Problems Windows 7 and LightRoom 3

D

Dumas

Bit poster
I'm on Parallels Desktop 6 on a Mac OSX 6.7 in Windows 7 64-bits running Photoshop LightRoom 3 64-bits. The problem is that LightRoom displays images as grey squares, sort of place holders, no color and no image details. I have no problems with LightRoom when in Windows 7 32-Bits.

Anyone on this Forum has this problem ? Any suggestions how to solve this problem ?

Thanks.
 
Dumas said:
I'm on Parallels Desktop 6 on a Mac OSX 6.7 in Windows 7 64-bits running Photoshop LightRoom 3 64-bits. The problem is that LightRoom displays images as grey squares, sort of place holders, no color and no image details. I have no problems with LightRoom when in Windows 7 32-Bits.

Anyone on this Forum has this problem ? Any suggestions how to solve this problem ?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I know this doesn't answer your question, but I have to ask. Why if you own Lightroom are you running it in a Windows VM? The Lightroom license allows for running it legally on BOTH Windows and a Mac. Why not just use the native OS X version?

Keith
 
Thanks for your reply Keith. The reason for running LR on a Windows VM is because I like to switch rapidly between LR and Photoshop and my Photoshop version is Windows only not Mac OS X. I must have Photoshop Windows version for other uses and as far as I know (?) Adobe will not allow the use of one copy of Photoshop Windows (on my desktop) and one copy of Photoshop Mac on my MacBook Pro. As far as I know (?) I would have to purchase a Mac version of Photoshop.

Andre
 
Dumas said:
Thanks for your reply Keith. The reason for running LR on a Windows VM is because I like to switch rapidly between LR and Photoshop and my Photoshop version is Windows only not Mac OS X. I must have Photoshop Windows version for other uses and as far as I know (?) Adobe will not allow the use of one copy of Photoshop Windows (on my desktop) and one copy of Photoshop Mac on my MacBook Pro. As far as I know (?) I would have to purchase a Mac version of Photoshop.

Andre
Click to expand...

Andre,

If you contact Adobe, they'll let you transfer the license from the Windows to the Mac version. I found this in a support thread:


There is no need to re-buy it. I'm currently performing this cross-grade for photoshop elements. Here is, how it works:

Write to support, telling them, that you have a valid licence and you want to switch to a mac.

They will need proof of purchase of the full version (!) and all upgrades that apply

They will send you a LOD (Letter of destruction), where yo have to confirm, that you have destroyed the old license along with all CDs and so forth.

You'll receive the new license and CD (or probably have to download it).
 
Thanks Keith,

What you say about Adobe allowing me switch from Photoshop CS5 Windows to CS5 Mac OS X is OK when one no longer needs the Windows version, but in my case I need to retain my Windows version because I'm a Windows 7 user and only need Photoshop OS X to run it natively my MacBook Pro. If I had Photoshop for the Mac then I would run LR and PS natively on the MacBook and I would use Parallels only to run my numerous Windows-only utilities.

So that explains why I'm trying to run LR under Parallels on the MacBook, it allows me to run *both* LR and Photoshop together, the problem occurs only when I want to do that using LR-64Bits in Windows 7 64Bits. It's with the 64-Bits workflow that the problem occurs, LR does not display the images correctly as I explained in my initial message.

With a 32-Bits workflow (LR-32Bits and Windows 7 32Bits) everything works fine under Parallels.

Andre
 
Understood.

I'm not going to ask the obvious question of what you're doing with a MacBook if you're a Windows 7 user! :-)

I've been a Mac user on and off over the last 10 years, and I'm on a relatively new (3 months old) 15" MacBook Pro. In my experience, Windows 7 performs sort of iffy even natively under BootCamp, let alone alone Parallels or Fusion.

I'm actually thinking about selling mine and buying a Sony VAIO to run Windows 7. I just don't like where Apple is going. I don't want to turn my $2000 laptop into a big iPhone :) But that's another conversation!

Anyway, sorry I can't help on your problem. I have Lightroom 3 and Photoshop Elements, but I've never owned Photoshop so I can't do any testing.

Keith
 
The MacBook allows me to be in-tune with a group dedicated to color management. Parallels gives me the possibility to work with both systems (Windows and Apple) on the MacBook. My main desktop computer is Windows XP only.

I have very little experience with Parallels, it seems OK so far when running Windows XP or 7 32-Bits (not so with 64-Bits.) And with whatever Windows OS I might use, Parallels has problems running the MacBook on a secondary display (Eizo CG241W.)

All in all Parallels is serving me relatively well but it has those limitations and perhaps many more that I might discover in the future and this is why I'm keeping an eye on Boot Camp as a possible alternative to Parallels. Your remark about BootCamp being "iffy" is disturbing and contradicts David Pogue's (Mac OS X Snow Leopard, The Missing Manual) enthusiastic remarks: "[With Boot Camp]... it's a full blown Windows PC, with no trace of the Mac on screen. It runs at 100 percent of the speed of a real PC, because it is one. Compatibility with Windows software is excellent."

But you may be right and Parallels or Boot Camp might finally just be compromises.

Thanks,

Andre
 
Yea, when you boot in BootCamp you are running a PC straight up.

The problem is in the quality of the BootCamp Windows drivers. Don't get me wrong, it works ok. But it's not as stable as, let's say, a $500 Windows laptop.

Keith
 
This might not be appropriate on a Parallels Forum but I must ask you Keith, I sort of guess from your answer that Boot Camp uses Windows drivers that are not by Windows (Apple "concocted" Windows drivers). IOW when in BC one is not in a 100% Windows environment, is that it ? So BC is really a Virtual Machine then (?) much like Parallels.

Andre
 
No, when you boot up under BootCamp, you are running natively as a true Windows, Intel-based PC.

My point was that if someone is looking to just run Windows 7, a mid-point $800 Windows laptop will perform pretty much as well as a $2000 15" MacBook Pro. The graphics card in the 2.0 ghz MacBook Pro is a low-end discrete graphics card. This level of graphics performance can be gotten in many $700-range laptops.

But, let's be clear -- when you install and run BootCamp, you are running a TRUE Intel-based Windows machine -- not an emulated machine. I just don't think that the BootCamp drivers are that great -- I've had numerous keyboard and trackpad issues in many applications, for example. Just recently, I've had problems running ACDSee Pro 3 under BootCamp because it fails to see the "\" key -- a crucial key for "tag photo". When I run it under Parallels, the "\" key works just fine.

The good news is, you can install BootCamp AND use Parallels to run that bootcamp partition when you don't want to have to reboot your machine. So, for example, if you just needed to run a quick IE9 session or something you could fire up Parallels; if you wanted to play an intense game, you could reboot into BootCamp.

Keith
 
Very useful information Keith, much appreciated. What I've learned from your message (and wasn't clear before) is that I can run Boot Camp "natively" under OS X, OR alternatively by summoning Boot Camp once I'm in Parallels. I'm going to look into this further. Running a Boot Camp-installed program from Parallels seems dangerously complex however worth a try.

That is the stage I'm at right now: experimenting all those options in order to eventually decide between remaining "mostly" PC or switching completely to the Mac. I'm not sure that one OS is better than the other.

Thanks,

Andre
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top