Who ever said that “A Mac is the only computer you’ll ever need” was right.  With Boot Camp, available in Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and higher, you can use the Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 on your Mac.  My overall experience with Boot Camp is very positive.  I have used a mid 2009 MacBook Pro 2.53GHz to test this.  Performance, compatibility, and functionality is stellar.  It’s very easy to set up, use, change, and remove.

Step 1:  From your OS Tiger, Leopard, or Snow Leopard Intel Based Mac, search for ‘Boot Camp’ in the spotlight.  ’Boot Camp Assistant’ should be displayed under Applications.  Run this application.  At the welcome screen, it informs you what operating systems you can use, and what it does.  Click on next to start partitioning your hard drive.  This will dedicate a certain number of GB to Windows, and leave the rest to OSX.  I have a 250GB hard drive, so I have Windows a modest 50GB, since I just use it for Office Productivity.  After partitioning and formatting the drive in NTFS, the Boot Camp Assistant prompts you to insert your bootable 32 bit copy of Windows XP, Vista, or 7.  After doing this, you must click the start installation button.  This will restart your Mac, and boot the Windows CD/DVD to install Windows on your new Windows partition.

Installing Windows from here on out is just like you would on a PC.  Follow onscreen instructions, and set it up.  In about 25 minutes, you now have Windows installed on your Mac.  All of the drivers, as I have found with Windows 7 Ultimate, were found except the iSight camera.  Once you get in Windows, BE SURE TO get your Mac OSX Install DVD that came with your Mac, and insert it in the disk drive.  *THE EJECT BUTTON ON THE KEYBOARD DOES NOT WORK IN WINDOWS.  YOU MUST OPEN AN EXPLORER WINDOW (COMMAND+ E) AND SELECT THE CD/DVD DRIVE.  NOW AN EJECT BUTTON APPEARS IN THE BANNER OF THE EXPLORER WINDOW, CLICK IT* When you insert the OSX install DVD, Windows should prompt you to run the ‘Windows Compatibility Package’, do this.  This will install the PC side of Boot Camp.  From here, you get your onscreen displays for volume, brightness, and keyboard lights.  You also get the absolute BEST drivers for Windows on the Mac.  Keyboard preferences as well as mouse and tracking options are available in the Boot Camp PC software.  This will take about 30 minutes to install; reboot when completed.

Now that both operating systems are set up and have full functionality on your Mac, it’s time to learn how to choose which one to use!  When you first press your power button, your screen turns white and you hear the Apple sound.  As soon as it turns white, press and hold the OPTION key.  Now you will see ‘Macintosh HD’ and ‘Windows’.  Use your keyboard to select one, and press the return (enter) key.  To choose the default system at boot up, check the Boot Camp Assistant control panel in Windows.

Q:  So, how does Windows run on a Mac?

A:  From the few hours in total I’ve used it, it seems to be very impressive.  Since I have 4GB of DDR3 memory, and a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3MB of cache, performance is outstanding.  The graphics card, NVidia 9400M with 256MB of GDDR3 shared memory, performs very well and rarely feels like it’s being worked at all.  Graphics, typing, and compatibility is very good.  My only complaint with Boot Camp 3.1 is the tracking.  Scrolling is far too fast, and not changeable.  As far as tracking accuracy, it’s very precise.  As you can see the from the images and video bellow, the Windows Experience Index scored the machine very well, I was impressed with the results.  As a 10 year PC user, and a 1.5 year Windows 7 user, Windows runs very well with complete performance, reliability, and compatibility on my MacBook Pro as it does on my Lenovo ThinkPad, HP Compaq, and Lenovo IdeaPad.

So there it is, Boot Camp is truly amazing software that makes your Mac “the only computer you’ll ever need.”