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MaComfort brings a little Mac back to your PC

by Mike Schramm Feb 4th 2010 at 1:00PM

Let's face it -- as much as we love our Macs, sometimes you've got to use a PC, whether that be for work or at a friend's house, or just for playing some games. But when you absolutely must use Windows, maComfort can make the transition easier. It's a free Windows application (with some premium options) that brings all of the nice software things you appreciate on your Mac back to your PC. It's got a QuickLook-style feature, translates the Windows key to all of your Command hotkeys, and even replicates familiar Mac features like one-button volume control and Spaces and Active Corners. And the app also has a add-on system, so you can download extra features like homemade Docks and shadows just like on your Mac back home.

Of course, it's not perfect -- QuickLook only works in Explorer, not everywhere, and obviously all of the less-superficial features on the Mac (like Terminal and Stacks) will stay in OS X. But if you have to use a PC away from home and are frustrated that hitting what's supposed to be the Command key keeps popping up the Start menu instead, try a little maComfort. The app is a free download with limited functionality, or $20 for full use.

[via LH]

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Let's face it -- as much as we love our Macs, sometimes you've got to use a PC, whether that be for work or at a friend's house, or just...
 

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kaslings

I just installed it on my windowsxp box at work. it's using 10k of ram, 0 cpu while running in the background. the free version doesn't let you do espose (it's a plugin limited to the full version) but the spaces and quicklook are nice.

quicklook only does information for lots of files (.pdf) but works with graphics and code.

February 05 2010 at 12:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to kaslings's comment
kaslings

changed the number of spaces to 2 and it now only uses 6k of ram. compare that to launchy that is taking up 34k of ram, it seems like a solid addition to my computer.

Thanks for the tip TUAW!

February 05 2010 at 12:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
M. Kozaqii

I've been meaning to try this out for a couple of days and have the installer sitting on the desktop of an XP VM here. After reading these comments, I scanned it with AVG 9.0 (up-to-date definitions). The result is clean. But now I don't know if I should be comforted by that or nervous that AVG's scanning is missing something :O

On another front, can someone with maComfort post their observations about its performance and resource (RAM/CPU) use? So many of these system add-ons for Windows slow down normal operations to a crawl.

Also, does it interfere with fullscreen apps (games, etc)? Some of these kinds of things with graphical components (in this case, the quicklook popup and pseudo-dock) just don't get along well with them.

February 05 2010 at 10:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rafael Klaus

Hello everyone, please don't let me assure you this:
The virus/trojan alerts are all so-called 'false positives' - if a file (in this case maComfort) seems similar to a known virus by file heuristics, some virus scanners will send out an alert.
This happens especially often with UPX-packed executables. (UPX is a compression module for exe files). maComfort and the installer are both packed with UPX to reduce file size.

I can confirm the download is clean, please have a look at Softpedia:
all software on their site has been tested with various virus scanners.

maComfort 1.2 has the 100% Clean status (more details on that on the page below)
http://www.softpedia.com/progClean/maComfort-Clean-145383.html

February 04 2010 at 3:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Rafael Klaus's comment
eastmpman

I also tried the download from softpedia hoping maybe it was a different package than the one offered by the vendor (I'm aware that this is usually not the case, but badly wanted to give the software a spin) and it also reports a virus as I assumed it would.

Regardless if this is a false positive or not, it will be a cold day in hell where I simply take someone's word for such a fact, and very, very rarely see a false positive on modern installation routines. I completely understand your point regarding the UPX compression, but if the software vendor is serious about customers demoing and/or using their software, they should highly reconsider packaging with a different compression routine. I know some great, modern setup builders (such as InstallAware for reference) use 7zip for example to keep size down so there are viable alternatives that would eliminate this scare. I would love to give MaComfort a try, but not under the current circumstance. :

February 05 2010 at 8:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Eideard

No. I left the wonderful world of Microsoft after more than 2 decades - 4 years back - and have never felt a single twinge requiring the use of a PC.

No regrets.

February 04 2010 at 3:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David

Wow. I use both a Mac and a PC. If I ever fall in to the category of wanting my PC to act and look like a Mac, shoot me. Just install Safari on the fricken thing, because you know that all you will end up doing on it is watching videos from youtube or hulu anyway.

February 04 2010 at 3:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bioadam

Except for the reports of Trojans and Malware, this looks great for mac users like me who use a Windows machine at work.

February 04 2010 at 2:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
eastmpman

Me four! Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 picked it up as the following...

The requested object is INFECTED with the following viruses: Trojan.Win32.Swisyn.qwd

February 04 2010 at 2:21 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
elitemrp

A-Square: Trojan.Win32.Swisyn!IK
ClamAV: Trojan.Agent-128211
F-Secure: Trojan.Win32.Swisyn.qwd
Ikarus: Trojan.Win32.Swisyn
Kaspersky: Trojan.Win32.Swisyn.qwd
Sophos: Mal/Generic-A

February 04 2010 at 2:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Michael

I'm getting an clamXav alert when trying to download the file:
Trojan.Agent-128211 FOUND.
JFYI

February 04 2010 at 1:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Michael's comment
bumbacloth

Me too. Binned it just in case.

February 04 2010 at 1:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bioadam

Rafael Klaus who makes maComfort says the trojan alerts are false positives. I'll give maComfort a go and let you know if my windows machine goes Apocalyptic.

February 04 2010 at 3:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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