My Experience with Windows on a Mac
I’ve been a straight up Mac user for several years now and gosh darn it, I don’t know squat about Windows Vista and my memories of Windows 2000 are fleeting. So when we had to purchase Windows XP, I was left like a bewildered moose on the highway.
Why the hell would any Mac user want to install Windows in the first place? Well, there’s that ever elusive Application that is only available for Windows. Games are the likely culprit to want to dual boot using Boot Camp. For us, it was 3D Studio Max. We shelled out $199 for a fresh copy of Windows XP Home Edition, installed it, then re-read the Minimum Requirements for 3DS Max and saw Professional Edition! I almost freaked out, after two hours of returning to the World of Microsoft, I already screwed something up! Sometimes people call me a Mac Genius, but when it comes to a PC, it’s most likely that I’ll crash and burn the thing. Why is XP still $199 when it’s five years old? A brand new copy of Leopard is only $129.99 and there’s no Home, Professional, Media, etc, it’s all one great package. I couldn’t believe that there is no way to view a .DOC straight out of the box with Windows. What a crock of… at least 3DS Max turned out to run fine under Home Edition on the Mac.
So, if you were looking for a tutorial on how to install Windows on an Intel Mac, just print the directions like Apple tells you to. It was easy, but for me it required that I back up, reformat my drive, install OS X, run Boot Camp, install Windows, install the drivers for Windows, then Migrate my Apps and User information from the backed up copy of OS X to the fresh copy.
Overall, despite running into the occasional boned headed question, “Why’d they make Windows so incompatible with everything out of the box?”, my experience with Windows on a Mac only corroborates what I’ve read on blogs that the particular MacBook Pro 15″ Intel Core Duo probably once was the fastest way to run Windows on any notebook at the time. I say notebook because a MacBook Pro isn’t a laptop. Of course that’s what Apple Geniuses are programmed to tell you when you take an Intel Core Duo MacBook Pro 15″ into the store, complaining of it overheating, running over 190 degrees F. “If you computer doesn’t shut off, it’s not overheating.” Looks like when Applecare runs out on this particular MacBook Pro, I’ll be taking it into the nearest Apple Reseller to have them install a 500GB Hard Drive and fix the overheating issue, two things Apple Inc. refuses to do to my laptop. It will void my warranty if I try to do these two things. I do not trust any hardware company any longer.
Two weeks later…
It’s already happened, Windows XP became infected with one of the most malicious viruses I’ve ever seen on one of my computers (but not on other people’s). I was locked out of Task Manager, my Internet Connection was clogged by the 362 Spy ware Apps that downloaded in less than ten minutes. I tried to cure this with AdAware and another Spy ware App, and to no avail, the virus would not be quarantined. I gave up and decided to backup the minimal amount of files I had accumulated and reinstall my copy of Windows XP.
The installation began as expected and when the installer was attempting to load, I encountered an error. the error message had a bunch of 0×00000000s in it. Just tell me in plain English! I rebooted and tried again, again, again, and then a fifth time. Discussion forums told me to copy my XP Install Disc to another burned disc and try again. The discussion pointed to an issue with the Superdrive and the Windows XP Install Disc. Why hasn’t Apple addressed this? Apple will not give support concerning the install of Windows as detailed in the Boot Camp Installation Guide. The disc wouldn’t boot (I must’ve screwed something up in the burning process). I then wanted to throw my MacBook Pro across the room, so I went for a bike ride and came back and tried again. Bingo! Windows installed fine. Now to reinstall all my programs, settings, and four hours later Windows is back to it’s crappy self.
