How To Install Windows Xp On Mac Mini

First, Intel-built processors current of air upwards in the Mac. What's next—Windows XP running on an Apple tree-built automobile? Exactly, thanks to the Windows XP on Intel Mac challenge. That contest, to go the Microsoft operating system running on an Intel-based Mac, has been won, meaning information technology'southward at present at least theoretically possible to run Windows natively on your Intel-based Mac (while still retaining a separate OS X installation). Subsequently drawing the short straw volunteering to assist out, I set out to see what it would take to install the hack, get XP up and running on my Intel-powered Mac mini, and then see what kind of Windows XP auto I had on my hands.

What follows is a description of my experience, both skilful and bad, with the entire procedure from start to terminate. This isn't meant to be an installation guide, but I will talk near installing the patch, talk over what it takes to get XP working, the risks involved in a projection such equally this, and finally, how well the finished production works.

The Alert

If y'all're thinking about trying this on your own Intel-based Mac, you should know that Actually Bad Things are possible. I'm non sure if permanent damage is possible—I don't call back that it is—but you can easily make it a position where yous might need to boot into single-user mode to recover. It's also possible to wind upwards in a situation where you lot have an unusable OSX, an unusable Windows XP, and the Bone X installer refuses to meet your drive equally an available destination—in fact, this happened to me twice. Thankfully, recovery is relatively straightforward, though y'all will lose all data on the motorcar. Finally, something as uncomplicated as installing a new driver in Windows XP may render XP unbootable, and recovering from that may require starting over once again—including formatting the bulldoze and installing both Os Ten and Windows XP.

In short, this is very new technology, and things tin can still get very wrong with the process. If you have merely one Mac, and you rely on information technology to make a living, I would not recommend installing Windows XP on information technology just yet. Over time, the process should get easier and safer, but as of today, it's still highly experimental.

Part One: Installing the hack

All of the data and code needed to install Windows XP on an Intel-powered Mac is available on the Windows XP on Intel Macs download page. To some degree, though, that's a bit like saying, "Here, accept Jeff Gordon's NASCAR race car, and you too tin can win the Daytona 500." While it's probably technically truthful, at that place are a lot of little details to be filled in.

Before you lot brainstorm: If you're because trying this patch, hither's my ain list of prerequisites that y'all should take, above and across the downloaded files:

• An original Windows XP Pro SP2 CD-ROM. If yous haven't priced it lately and you don't own it, that'll set yous back $299 (the cost of roughly two.3 copies of Tiger).
• A PC with a CD burner (about $40) and Nero, CD-R burning software for Windows. The good news is that Nero has a fully-functional 30 mean solar day demo bachelor. Without that, set aside another $80.
• Internet admission from another machine, either the PC with the burner or a Mac.
• Time. A whole lot of fourth dimension. Really. Gear up bated some time, and then ready aside a bit more, and add mayhap a bit more on meridian of that, and then yous might have enough to finish the job. In my case, I gear up aside a few hours on Sabbatum forenoon to practise the job. When all was said and done (and re-done), the whole job took me virtually 12 hours the first time, though that time has fallen dramatically now to simply nigh an hour. Experience is a harsh, but good, teacher.
• Patience. This is nigh as important as the time aspect, as you lot'll be waiting for things to happen fairly oftentimes, and you'll also often feel like it'd be more than fun to visit the dentist for a root canal than to endeavor to get your XP mini working. Go along in mind that the version number on the patch is "0.ane," and information technology definitely feels like it at Times-Mirrors.

I should mention at this point that, if you've had to purchase Windows XP Pro, a burner, and Nero, you're up to $419…which, and I'g not making this up, happens to be exactly today's toll for an entire Dell Dimension B110 with 1GB of RAM, a CD/DVD burner, and an 80GB hard drive. Only more than likely if y'all're trying this, you lot've already got a PC lying effectually your home, and you're but hoping to replace information technology with the small, silent, and elegant-looking mini.

One time I'd gathered all the prerequisites—except for time, I clearly didn't gather plenty of that—it was almost time to swoop into the modification. The final affair I did prior to starting was to attach a FireWire drive and brand a clone of my perfectly-functional mini setup using SuperDuper. That mode, if everything went horrendously, terribly wrong, recovery would be a simple process. I strongly recommend a similar programme if yous attempt this project. Keep in listen that the very offset thing you're going to do is to erase the mini's difficult drive, so you'll take to accept a backup of some sort. Might as well make information technology a full clone, and then—and this is very important—verify that the clone is working before yous start.

