Services: Windows on Mac

With Apple's switch to intel processors in January 2006, this has opened up the highly desirable option of running windows on a Mac. There are several ways this can be done, listed below.

1. Boot Camp

Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, includes a utility that can take part of your existing hard drive and create a Windows volume. From there you can install any modern version of Windows, including Windows XP Home or Professional SP2, or any version of Vista.

To use Windows, simply select your Windows volume as your startup disk in System Preferences and restart. Alternatively you can restart your Mac, hold down the Option key on your keyboard, and select your Windows volume once it appears on the screen.

The minimum requirements for this are:

XP Home / Professional	Vista - any edition
A Mac with an Intel processor 5GB of hard drive space 512MB of memory (1GB strongly recommended) A full (non-upgrade) licence of Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2	A Mac with an Intel Processor 15GB of hard drive space 1GB of memory (2GB strongly recommended) A full (non-upgrade) licence of Windows Vista

For more information on Boot Camp see the description on Apple's web site

2. Parallels Desktop for Mac

This program has the added capability of running both Mac OS X and Windows at the same time, ie - no restart required. For example, you can be emailing in Mail, viewing web sites in Safari, listening to your music in iTunes, while at the same time running your essential Windows programs in Parallels.

For more information on this amazing program see our detailed description here

3. VMware Fusion

Similar to Parallels, Fusion also allows you to run both Mac OS X and Windows at the same time. We can supply you with, and set up, Fusion upon request, however our preference is Parallels. From experience with both products, we have found Parallels to have a better set of features, and is updated more regularly than Fusion.

For more information on Fusion see the description on their web site

4. CrossOver

This promising and ingenious program has the ability to run selected Windows applications, such as Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft Office 2003 (Word / Excel / PowerPoint), etc, without running or even needing Windows.

Caution - this program is still early in its development, and therefore is not as stable as the previous 3 options. Also, the selection of Windows programs that work with CrossOver are quite limited.

For more information on CrossOver see the description on their web site

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