Run Windows on a Mac

But adopting Intel processors for the Mac range has another big advantage.

If Macs use the same hardware as PCs, then it should be possible to install Windows on a Mac and use it like a PC. From a technical view, this is indeed possible.

However, Apple has spent decades and billions of dollars developing the Mac operating system, so it’s not going to sit back and let you replace it with Windows.

Recognising that the problem of software compatibility was preventing many potential switchers from buying a Mac, Apple came up with its own elegant solution in the form of Boot Camp.

Rather than allowing you to remove OSX and replace it with Windows, Boot Camp partitions the Mac’s hard drive, splitting it in two so you can install Windows on a new partition alongside OSX.

The two operating systems then co-exist on your hard disk, allowing you to dual boot, switching between Windows and OSX as required.

Putting the boot in
Apple uses Boot Camp as a way of removing that final software compatibility barrier. From Apple’s point of view, it’s offering PC users a safety net so that you can ease yourself into the Mac way of doing things at your own pace.

However, Apple still sees it very much as a stop-gap solution. Ultimately, it wants you to become a ‘true believer’, using OSX as your primary operating system and only using Boot Camp when you need to run specific Windows programs.

How often you use Boot Camp and Windows on your Mac is entirely up to you. We use Boot Camp on one of our office Macs to test PC products (and occasionally play PC games), and then switch back to the Mac operating system to run Photoshop and other design programs. We find the split is about 50/50 between OSX and Windows, but there’s absolutely no reason you can’t use Windows as the primary operating system if you prefer.

Using Boot Camp to install Windows on a Mac is very straightforward, with a relatively painless installation process (see our step-by-step guide). Boot Camp guides you through the process of partitioning your hard disk, installing Windows and installing the necessary Windows drivers for the graphics card, and other components and Mac-specific features, such as power management.

Once that’s done, selecting which operating system you want is simply a matter of holding down the Command key on the Mac keyboard (which corresponds to the Windows key on a PC keyboard) when you turn the machine on.

Apple’s keyboards and mice tend to be a matter of taste – even among hardcore Mac users. The newer Mighty Mouse with three buttons and a scroll wheel is an improvement on the original single-button model, but it’s still an ergonomic nightmare in our opinion.

And we’re not big fans of the slimline keyboards supplied with the iMac either. Even more pertinent, though, is the fact that some of the keys on a Mac keyboard are in different positions from their counterparts on a PC keyboard. Fortunately, there’s nothing stopping you from plugging in a PC mouse or keyboard and using those instead. Boot Camp also installs its own set of help files into Windows, explaining how to deal with the differences in keyboard layout, so this probably won’t be a big problem for most users.

Opening the box
If you’re tempted by the thought of using Boot Camp to run Windows on a Mac, the next step is to take a look at the current Mac range to decide which model suits you best.