Can Microsoft Dynamics CRM play nicely with OS X 10.7?

February 1, 2012 8:40 AM

I'm running OS X 10.7.2 and I need to access a Microsoft Dynamics CRM system. It won't work in FF, Safari or Chrome; it only wants IE. Of course, no versions of IE will work post-Lion (no more Rosetta). Is there any OS X native solution to this?

Is there any other option than to run IE in an emulator? If I must use an emulator, which one would you recommend? Extremely sparkly vampire pony bonus question: snowball's chance in hell getting access to the CRM system via iOS?

posted by digitalprimate to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

One thing you can try is running Safari in "Developer Mode" which allows you to set how Safari identifies itself--i.e., you can tell it to pretend it's IE for Windows, Firefox, etc. Provided that it's not actually functionality that's missing, and just the gatekeeper checking for IE, this should get you in.

Try this.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:49 AM on February 1, 2012

I got tired of trying to make stuff like that work, so I keep an emulated instance of Windows 7 running on my server at home for Quicken and for sites that absolutely require IE. Usually internal work sites and some banks. It's a Linux box running KVM.

Since you probably don't have a server lying about, running Windows with VirtualBox on my MacBook worked fine. It's free and is kept up to date. That's what I used before switching to the server based solution.
posted by beowulf573 at 8:58 AM on February 1, 2012

Also, if you want to run a virtual windows machine on your mac, I think paralles and VMware Fusion are both pretty comparable, and Parallels is currently on sale as part of a mac software bundle--$49 for like a million things (including parallels), instead of $79 for parallels alone. Whatta bargain!
posted by Admiral Haddock at 9:13 AM on February 1, 2012

$49 so that Microsoft can play favourites with browsers is NOT a bargain, even if turns out to be the best solution for the OP's problem.

Try free solutions first like VirtualBox.
posted by CautionToTheWind at 9:28 AM on February 1, 2012

Consideration for OP: that's a $49 or $79 plus the cost of a licensed copy of Windows, guys.

I mean, technically.
posted by rokusan at 9:46 AM on February 1, 2012

(I only need to run IE, not Windows, I think...the site for MSFT Dynamics - surprise surprise - has not system reqs anywhere at all to be found)
posted by digitalprimate at 9:54 AM on February 1, 2012

I've tried using the Firefox add-on that lets you change the browser identifier, it still doesn't work with Dynamics CRM. As far as I can tell, it will only work with IE. I can log in from home with IE under Wine when necessary, but it is dog slow.

I believe there is a mobile module for the CRM - but it is probably something that has to be licensed and installed on the server.
posted by COD at 9:55 AM on February 1, 2012

Was just consulting with a friend about running Windows on a Mac, and my conclusion was the same as up the page. Try Virtualbox first, since that software is free. If it flops (it shouldn't), that's when you consider Parallels or VMWare Fusion.

Running Windows in a VM does require a licensed copy of Windows, which may or may not cost you extra $$, depending on your situation and/or scruples.
posted by mcstayinskool at 10:57 AM on February 1, 2012

When I had a similar problem a few years ago I used Crossover which is a version of WINE and it pretty much allows your Mac to fake enough of Windows to run things like IE without a Windows license. It worked find for my applications (some of the fonts didn't render perfectly in the windows of IE but it technically worked just fine). There's a free version of WINE that you can use as well but you'll need to find the tweaks to make it work on your own. Crossover has a free trial, give that a whirl. If that doesn't work in your case you might have to install Windows via VirtualBox/vmWare/Parallels (I use vwWare and and happy with that...I'm even happier I hardly have to use it anymore).
posted by birdherder at 1:23 PM on February 1, 2012

In case anyone ever finds this askme, I wound up having my company set up a box for me in the home office, and I use gotomypc to access it.

Strangely, gotomypc works vastly faster and better on my iPad. If you go that route, don't forget to embiggne things for ease of clicking. Oh, and you can just click with your finger; you don't actually have to use the "mouse." It will act as if you used the "mouse.
posted by digitalprimate at 10:52 AM on March 22, 2012