The actual installation

Here's a short summary of the steps required to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac. This document isn't meant to exist an installation walk-through, but rather a very summarized version of the pace-by-stride process:

1. Create the modified Windows XP installation CD (using Nero on a PC).
2. Prepare the hard drive in the mini (bye-bye, data!). Y'all'll be making 2 partitions, one for OS Ten, one for XP.
3. Install OS X on the mini.
4. Install the dual-boot code on the mini.
5. Install Windows XP. Hint: make the partition FAT32, and you can read/write to it in OS 10. This may make information technology possible to recover from no-boot situations.
6. Make XP functional. This step is so complex, it's got its own section in this write-upwards.
7. Use Mac Os X and Windows XP on the same car, though not at the same time.

In each and every i of these steps, things tin can happen that deplete the "time" and "patience" you lot brought to the projection. Here are but a few examples of such things:

• My original Nero-burned CD-R, the one containing the modified Windows XP installer, was bad. The plan looked like it worked, the CD would mount, and I could read the files on it, merely it would non work to install XP. Of grade, there were no mistake messages, just a machine stuck on a black screen doing zippo.
• During my first install attempt with a practiced CD-R, the installer hung up and crashed. I had to go dorsum to the reformatting step.
• Read each and every footstep in the instructions very advisedly, especially if y'all're not used to called-for CDs on PCs or working in Final. I didn't have any Last mess-ups, merely I did spend a lot of fourth dimension making sure I followed the directions correctly for the PC burn steps.
• Apply a wired USB keyboard and mouse at all times. You may accept Bluetooth and/or wireless USB devices now, but ready them aside before you start this project.
• Disconnect everything but ability, monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
• Prepare the OS 10 resolution to the native monitor resolution before installing XP. At ane point, I couldn't brand the installer work at all, and I think I traced it downwardly to having left my (newly installed) OS 10 resolution at 1024×768, non the LCD'due south native 1280×1024.

With that out of the manner, how is the actual installation of Windows XP? Information technology's not overly difficult, only it is quite detailed and fourth dimension consuming. The showtime pace, subsequently installing a fresh copy of Bone X, is to install the boot loader on your mini. Since you only formatted the mini'due south hard bulldoze, you'll accept to copy the boot loader onto it from elsewhere—the original patch file on the Internet, or like me, off another machine on your network. After copying the kick loader (it's simply one file) to the mini, you use 2 Final commands to move information technology into the proper binder, and then anoint that folder so that OS 10 sees it equally bootable. The boot loader is a tiny program that lets y'all choose whether to kicking Windows or OS X at startup, simply by tapping on the arrow key.

Printing Render when the appropriate logo is showing, and that's what OS you'll boot into. Cull the Windows logo with your customized XP installer CD in the drive, and the install process starts. Well, it eventually starts. The instructions warn yous that fully iii minutes volition pass before anything at all happens. Eventually, though, y'all're presented with the Windows XP installer. Afterwards choosing the partition to use (it's sectionalization No. 2, not No. i or No. iii!), the Windows XP installer starts. At some indicate, the installer will reboot the machine,, and you then have to printing F2 (repeatedly, to be sure) to make Windows boot from the hard drive, not the CD. The second function of the install and so runs, and seems to run fine. When it'south done, though, your machine will crash. Actually. This is normal. Simply turn it off manually.

When it boots once again, bold you select Windows, you'll be in Windows XP. When my machine finally reached this bespeak, many many hours after starting (details on why information technology took so long follow), I was simply amazed—this is Windows on an Apple system. No VirtualPC, no OpenOSX WinTel, zippo except pure Windows XP. "Splendid," you call up, "I'm done! XP'due south upwards and running, Bone X boots, I'm ready!" Oh if information technology were only that simple.

Role Two: Brand XP usable

The big departure between what you've just installed and what you'd get on whatever retail Windows machine is this: drivers. The version of XP you just installed knows about your CD-ROM drive, your monitor, and your USB ports, only that'southward about it. (It may besides know about the FireWire port, merely I didn't test that prior to completing my setup.) Bluetooth, Ethernet, AirPort, and audio are all missing in action after the initial installation.

