Who's running Studio '09 on your Mac?

Hi David,

I will be happy to give you some feedback once I'm up and running. Currently I need advice... sorry about the length of this post.

Here's the story:

Last year my PC died and I moved to an iMACfor my desktop work and stuck with my Windows notebook.

On the iMac I have been running ArticulateStudio 09 on a VMware Fusion 3 virtual machine with Windows XP Professional.This is OK for light work but lacks the grunt of a native system. Basically thevirtual machine can get very clunky. iMac 8GB Ram, Intel Core i5, Quad Core2.66GHz

My hi-spec HP notebook started running tooslowly for words so I bit the bullet and went for a MacBook Pro to replace it.So now I have 2 macs. iMac 8GB Ram, Intel Core i5, Quad Core2.66GHz | MacBook Pro  8GB Ram, Intel Core i7, Dual Core2.7GHz.

On the MacBook Pro I installed windows 7 asa Boot camp partition, then installed MS PowerPoint, Word & Excel2010. Depending on the type of work I’m doing I use the MS programs by bootingdirectly to boot camp as well as booting boot camp partition via Parallels. This seems far superior to running windows on a virtual machine as described above. Only problem is Ihaven’t loaded Articulate Studio 09 because I’m nervous about killing myactivation quota.

On both the iMac and MacBook Pro I want torun Windows 7 as a bootcamp partition with MS PowerPoint 2010 and Articulate 09 for heavy duty work like publishing and do every day light weight work likedesign etc. by booting the boot camp partition via Parallels so I can accessall my MAC design apps on the run.

Having used Win XP Pro  as a virtual machine with VMware Fusion forover a year now it is clear me boot camp is a better performance option. Yet fromreading this thread in-particular (http://community.articulate.com/forums/p/738/2254.aspx#2254) regarding the use of ArticulateStudio 09 directly via boot camp sometimes and at other times viavirtualization software i.e., Parallels it looks like I'm in a difficultsituation i.e. Studio 09 seems to require a double activation for the samephysical computer. One for boot camp and another for boot camp launched via virtualizationsoftware.

I understand Articulate’s  EULA says: A serial number is allowed to be install on 2 machines at the same time,provided that you only use one at a time.

I asked Articulate’s support what they didfor Leah Hemeon in the post http://community.articulate.com/forums/p/738/2254.aspx#2254but there was no direct response to this - disappointing.

They said if you have one machine, but youhave 2 different kinds of virtual environments on it, you will need a differentserial number. The reason for this is that the license is associated with theuser account and not per machine. The activation mechanism will detect that thesame serial number is used on 2 different accounts even if you are using 2different virtual environments.

This seems strange given I'm running the same boot camp partition regardless. Any way I won't labor this technicality.

However, I will go insane having to completelyde-activate Studio 09 on the MacBook Pro before working on the iMac and viceversa every time I want to do some work. Plus I will surely get caught outsometime with no articulate.

What I would like to do...

I would really appreciate it if youcould tell me if the following will work and at the same time comply withArticulate’s EULA?

1. Install Win 7 on a boot camp partitionplus MS PowerPoint 2010 and Articulate Studio 09. Also set up Parallels 7 tolaunch the boot camp partition.

2. To perform publishing tasks etc. Launchwindows via boot camp and then activate Studio 09. Before shutting down theBoot camp / Windows session de-activate Studio 09.

3. To do course design work - launch theboot camp partition via Parallels and activate Studio 09.

4. The next time I need boot windows nativelyvia boot camp e.g. for publishing I would de-activate Studio 09 inside Parallelsand then re-activate after re-booting directly into boot camp.

Will this work?

At least this way I will get the performance I want and still have an activation for each physical machine.

Sorry again for the enormous post – feelinga bit desperate!

Hope you can shed some light on this.

Thanks,

Allan

Hi Allan,

I fully understand what you're trying to do. I don't think I've seen anyone running both Boot Camp and Parallels, but I can see why you'd want the benefits from each type of installation. Agreed Boot Camp is likely faster considering there's only one OS running, but I know Parallels offers the benefit of running both OS together--Parallels is how I work in Articulate on my Mac.

So, with regards to EULA and multiple installations on a single machine, I honestly don't know how that would work... But I will find out.

It seems to me that there wouldn't be any way for the software activation to differentiate between a single computer running one OS and a computer with 3 OS (mac, Boot Camp, and Parallels). I can see where that would run into some issues.

I'll get an answer for you and post back.

