Guest Post :: Using Windows on a Mac

The following guest post is from Todd Juneau, a registered patent attorney in Alexandria, Virginia:

I wanted to share a recent experience I had loading Windows on my Mac machines.  In summary, I am very pleased with my Mac/Windows setup.  A few years ago, I switched from Windows to Linux to Mac OS.  After a few years, I wanted to install a law office practice management suite.  Unfortunately, the ones I liked, ran on Windows.  After much research trying to find a “work-around”, I tried to load Windows on my various Mac machines.

I used Boot Camp to let me run Windows on my iMac.  It partitions the drive, lets you load Windows XP SP2 (or Vista), and gives you a way to switch OS’s by re-booting.  Which (rebooting) by the way is extremely fast.  Apparently, iMac’s are very happy running XP; my experience has been the same: fast.  I know that Parallels and other VM software lets you run both OS’s at the same time, with fast switching, but I avoided this approach due to concerns I had about having a slow machine.

Once XP SP2 is loaded (you can buy XP SP2 at Best Buy), then you can run all your favorite Windows programs natively.  Of course, you’ll need to do all the XP updates (SP3 works well on my iMac) and you’ll need to get some antivirus software -- I used ClamWin since it is free and a fast download.  I didn’t want my XP exposed to the internet without it – since Windows “announces” itself to networks, viruses can infect exposed machines within minutes, or less.

I’d recommend looking into getting the Mac Mini if you already have a flat screen and keyboard/mouse devices,  Get the bigger one (the bigger Mini), with more memory and better combo-drive.  Then, use your own flat screen, and a wireless keyboard/mouse set up –- check out Logitech EX110 –- it’s about $40.  That way, you’ll have a “Windows” keyboard, which works well on the Mac OS side, instead of a “Mac” keyboard that is missing some of the special Windows functions –- sound, shortcuts, etc.  It’s all so very compact.

For software, I use Office 2007 and Outlook.  Very happy here too.

If you choose to use your iMac (machine), that works great also.  Apple’s Boot Camp provides some windows software (Apple Software Update) they download to you that makes all of the hardware (e.g. hi-res screen) work well – this is part of the Boot Camp system.

As far as partitioning, it’s pretty safe to split your drive into two equal parts.  However, I find I am using the Windows side more, and when I downloaded iTunes for Windows, and copied all of my songs over to the Windows side, the partitions got full pretty fast with my music (so I use Pandora online, or iTunes radio).  It was redundant to have all that music saved on each partition anyway.

Another cool thing is that if you copy all of your addresses and calendars to Google from Mac OS, then when you install Windows, there is a Google sync utility to load all of that into Outlook.  After a hour of clean-up, it’s ready to sync with your Blackberry.

Another feature is that, from Mac OS, you can “see” your Windows drive, and you can merely copy any files you want over to it.  Just make a Windows “transfer” folder on your desktop or anywhere, and then reboot into Mac OS, and copy anything you want into that folder.  There is no need to copy stuff to DVD (like I used to) except for archiving and backup.

Another feature I like is that Mac machines detect and connect to wireless networks really well –- even from the Windows side.  So networking was finally an easy thing to do.  Further, it makes it easy to set up a Windows Network as well, in case you want one machine to act as “the server” for sync’d storage, and connecting to the internet (using a Mac wireless router, of course).  This came in handy since I just installed a Practice Management Software suite and need a central computer for it.

As for wireless routers,  I recommend the Airport Express and the Airport Extreme.  Instead of all of the setup with other router, these are just plug and go – par for the course for Mac devices.

Lastly, the Mac OS comes with a huge iDisk utility (50 GB?) for storage etc.   Although it’s a bit slow, this has a sync feature, for syncing all of your addresses, calendar, etc. into the Mobile Me “cloud”.  And, guess what?  Mobile Me also has a windows counterpart, so you can have an online sync that works with Mac and Windows.  This means you can sync no matter which OS you’re using, which machine you’re using - the at-work machine, the home machine, the laptop, etc.  Although this duplicates the Google storage and sync’ing when it comes to calendars and addresses,  I think the file storage aspect is probably the best use of it, e.g. for online, offsite sync’ing of files.

Todd L. Juneau is a registered patent attorney of 14 years, located in Alexandria, Virginia.  His firm handles patent and trademark matters and was started 4 years ago.  His website is www.juneaupartners.com.

Comments

[Blake Boyd]

Great Post. I spend countless hours explaining this to people as well!

Windows on bootcamp is no different than windows on a dell.

[Paul Meyerson]

Very useful blog, Ben. As a Mac consultant for a bankruptcy firm in NYC, I've been following your blog for years.

Here are some additions to make boot camp extra useful:

1, grab a copy of "MacDrive" by Mediafour:

http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

This lets you read/write your mac volume from the windows side. No reason to copy your iTunes twice--just point windows's version of iTunes to your library and tell it not to copy the data (e.g., just add it.). This app is immeasurably useful for heavy boot camp users.

2, On the Mac side, you will likely want to format your PC volume NTFS to take advantage of volumes larger than 32 GB. This allows you to read the PC volume from the Mac side, but not read it (at least, last I checked it didn't--Leopard updates may have changed that). If you want to be able to write to your larger PC, grab a copy of NTFS for OS X, by Paragon Software:

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

For heavy boot camp users, these two tools are really essentials.