So what yous have on that start boot of Windows XP on your Intel Mac is a very functional, merely non very useful, operating organization. The next step of the process involves visiting the Drivers folio at the Windows XP on Intel Mac site. Hither you'll find links to drivers and/or instructions for all the interesting parts of your Mac, the parts that actually go far a usable organization—things like Bluetooth, Airport, and Ethernet. Depending on which Mac you're installing XP on, which drivers may be available volition vary—such are the risks of using a very early release of a very haemorrhage edge technology.

The most important driver to go working, of form, is Ethernet. Without it, getting anything into the mini ways using USB or some other storage medium you can transfer between machines. I downloaded the Ethernet drivers on my G5, and then burned a CD-RW, which I then used to install the drivers on XP. They worked slap-up on the first effort, once I recalled the convoluted steps I had to follow to enter my IP address information. Once that was running, I was able to so download and install the remaining drivers. While that sounds routine, it really wasn't—there are caveats, exceptions, and "maybes" with many of the drivers.

The Bluetooth drivers, for instance, accept notes that indicate y'all have to re-run a small programme on every reboot, and that they still may not work with Apple keyboards or mice. In fact, to fifty-fifty become them working at all, you lot accept to edit a file in the Windows directory and add two lines to specify some Apple tree-related info for the Bluetooth chipset. (And this info differs betwixt the iMac and the mini!). After doing that, and running the small program, yous then cantankerous your fingers, plug in your Bluetooth stuff, and come across what happens.

In my example, I got a very pleasant surprise—my Macally mouse and Apple keyboard work only fine, though I do need to re-run i executable file each restart. What really surprised me is that the Bluetooth keyboard works immediately after power-up; early on enough that information technology can exist used to choose which OS to kicking. I believe we accept Apple to give thanks for that one.

Past reading all the associated notes with each driver, and installing only one at a time and then rebooting to test each one, I eventually got almost everything up and running. I had XP on the mini running with Bluetooth, USB, FireWire, AirPort, and Ethernet.

Disaster strikes

While I was doing all of this work, I was likewise on the IRC channel a lot, asking questions, and just listening to the chatter. Someone mentioned that there were now native video drivers for the mini available, and a page had been added to the wiki explaining how to become them working.

Native video back up is currently the big hole in running XP on Intel Macs. Without information technology, y'all've got no accelerated video, no games, and no DirectX (though it'southward not articulate if that volition work even with native drivers on all cards). Excited by this prospect, and having defenseless the news just after completing the basic XP install, I decided to give it a shot. If you lot read the above-linked page, you'll see the procedure is far from clear cut; it requires drivers from two different manufacturers, a few reboots, and lots of install/point steps. I took my time, and carefully followed every stride.

When information technology was fourth dimension to reboot for the last fourth dimension, zilch happened. Black screen. Nothing helped; there was no getting into safe boot mode, no way to disable the things I'd added that had broken XP. So…I had to wipe the deejay and offset over, including the Bone Ten installation. Ugh.

That's when I ran into problem number two. When I went to reinstall Bone X, neither partition was listed as available. After much futzing most, I finally managed to fix that problem. (This page in the wiki now describes the trouble and two solutions; I used the method in solution two to set up the problem.) All of this took time, of course, just I was finally dorsum on track, and managed to install XP completely for the second time.

I so decided that I would exit the native graphics drivers alone until a more practical and detailed installation procedure was available. Some other several hours passed while I installed the drivers, as discussed above, finally winding up with a completely functional Windows XP installation. Well, functional just nevertheless not consummate, as seen in the paradigm at right. All those xanthous-iconed objects shouldn't be there, if everything were platonic. But, cypher in that list seemed to exist affecting the functionality of the Bone, so I chose to just exit well enough alone!

Disaster strikes again

After my first rebuild, I was running some benchmarks for this article. One of the examination suites tested my hard drive, and died halfway through. Upon reboot, XP…didn't. Information technology just locked upward. I booted into OS Ten, and information technology kernel panicked inside about a minute. Uh oh. You got it. Erase, format, reinstall, and practise information technology all once again.

Being somewhat experienced at information technology by now, information technology only took about an hour or so to go support and running. Still, if this had been my production machine, I would accept lost all my data, also as an hour of my time.

Overall, from start to cease, information technology probably took me most 12 hours' worth of initial piece of work to go the mini set up with a functional XP installation. That includes 30 minutes to install the burner, which my PC lacked, perchance 4 hours on recovering from my 2 disasters, and some other two or three were spent in research, IRC discussions, and but reading. Hopefully, I won't accept to practice this again, but if I do, the procedure has gotten simpler with replication. Most of the install time is now but waiting on the OS 10 (six minutes, minimum install) and XP (20ish minutes) installers.

