Subtitle: First Impressions of XP on a Mac.
BAM! How's that circularity for you? Yes, folks. Last night, I bravely installed Windows XP Home on my iMac Core Duo and here's a Flickr set of my installation pictures (taken with my camera phone).
What are my first impressions? It's pretty darn fast. Easily the fastest "Windows machine" I've ever worked on (and keep in mind, I used to run labs full of them). The installation was relatively painless, although I did have a few errors on my internal hard drive and had to boot off of the installation disk and run Disk Utility to repair the disk before Boot Camp would let me create the Windows partition. Unfortunately, you cannot resize this partition on the fly, so make sure you give yourself enough room. I thought I had done so, but once World of Warcraft started updating, it quickly ate up all the free space on that drive with its temporary files. So, I have to uninstall and then reinstall. I already activated this copy of XP though... how does that whole business work?
Also, I chatted with Jason Clarke over at our sibling blog, The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog, via email last night, and I think they may be posting some helpful tips for any Windows virgins who use Boot Camp to install XP on their Macs. In the past, TUMW has been the sibling weblog that we've been in a fight with, but since yesterday's release of Boot Camp means that all things Apple will eventually overtake all thinks Microsoft (as if Apple were the Borg), I don't have any problem linking to any such posts which they will produce. *grin*
My two cents: Run all the Windows Updates immediately upon installation and Download Google Pack so you have some spyware and virus protection. Keep in mind: some of those nasty Windows' viruses and worms are geared toward attacking Intel chipsets, and without OS X running interference, there's definite risk to your Intel-based Mac.
Update: Title corrected. I took another pic of TUAW in IE too, but posted the wrong one. *sorry*
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-06-2006 @ 7:35AM
andy said...
would these windows viruses geared towards intel chipsets, still work with bios emulated on efi and with intel macs using there own motherboards? im no tech-head just curious, also - any risk of someone creating a virus that can enter these computers via windows and cross the disc partition?
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4-06-2006 @ 7:49AM
C.K. Sample, III said...
Hey andy,
The answer to your first question is: maybe.
The answer to your second question is: no, but it wouldn't matter if it actually managed to somehow get into the chipset. This is unlikely, but...
better safe than sorry. It's not the same ballgame as running the OS in emulation in Virtual PC where you could simply erase the VPC image. This is XP running natively on the chip.
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4-06-2006 @ 7:52AM
Raphael said...
The post's title does not match the image: the browser is Firefox (yes, even that looks like a windows app on windows).
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4-06-2006 @ 8:06AM
Ken R said...
Oh, thank god! The RSS title scared me... Just the thought of IE makes me puke...
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4-06-2006 @ 8:14AM
mungler said...
so long as MacDrive isnt installed (so windows cant write to the mac partition), the OSX installation should be fairly safe.
there may of course be viruses or malware which will corrupt the partitions directly, which could bring Bad Things, or perhaps some malware could wipe out the EFI partition or whatever.
Anyway, the watchword in windows is FOR THE LOVE OF GOD run a firewall and antivirus at the very least.
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4-06-2006 @ 8:37AM
Michael May said...
How's WoW running?
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4-06-2006 @ 8:51AM
Kevin said...
Hello, im tryin to install boot camp on my iMac intel 20" and i get the same error as you did "I did have a few errors on my internal hard drive and had to boot off of the installation disk and run Disk Utility to repair the disk before Boot Camp would let me create the Windows partition." ...... How do I fix this, I am a switcher and alittle confused on the process. I love OSX, just want to play a few games on the windows side.
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4-06-2006 @ 8:58AM
Chuckles said...
I'm aware of no virus that attacks an Intel Chipset. There are plenty of malware that can root themselves deeply into the Windows operating system, but nothing a simple format/reinstall wouldn't fix. The only virus I've ever seen that attacks PC hardware is the CIH virus, which was good at wiping out the BIOS of PCs back in the '90s. Get your facts straight.
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4-06-2006 @ 9:06AM
Rudi said...
We installed XP on an iMac Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz yesterday, giving it plenty of HD space - no issues. For spyware protection, however, we used Windows Defender. In our testing (and my workplace supports over 5,000 XP boxes, as well as approximately 1,000 Macs), we've found that Defender does a great job.
Another anti-spyware pick: Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE, which was one of the first to market and is still one of the best.
