macbook/pc compatibility

[padyboy]

I have downloaded Internet programs using my Win 7 PC. When I attempted to transfer them to disk and play them on my Macbook 2.1 laptop computer for my 93 year old mother, they failed.

My brother, who is a sort of Mac fanatic, insists the problem is with the original file, containing defects that Win 7 failed to detect.

I say this is a pile of bunk, I say.

Any comments, please.

Thanx.

 

[kegobeer]

What internet programs did you download, and from where did you download them?

 

[chris1neji]

I sadly havent had the chance to duo boot into a mac for obvious reasons, however i am almost 100% positive that windows programs or installation files can not be install on Mac.

Windows Programs don't work on Mac and vise versa.
Likekegobeer said what programs and from where.

 

[padyboy]

Sorry. I should have been more precise with my wording.

I am downloading large files, not programs. Of course you are correct; Mac and PC programs are incompatible. I apologize for my misleading post.

I get these files from several sources on the Internet. Sometimes they work on the Mac, other times they do not (different files). I have had the same problem only occasionally with movies rented from Zip online rentals (allthough there is greater probability of these being physically damaged); the same disk will play one time, and fail the next.

My next question concerns viri: is there a chance I could prepare a file on my PC for viewing on the Macbook and carry over a virus from my PC? Said contaminent having been missed by NIS, and not affecting my PC, but affecting the Macbook?

Finally, I know viri replicate on a PC, but where do they initiall reside when downloaded? I would guess it has to be in RAM, in order to attach its replicates to other files. Any answer(s) would be appreciated.

Thank you again.

 

[fseal]

It seems like if a file wont open on a Mac and will on a PC that that is a problem with the program being used on the Mac. And yes some programs like VLC will open partially broken files that may not open on the Mac program. So Windows 7 did not "fail to detect" the problem, in fact the program you used to open it would have detected and CORRECTED for the problem to display it in that case.

And yes, if a file had a Mac virus attached, it may not trigger on a PC (Though I would think that it would still be caught by a good virus scanner) and then once transferred to the Mac it could infect it.

As for the last question... There are too many different ways that they work and often in VERY complex ways that would take forever to describe The files hide themselves anywhere, sometimes pretending to be a system file, sometimes replacing system files, sometimes they use completely random file naming so you can;t look them up and scanners can't detect them by name etc... They can be anywhere and named anything.

 

[padyboy]

It appears your fate is sealed.