Part 3: The risks involved

Beyond the 2 specific disasters described above, there are general risks whenever you install an unknown piece of software. As seen in my benchmarking test, a unproblematic software app brought downwards the whole machine, Bone X and Windows XP.

Even when working well, there are oddities. 1 version of my XP install would start upwards strangely on my mini—it booted into something that looks similar unmarried-user mode (black screen, white text), and and so presented a series of hexadecimal numbers and a prompt. I had to type g and press Render, so more numbers show upwards. When I pressed g and Return over again, XP booted commonly. On my almost recent install, however, XP simply boots, with none of that garbage. I have no thought what'southward different. Also, you cannot restart an XP'd Mac; information technology will lock upwards when you lot endeavor to exercise so. It will, however, shut downward perfectly, so that's what I've been doing instead.

As noted in the introduction, if you only have one Mac, and you lot rely on information technology to make a living, now is non the fourth dimension to plough it into a dual-kick automobile. There are simply besides many risks involved, given everything that can get wrong.

So does that mean I think this whole procedure was a waste of time? Far from it—if nothing else, I feel similar I learned a lot, and every bit you'll come across in the next section, the end result is very usable. It just means that I think more than time is required to permit the engineering mature earlier information technology's "production ready."

Part Iv: Using Windows XP on a Core Duo mini

And so overall, was it worth the try? I certainly think so now. You probably would have gotten a different answer at 12:30 a.m. Sun morning time, in the midst of my struggles to figure out what had gone wrong with my hard drive afterward the video driver disaster. But later on getting everything installed and now having used the system for a couple of days, the end result is impressive.

Hardware that works: Once you lot have drivers installed, since they're the native Windows drivers, stuff just works. For instance, I have tested the following things on my XP mini, and they all piece of work either perfectly or close to it.

• Bluetooth: Equally noted earlier, I'm using a Macally Bluetooth mouse and the Apple Bluetooth keyboard, and both are working fine. I do have two problems with the mouse, merely I've noticed the same issues on the mini running Os Ten as well. Both are relatively minor—the mouse is sometimes wearisome to be found when I turn it on, and if I let the machine go to sleep with the mouse still powered up, so the sleeping machine wakes again when the mouse powers itself off after two minutes of inactivity.
• Airport: The wireless connectivity is working perfectly; Windows XP finds my network and logs in successfully using my WEP key.
• Printers: Both my Brother HL-1270N laser printer and Epson Stylus Photo 890 worked perfectly in testing.
• FireWire: I was able to connect, format as FAT32, and use an external FireWire drive without any problems.
• SuperDrive: The SuperDrive shows upwards in Windows XP as a "DVD-RW" device, and I tested its ability to burn both DVDs and CD-RWs (using both the Windows embedded burner and Nero; meet beneath for more on that). Information technology worked fine with both.
• Ethernet/Drome: I had no troubles moving files to and from the mini and both my other PC and my G5; sharing seemed to piece of work well in both directions.

Overall, pretty much everything necessary to actually utilize the mini in XP works—as long every bit you've jumped through the requisite hoops to become the drivers installed.

Hardware that doesn't work: There are really only two areas that are troublesome, and I've touched on both already. The commencement, and biggest, is the lack of native video drivers. While this has little result on solar day-to-day employ, it does mean that games and other applications that rely on accelerated video are presently off limits—in that location's no acceleration for DirectX or OpenGL graphics, for instance. The mini has a better chance of having native graphics sooner than the other Intel Macs, as it uses a standard Intel chipset; the other machines use ATI video boards. As I noted earlier, there's already a partial solution for native mini graphics which has worked for some people. I suspect it's only a matter of time until a prophylactic and workable solution is bachelor.

The second is sound output. Apparently this is working on the iMacs and MacBook Pros, just the mini has a minor problem—it seems the chipset is outputting optical (you can meet ruby light emanating from the headphone jack) instead of an analog signal. USB sound devices work, however, so if you need sound, you lot tin go it. I also expect a solution volition exist found to this consequence relatively chop-chop.

Finally, the IR port isn't functional, and I don't have a sense for whether or not someone will be able to resolve that result. To me, though, that'southward not a big problem.

Application compatibility: Hither's where I would normally talk about application compatibility, etc. Except it's non an upshot. You lot're running the real, honest-to-goodness Windows XP, as seen in the screenshot below (click for a full-size version):

(Visible in that shot are ESPN's Bottom Line sports ticker, the official Windows Update site, my G5's dwelling house folder, the network connections window, and the About box showing the Intel CPUs.)

