[Terri Kennedy]

I saw that you solved the problem locally, but I'll answer this here in case anyone else refers to the thread in the future.

Originally Posted by JST

What is the easiest and/or cheapest way around this dumb and extremely annoying problem? Boot camp on the Mac, I guess, but that would mean buying a copy of Windows? I don't really want to spend the money to do that. Nor do I want to buy a new laptop just for this one task.

Microsoft has various places you can download evaluation or trial versions of Windows (evaluation = time-limited, can't be converted to a regular install by purchasing a license key, trial = time-limited but you can purchase a license key to use it perpetually). These are normally in the 30- to 90-day range (from date of installation).

Coding software may have copy protection that doesn't work properly in a virtualized environment or for other reasons (for example, the older Autoenginuity dongles need a 2nd USB port for their copy-protection thingy, so a system with a single USB port would have problems).

EDIT: Should I just buy something like this and take it back when I'm done?

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-14-l...?skuId=6450167

Please don't. It just makes it harder for the rest of us to do returns for valid reasons in the future (didn't work, mis-specified features, etc.) without paying a restocking fee and/or jumping through hoops. Plus, for a time there was a big problem with people returning new boxes with bricks or flooring tiles in them, so stores are wary of returns.

eBay systems can be hit-or-miss, and most sellers don't provide detailed specs on the system (like screen resolution) to make an informed decision. A lot of them seem to come with pirated copies of Windows 10 - this seems quite common on systems that were sold with an earlier Windows versions, and the seller used a stock cracked image instead of installing the Windows that the license sticker was good for and then doing the "free upgrade" thing to get a legitimate serial number.

I've been buying Studio 1558s on eBay for $50-$100 and putting new SSDs in them. That's a 10-year-old model which is actually still competitive today, if upgraded to a top-spec configuration. I then sell them to friends at cost. This is not something you should try yourself unless you're comfortable tearing a system down to a set of individual pieces. I've documented some of what I do on my blog.