That means I can test how my WordPress themes look on IE8 running on Windows 7. I can also run Windows only applications and share files between the VM and the MacBook using a shared folder. Neat.

I struggled a bit to get the VM instance of Windows 7 to recognise my Dell Photo AIO 922 printer. For a while the printer name was greyed out in the USB devices list. I’m not quite sure how I resolved it, but I think the following steps helped:

• In the Settings for the VM, click on USB and add a new USB Device Filter for the printer.
• Unplug the USB device and plug it in again while the VM is on (the old solutions are the best).

Getting the printer connected is a fantastic result, as there are no Mac drivers for Dell printers and it therefore won’t work with the Mac. But now I have a way of scanning and printing. Yay!