Aleka Windows-based products will run in an emulated Windows environment on a Mac, for example using the Parallels emulator, which has a 14-day free trial. Parallels adds an icon including the Windows Start Menu at the upper right of the screen, from which Microsoft Edge can be run to download applications from the Aleka Consulting web site, and from which applications can be run. Windows activation allows customisation and removes the watermark from the desktop. Windows 11 Pro product keys for activation can be purchased from a number of non-Microsoft sources (such as ProductKeys) at much lower cost than from Microsoft.
A limitation of running in this mode is that external NTFS-formatted USB drives are read-only. CamTrap Pro and Caption Pro cannot work at all on data on such drives. However, FAT32 and exFAT formatted drives (including most memory sticks and SSD drives) can be written to. All Aleka applications can process data on them. Data stored on the Mac can be accessed via the “Home on Mac’. drive. Right-clicks can be emulated by a two-finger click on a trackpad as described here. If the host Mac goes into sleep mode, Windows must be resumed in order to continue using it and this may take some time in Trial mode.
A further limitation is that files created on Windows local storage cannot be accessed from the Mac environment. If they are to be transferred by email, a web email product such as Gmail should be used in the Windows environment, or the files should be created on Mac local storage via the “Home on Mac’ drive.