it is well supported by most scanner programs. Most current model scanners come with USB connections built- in. Wine. Wine originally stood for . It basically allows users of Unix based operating systems (which includes Mac. OS 1. 0. x) to run Windows based applications. If you know how to use Wine then you don. It might be worth researching but most creators of commercial scanner programs will not support issues with Wine so if it doesn. If you have an older Windows machine already with Windows XP on it then you might as well stay with that. XP was available for a long time and works well with almost all radio applications. There are a few older applications that are written for DOS that might have some issues but you can usually work around that in XP. If you buy new however you might not be able to chose between XP and Windows 7. New computers come with Windows 8 these days, it is next to impossible to find new equipment with XP anymore. Windows 7 computers are still common on store shelves and works great with most radio programs. Windows 8 is a bit tricky sometimes but many of the issues that befell radio users with Windows 8 have been fixed in Windows 8. Windows 8, do it and you will have less problems with drivers etc. Bit. While the Mac has been 6. Windows computers had been 3. This basically affects things like how much memory can be recognized and how memory is managed among other more technical stuff. While there is a 6. Windows XP, chances are you would never have seen it at home or work. Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 have embraced 6. XP ever did, The Pro and Home Premium 6. If you are running a 6. Windows 7 or 8 make sure that your radio or programming cable has 6. This is true whether you are running Windows on a dedicated machine or with a virtualization program. Running older programs in Windows 7/8. Most Windows programs that work in Windows XP will work in Windows 7 or 8, either already or with an upgrade. Most problems are actually hardware or driver based. You may need to update the application, drivers or even your programming cable to make it work in Windows 7 or 8, even the 3. If you need to use an application that just will not work in your Windows 7 computer (usually an older program that can. This will allow you to run programs that otherwise won. Running Windows XP mode within Windows 7, itself within a Mac environment within Fusion or Parallels adds layers of complexity and introduces more places for problems to crop up. At this point it might be worth it to bite the bullet and buy a cheap Windows machine to program your radio. Scanner program behavior in the Mac. OSI have used many radio programming applications on my Mac, and have had few problems doing so. ARC products from Butel and Scanner Master work great on a Mac, in Boot. Camp, Parallels and Fusion. Just open the Windows environment and install the application, install the cable (and drivers as needed) and off you go. In Parallels on my Mac. Book Pro and my i. Mac it runs just like any Mac application. Some applications need to hog all the resources they can grab from your computer, you might have better luck with these using Boot. Camp. Since Boot. Camp runs outside the Mac. OS (actually in place of the Mac. OS) all of the computer. Parallels and Fusion have to share the memory and resources with the Mac. OS and you are running both Mac and Windows at the same time. This might choke on some poorly written programs or programs that require more memory. Remember: Too much RAM is never enough. Make sure you allocate plenty of RAM to the virtual environment!
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