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Thread: Installing JAWs on Parallels

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Number of posts in this thread: 10 (In chronological order)

From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Wed, May 30 2007 8:30AM
Subject: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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Hi everyone,

I just wondered if anyone had managed to install JAWs on OSX via
parallels? It would be a very useful option for testing.

Version 8 flat out refused, 7.1 installed but I hit a problem with it
not being able to install a Video Intercept driver (or something along
those lines, I don't have it to hand at the moment).

If I continued the Virtual Machine would then refused to load - so if
you try make sure the VM is backed up!

It seems unlikely that JAWs would be able to install a video intercept
(considering it's a virtual machine), but apart from a couple of
off-topic posts on the MacVisionaries list
(http://www.mail-archive.com/ = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = /msg14091.html
unresolved), I can't find anyone making it work.

Kind regards,

-Alastair

--
Alastair Campbell | Director of User Experience

Nomensa Email Disclaimer:
http://www.nomensa.com/email-disclaimer.html

From: Joshue O Connor
Date: Wed, May 30 2007 8:40AM
Subject: Re: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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Hi Alastair,

> I just wondered if anyone had managed to install JAWs on OSX via
> parallels? It would be a very useful option for testing.

Just a quick heads up Alastair: Be careful even if you do get it to work
as I am in a situation now where I don't trust the JAWS output because
of the same problem with the Video Intercept on my Mac. I have to do my
testing twice or get a second opinion as I noticed discrepancies between
the output that I was getting and other colleagues using the same
version of JAWS on their PC (particularly when using form controls). One
of my colleagues is of the opinion that I may not even be able to get a
driver that will function at all, so at the moment it looks bad, so
please share if anyone has gotten around this.

BTW I managed to install version 8 of JAWS but still have the driver
problem, but I didn't have the problem with it crashing my VM, (maybe if
you increase the partition size?).

Cheers

Josh

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From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Wed, May 30 2007 8:50AM
Subject: Re: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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Joshue wrote:
> I have to do my testing twice or get a second opinion as I noticed
> discrepancies between the output that I was getting and other
> colleagues using the same version of JAWS on their PC (particularly
when using form
> controls).

Damn, that's a shame. It isn't much use if you can't trust the results.
However, you did get much further than I did.

> BTW I managed to install version 8 of JAWS but still have the driver
> problem, but I didn't have the problem with it crashing my
> VM, (maybe if you increase the partition size?).

I've given it a 30GB partition, although I don't want to install
bootcamp, so it is an expandable parallels disk image.

To be exact, the VM didn't crash as such, but when it restarts after the
install it just loads to a blank, black screen. No audio either.

Thanks for the response, I guess I will need a PC for some things after
all :-(

It's such a shame, it was the smoothest Windows install I'd ever had!

Kind regards,

-Alastair

--
Alastair Campbell | Director of User Experience

Nomensa Email Disclaimer:
http://www.nomensa.com/email-disclaimer.html

From: Jared Smith
Date: Wed, May 30 2007 9:50AM
Subject: Re: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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On 5/30/07, Alastair Campbell wrote:

> I just wondered if anyone had managed to install JAWs on OSX via
> parallels? It would be a very useful option for testing.

It is installed on my MacBook with Parallels. It complained about the
video intercept driver, but everything seems to work just fine. The
biggest problem I had was that I couldn't use the JAWS key which is
INSERT by default - the MacBook doesn't have an INSERT key. I used
rempkey.exe to map F11 to INSERT and it seems to work fine.

I haven't found any discrepancies in output from my Windows native
computer (though I'll do some further testing on forms). Parallels is
now my preferred platform for using JAWS. JAWS never worked very well
on any other PC I used - it crashed often, was slow and buggy, and the
video intercept driver always caused problems even when JAWS wasn't
running. With Parallels, I don't have to worry about it messing up my
system and if it does, I can reboot in about 10 seconds (which is also
nice if you have the 40 minute mode). If things go really bad, it only
takes 15 minutes to reinstall Windows XP.

Oh, and make sure you have service pack 2 for Windows XP. You might
also try Boot Camp - http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/ It's not as
slick as Parallels, but it's free and uses the actual video hardware
as opposed to the virtual drivers. I've not tried JAWS on Boot Camp
though others report that it works fine.