If your application doesn't require DirectX or accelerated graphics (i.e. it'due south non a game or high-stop video application), information technology will more than likely run only fine. This fifty-fifty includes stuff that I didn't recollect would work, such as Windows Media Player 10 and QuickTime Player. QuickTime Thespian can even play back Hard disk clips (those at 480p resolution) without any slowdowns. Windows Media loftier-def played at about half the desired speed, just they only offer 720p clips, so that explains the slowdown (remember, this is all without native video drivers—the fact that whatever HD stuff plays at all is pretty amazing).

I tested Word, Excel, and PowerPoint from Role 2003, and they all ran fine and very fast. The applications opened in about a second, and everything works. I seem to have figured out that there's a curl "speed limit" in Give-and-take, too. I opened my big test document from last week'southward mini study, and information technology took as long to curlicue on the mini in XP equally it did on my G5 as it did on my genuine Athlon3200 PC—right around 22 seconds.

I installed jEdit, a Java-based text editor, to run across how it worked. Dissimilar OS X, of course, Java isn't included so you have to install a runtime showtime. Simply afterwards that, jEdit installed and ran perfectly well.

Microsoft's Windows Update and Role Update websites worked perfectly, patching my version of Windows and Office to the current levels. Internet Explorer seemed to run fine, but I chop-chop ditched it (other than needing it for the Windows and Role update stuff) in favor of Firefox, which runs similar a champ.

Equally a final ultimate test of software and hardware, I created a DVD project containing a number of high definition video clips. Using Nero, I brought the clips in, created a main bill of fare structure, added some labels, and and then told Nero to start encoding and burning.

iDVD has nix to worry near relative to Nero stealing its title as friendliest and best-looking DVD authoring application. On the other manus, Nero offers a ton of command over the project, and has a reputation for having excellent encoders. Just don't expect an iDVD-like experience when you're creating your projection.

I figured equally a stress test, this was well-nigh equally tough equally information technology could get—encoding video is hard work, and Nero was keeping both CPUs pegged during the whole process. It's also a slow process, then I went near my other duties for 90 minutes or so. When I took a look at the machine once more, I had a finished DVD which played perfectly in our domicile player, and on my G5.

I had also plugged in my temperature probe during the encoding and burning process, as in that location have been reports that XP'd minis have been running hotter than they did under Os X. The maximum temperature I recorded was 113F, which is simply 3 degrees warmer than the exhaust air got while merely playing a DVD under Bone 10. As such, at least for this mini, there doesn't seem to exist a temperature issue.

In one case you become through the potentially-complicated setup and accept a working Intel Mac XP machine, yous've got the best-ever "Windows XP on Apple tree hardware" solution. Emulators such every bit WinTel and the current version of VirtualPC won't come close to native speeds, whereas this solution is native. The just existent downside is it requires a reboot to run Windows XP. Downwardly the road, the next version of VirtualPC may be super-fast equally well, and not require the reboot, given that there's now a common chipset. Only we'll have to await to run across if the potential speed increment comes true or not.

Performance testing

Once I had a sense that the mini was now a total-diddled Windows motorcar, I decided to see how it would stack upwardly against my Dual G5 and my Athlon 3200+. I downloaded a trial version of Photoshop CS2 for Windows, and then designed a simple filter exam to run on all three machines (G5, XP mini, and XP Athlon). Browsing NASA's site, I found a 3,200-by-2,400-pixel version of a shuttle launch (1.4MB download), then created a liquify filter to misconstrue the image:

I saved the filter, and and so copied both the image and filter to the other two machines. Then I timed how long it took to apply the filter to the image on each system. Just for fun, I rebooted the XP mini and ran the same test in Rosetta.

PHOTOSHOP CS2 LIQUIFY FILTER Exam

	CPUs	CPU Speed	RAM	Time (seconds)
Dual G5	2	two.00GHz	2.5GB	28
Mini XP	2	ane.66GHz	2.0GB	36
Athlon	1	2.12GHz	512MB	39
Mini Os Ten	2	one.66GHz	ii.0GB	77

Testing by Rob Griffiths, very unofficial!