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4-06-2006 @ 9:06AM
Derek said...
I got XP Pro up and running on my MacBook Pro last night, and it was like greased lightning. I'd never seen Windows fly like that. And the wide aspect ratio kicks ass too. I had to fiddle with the ATI settings to get things scaled properly, but now I'm loving it.
In reality the only reason I need XP is for DVD Decrypter -> DVD Shrink, and I don't want to re-buy my PC version of Matlab. Being able to do it all on one computer is NOICE.
However, there are problems. The pointer does not track very well at all in Windows. Much to jumpy for slight adjustments and not agile enough for big movements. I read on the Boot Camp site that some of the mouse physics aren't available in Windows, so that would explain it. Not being able to right click is also a big problem. In case anybody else is running in to this problem, remember that shift-F10 brings up context menus in Windows...but this isn't enough to make up for the problem entirely. And I sure wish I could resize the partitions on the fly, because I didn't leave myself enough headroom for Windows and now I'm afraid I'll have to do it all over.
Can't wait to see post-beta improvements to boot camp once Panther drops.
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4-06-2006 @ 9:16AM
Evgeny said...
The full screen mode looks so ugly:)
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4-06-2006 @ 9:38AM
Patrick said...
C.K. how big was your partition the first and second time? I pretty much want to do this as minimalistic as possible with room for an application or two and a game, and wondering what size HD I can get away with.
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4-06-2006 @ 9:47AM
ryan said...
Just as a long time windows user and recent switcher (and proud to say so) i would highly disagree with recommending google pack. Google pack may sound nice but installs a lot of stuff that you may find quite annoying, most notably goggle desktop which is possibly the hugest resource hog ever. Being someone who has installed xp many many times what I would reccomend is:
1.Updates Updates Updates be completely up to date with the OS
2.Microsoft Antispyware Beta- as far as im concered this is the best and only antivirus you need to be safe on the net
3.Install Firefox, Thunderbird, and Picasa if you find yourself to be an avid iPhoto user
4.DO NOT INSTALL UI MODS TO MAKE XP LOOK LIKE A MAC. no matter what people say, they WILL beat the crap out of system resources
all of this stuff is free and an easy google search away ;)
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4-06-2006 @ 9:50AM
Thomas said...
They don't seem to get a lot of comments over at TUMW do they?
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4-06-2006 @ 9:53AM
karl said...
is it possible too boot xp on a external USB or firewire drive???
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4-06-2006 @ 10:07AM
Joram Oudenaarde said...
But there's one thing you don't explain in your article :)
You write that you installed World of Warcraft, but how does is run under Windows XP on an IntelMac?
Does it run as good as installing the Macversion? Because if that's true, then we'll be able to play decent games on a Mac (D&D and such)!
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4-06-2006 @ 10:09AM
GadgetGav said...
Has anyone had a chance to run benchmark tests..? I would want to run SolidWorks in XP, so I'd like to know how that ATI graphics set performs under XP.
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4-06-2006 @ 10:15AM
Oliver said...
"I already activated this copy of XP though... how does that whole business work?"
I'm assuming you meant you activated the copy on the Mac, then you wiped it out and want to reinstall/reactivate. In that case, you should be fine... Microsoft should be able to tell you're reinstalling onto the same machine and just let you activate again. I just did that same thing last night on my MacBook Pro.
Now if you meant you activated that copy on another machine and then want to activate it on your mac as well... well... can't help you there. ;)
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4-06-2006 @ 10:46AM
notawesome said...
Dang, why would you want to ugly up your Mac with that? Seriously though, I'm running Virtual PC on my 1GHz TiBook and have to turn off all the "eye candy" (more like eye stabby) to optimize the speed. Even then, I've given up and just use Win2K when I have to.
I wonder if this is a disincentive to all those loser web designers who create IE-on-the-PC-only sites--something especially infuriating to me.
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4-06-2006 @ 10:47AM
Mitch said...
#13 stated, "Microsoft Antispyware Beta- as far as im concered this is the best and only antivirus you need to be safe on the net"
It should be noted that Microsoft Antispyware Beta is NOT anti-VIRUS software, but anti-SPYWARE software. There is a HUGE difference. I'm sure that's what you mean though. ;)
But as far as Windows anti-spyware software goes, the microsoft beta is one of the best...believe it or not.
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