Boot Camp

Daniel and I got Windows XP up and running on my new iMac.

Earlier this week Apple announced Boot Camp, that lets you install and run Windows XP on your Mac. So, last night Daniel and decided to try it out. I was impressed at how seamless the process was.

The requirements are few, you basically need an Intel Mac and a copy of XPsp2. Well, who the heck has a copy of XPsp2 laying around. Daniel searched an found that XP sp1 just wasn't going to cut it. Then, we learned about Streamlining, wherein you can combine an install with a service pack and create a new install disk. Thank you Paul Thurrott for your help on this one.

Once I got my XPsp2 disk set up it was just a matter of downloading the Boot Camp course. It takes you through setting up a partition for Windows, and makes a CD with the necessary drivers. Then, it is just a matter of installing Windows. I set up the file system as Fat32 which allows me to browse the Windows drive from the Mac. However, I cannot see the Mac drive from the Windows side.

So, when it was all said and done, I had a Windows machine, well at least a machine running Windows.

For me there is one big benefit. I can now go back to using Micrsoft Money. In my opinion Money might be the best thing to come out of Redmond. I mean I like my Xbox, but there are gliches from time-to-time. My biggest disappointment after my laptop died and I decided to convert to Mac-anity was that my only option for financial software was Quicken. Just to note, Quicken for the Mac is different from Quicken for Windows.

Other than that, I have not thought of a good reason to use Windows.

Just thought I would share.

Thanks for the help Daniel. Jonathan and Hunt, sorry you could not be there.