alphaMELTS 1.5 introduced a 64-bit version of the virtual machine, which should run better on Windows 8. The desktop setup has been tweaked e.g. to make it easier to tun on a laptop with a relatively small screen or on a non-English operating system. VM alphaMELTS 1.5 also contains a preview of alphaMELTS 2 that is not (yet) available elsewhere and has tab completion within both alphaMELTS 1.5 and alphaMELTS 2, using with-readline (http://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/sw/withreadline.html).
As such, we strongly recommend that you update to the newer version. But if that is not possible for some reason then here is a quick summary of the old version for the bits that have changed:
Once you start the virtual machine you are logged in as the user 'melts' with a password that is the former name of alphaMELTS, as detailed here (http://magmasource.caltech.edu/forum/index.php/topic,123.msg261.html#msg261).
The default desktop has icons for programs that will be useful for running alphaMELTS and rhyolite-MELTS placed next the start menu. From left to right, they are:
- LXTerminal - needed to start rhyolite-MELTS and for running alphaMELTS in command line mode
- Leafpad - a text editor with Windows-like short cuts (e.g. ctrl-C, ctrl-V for copy and paste respectively)
- Gnumeric - a simple spreadsheet program that is nice as it opens space delimited text files automatically
- File Manager - a file manager that opens in the melts user's home space
- Web browser - Firefox
The next two icons can be used to minimise all windows and to switch between desktops (removed in VM alphaMELTS 1.5). In VM alphaMELTS 1.4, you will probably want to disable the screen lock (Preferences->Light Locker Settings). In VM alphaMELTS 1.5 this and several other tweaks, e.g. font sizes, have been done for you.
Paula