Now, this wasn't a completely fair exam, as my Athlon has only 512MB of RAM in it, while the mini has 2GB and the G5 has ii.5GB. However, it'due south more of a CPU examination than a retentiveness test, every bit the image wasn't huge, and the manipulation was math intensive. I was impressed with how quickly the Mini XP box finished, iii seconds ahead of the Athlon and non that far behind the Dual G5. I possible decision here might be that if someone's looking for a mini and wants to work in Photoshop on it today, they could do so by installing XP and using that until a Universal version comes out.

Later on the encouraging Photoshop results, I went looking for some benchmarking programs. Unfortunately, i of the ones I found was responsible for my 2d disaster, and then that sort of sapped my desire for further testing. However, I did manage to run CPUBench2003 before the automobile spit upwardly and died. Given that this test is CPU intensive, I wasn't surprised to find the dual-CPU mini bested my Athlon in the overall score—about 43 pct meliorate (xi,115 vs 7,741). The results in the graphics subset of the test were similar—ray tracing, which is CPU-intensive, was faster on the mini, by about 30 pct. iii-D graphics, though, were much slower, as there aren't whatsoever native drivers installed.

Macworld Lab plans to carry more than extensive testing along with our colleagues from PC Globe. Those results will be posted at Macworld.com as soon as they become available.

Even without native graphics drivers, the XP mini is a fast machine. It feels snappy, windows resize rapidly enough, Word and Excel both scroll as fast as y'all'd ever want them to, applications launch in a hurry, and CPU-intensive tasks are done virtually as rapidly every bit they are on the Dual G5. In brusk, I was quite satisfied with the performance of Windows XP on this footling box.

So subsequently too many hours of installing, testing, reinstalling, testing, reinstalling, testing, and and so forth, how do I feel about using XP on a mini? Here are some of my take-aways, summarized in a few bullet points.

Pros

• Super fast, fully native Windows XP running on your own Mac.
• Most hardware and near all software works (for improve or worse) as it does in Windows.
• One hardware box tin can exercise the task of two.
• Cull which OS to run with a simple keypress during startup.
• Perhaps the quietest and most elegant Windows XP box yous'll e'er utilize.

Cons

• Must reboot to utilize Windows XP, so no easy sharing of data betwixt the two systems.
• Installation and configuration is not for the faint of eye.
• While XP is quite stable, installing some drivers may accept astringent consequences.
• Every bit expensive as a new PC if you have to buy all the required hardware and software first.
• Missing video drivers limit usefulness for games, high-end graphics applications.

Assuming resolution of the remaining issues, I think the ability to run Windows XP at full speed on an "as needed" basis could exist a huge selling characteristic for Apple tree. Anyone volition be able to specify a Mac instead of a PC to Purchasing, and there volition no longer be whatever legitimate technical reasons to say "no." Once the machine is in the building, information technology could then exist used in OS X virtually of the fourth dimension, only rebooting into XP when needed.

With that said, I don't think that installing and using Windows XP on an Intel Mac is at a indicate today where I could recommend it to anyone other than a hardcore defended techie blazon. If everything goes perfectly, yep, almost anyone could get XP installed on an Intel Mac. Only when something goes wrong, which it invariably volition given the complexity of this project, y'all're going to want some technical know-how to at to the lowest degree recover from the disaster, if nothing else. Y'all also have to have a chip of a cavalier mental attitude about your system, knowing it could be rendered unusable at some bespeak by some seemingly innocent activity, similar installing a new commuter.

One time the project matures a bit, and solves the remaining technical hurdles, I would and so not hesitate to recommend this solution to those who need Windows XP access just prefer to keep using the Mac as their primary machine. I don't know, however, how much simpler the installation can get. If the XP installer tin can eventually recognize the installed hardware and install the requisite drivers during setup, that will brand this modification accessible to many more users. Otherwise, it volition remain on the fringes of computing, accessible only to those with a potent technical bent (or those who have such relatives), and perchance those supported by a corporate IT section.

When I started this experiment, I was certain I was going to wipe the drive when I was done with this article, and restore my cloned OS X install. At present, I'k non and so certain. Having a fast, super-repose and 100-percent authentic Windows XP environment a simple reboot away sure beats firing upwards my Athlon noise-generator PC when I need to do something in Windows. Maybe it'll get to stay after all.

[When non devoting several hours to installing strange operating systems on Macs, Contributing Editor Rob Griffiths offers upwards Mac Bone X tips and tricks in both his blog and at macosxhints.com.]

Source: https://www.macworld.com/article/179281/xpmini.html

Posted by: hartidowed.blogspot.com

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