David

Hi David,

Love your initiative!  Here is my config:

Macbook Pro running Lion 10.7.1 - 2.66Ghz Core i7 - 8Gb RAM DDR3 - Nvidia GeForge GT 330M 512 Mb

Bootcamp running Win7 and Office 2010

Parallels running the bootcamp partition virtually (preferred as I can still use all the Mac software while I use Articulate, ie. Adobe Suite, Mail, etc)

STORAGE:  Working files in C:\Projects\ and publish to C:\Published\, so to keep the paths local and short.  Also tried working and publishing to USB external drive.

ISSUES

----------

Parallels environment

SUCCESS: Preparing courses works fine and speed is reasonable.

FAIL:  Publishing is a nightmare.  Slow, it rarely finishes successfully and often crashes or stops with errors ("Not possible to copy the object", or something similar)

Bootcamp environment

SUCCESS: Speed is better.  Publishes without errors

FAIL:  Activation problems (*).  AND of course having to reboot the machine every time I need to publish is not pleasant either.

(*) Every time I run articulate in a different environment (bootcamp or the bootcamp partition virtually), it asks me for activation.  Sometimes it gives me a message saying your copy of Articulate has been activated, and sometimes it says "you have exceeded the total number of activations...".  

My solution for this is:

1. Bootcamp activation fails.

2. Boot back Parallels (where articulate was working fine)

3. It asks for activation again, but this time it works.

4. Once activated, I go back to Bootcamp

5.  Try activating again and it works.

Weird and painful, but it works. 

I'm about to follow customer support's advice of separating the virtual machine from the bootcamp partition to see if the issue gets solved. 

I would love to hear from you or some other user that has a GOOD experience with their setup, as I haven't been very lucky with mine.  Of course I will be open to make some tests as well

These are my two cents.  It will be great to hear from someone that has a successful  experience working in a virtual environment (especially publishing)

@Allan -

I spoke with our team and it turns out that if you do install Studio twice on a machine--once in Parallels and once in Boot Camp--that it would indeed require and use two activations. There's no way to determine that both installs are on a single machine since they're installed in different "virtual" installations and in different operating systems.

I hope that clarification helps but please feel free to let any of us know if you have more questions.

Hi David,

In response to your previous reply post:

Thanks for your reply however I'm still struggling with the terminology therein and deciding on an optimal solution before I launch into configuring / re-configuring my Macs.

The terminology that’s doing my head-in is around where you say ‘installing Studio twice on a machine--once in Parallels and once in Boot Camp’.

I only physically install Studio once on the windows boot camp partition and then access this via a Parallels virtual machine that uses the boot camp partition as its hard disk (see attached Parallels documentation).
 
From what you’re saying… Studio sees the Virtual machine (that uses boot camp as its hard drive) as another computer/motherboard and therefore requires its own activation?
 
If this is the way it works I find it difficult to understand why I would not be possible to:

1. Install Studio on a windows boot camp partition, activate it and use it on the native windows boot camp partition.
2. De-activate Studio before shutting down the windows boot camp partition.
3. Open the Parallels virtual machine (that uses boot camp as its hard drive) and activate Studio
4. Then when/if I need to boot directly to the windows boot camp partition I would de-activate studio while in the Virtual machine (that uses boot camp as its hard drive). And then re-activate it in the windows boot camp partition.
5. Cycle the above steps as required for different work requirements.

Although I've never had need to contemplate it when I had PCs (Desktop and notebook) to me this appears to be the same as alternating a single activation between 2 physical computers (owned and  used only by the  licensee and never at the same time of course) using the same data source (e.g. an external USB drive) because the activation is looking for the equivalent of different motherboards - isn’t it?

Note: Although I am 1 licensee with 2 computers i.e. desktop and notebook with no need or intention to have more than a single instance of Studio running at any time, on review, the above notion looks like it might be in breach of the EULA.

If I have this totally wrong it would be great if someone could provide a logical explanation to help me (and I’m sure many others) understand the reasoning better.
 
If not the above, what about below?

If the above is not possible can I use the two activations that come with the EULA to:
 
Use 1 Studio activation on the windows boot camp partition and 1 activation for the Virtual machine that uses boot camp as its hard drive – on a single physical (let’s say my iMac desktop) computer and forego having Studio on the notebook?

And potentially, every now and then (maybe 2-3 times a year), if I need to use Studio on the MacBook pro de-activate both instances on the iMac and duplicate the activation process described above on the MBP.
 
I hope there is workable solution somewhere in what I have written above that will allow me to achieve optimal performance using Studio on an Mac.
 
I look forward to hearing back,

Allan