Jared Smith
WebAIM

From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Wed, May 30 2007 10:20AM
Subject: Re: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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Thanks for that Jared,

I guess it could be because you are on a Macbook, which uses the Intel
built in graphics?

Has anyone managed it using non-Intel graphics?

Cheers,

-Alastair

PS. I tried to email you direct, but it got rejected "due to previous
spamming incidents". Could you have a word with your admin, we don't do
spam :-)

From: Sean Keegan
Date: Wed, May 30 2007 12:50PM
Subject: Re: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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> Has anyone managed it using non-Intel graphics?

We have been able to get JAWS 8 to run in the following configuration:

- Mac Pro (Dual Core, 2.66 Ghz)
- 256 MB nVidia GeForce 7300 GT graphics card
- Parallels build 3188 with Windows XP

When you install JAWS 8, it does throw up the message that you need to
install the video intercept driver, and if you attempt to do so, you will
get an error message saying the following:

***
Video Intercept Error
An Internal Error was encountered while modifying the video chain
(DCERR_IDD_NOT_FOUND).
***

However, if you just restart the Windows part of the system and then start
JAWS, ignore the dialog window that opens asking you to install the video
intercept driver (just click close). So far, that seems to have worked and
JAWS seems to be working.

All that being said, we have not done a full evaluation of JAWS and complete
functionality in this environment. It seems to function at least at a basic
level on Web pages, Word docs, and the Windows environment.

Take care,
Sean

Sean Keegan
Web Accessibility Instructor
High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community Colleges


From: Joshue O Connor
Date: Thu, May 31 2007 3:10AM
Subject: Re: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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Jared Smith wrote:
> The
> biggest problem I had was that I couldn't use the JAWS key which is
> INSERT by default - the MacBook doesn't have an INSERT key. I used
> rempkey.exe to map F11 to INSERT and it seems to work fine.

Thats really useful to know Jared so thanks for that. I got a separate
USB keyboard just for the INSERT key, which is vital for using JAWS,
especially for power use. I have tried to find the Remapkey.exe
application and seem to be able to only get it as a part of Windows
Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&;DisplayLang=en).
I don't really need all of the sys admin apps that you get with this
download, is it possible to just get the Remapkey.exe file on its own?

Josh

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From: Joshue O Connor
Date: Thu, May 31 2007 3:30AM
Subject: Re: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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One more thing, I have been told by some colleagues that JAWS will run
better when you use Classic Mode. (Control Panel>Display>Appearance and
Themes).

I couldn't give you any metrics relating to performance, but I choose
to run Win XP in Classic mode.

HTH

Josh

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NOTICE: The information contained in this email and any attachments
is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended
recipient you should not use, disclose, distribute or copy any of
the content of it or of any attachment; you are requested to notify
the sender immediately of your receipt of the email and then to
delete it and any attachments from your system.

NCBI endeavours to ensure that emails and any attachments generated
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it cannot accept any responsibility for any such which are
transmitted. We therefore recommend you scan all attachments.

Please note that the statements and views expressed in this email
and any attachments are those of the author and do not necessarily
represent the views of NCBI


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From: Phil Teare
Date: Sat, Jun 02 2007 1:50AM
Subject: Re: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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This may solve:
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/01/2039253&;from=rss

We'll have to wait and see...

Phil--
Phil Teare,
Technical Director & Lead Developer,
http://www.talklets.com from Textic Ltd.
(44) [0] 77 68479904

From: Jared Smith
Date: Fri, Jun 29 2007 1:40PM
Subject: Re: Installing JAWs on Parallels
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Sorry to dredge up this old thread, but I wanted to point out a new
blog entry I wrote on getting JAWS and Window Eyes to work on
Parallels and Boot Camp on OSX. It seems that most of the issues are
resolved with updated versions of these programs. The Video Intercept
warning still appears in JAWS, but it can simply be closed.

I also included instructions on remapping keys, primarily to get
Insert mapped to an available MacBook keyboard key.

Blog entry at http://webaim.org/blog/2007/06/29/screenreaders_on_mac/

Jared Smith
WebAIM