Windows on a Mac

Best of Both Worlds?

I moved to Macs over a decade ago, for many reasons. The biggest reason was with my (then) new Mac, I didn’t have to worry about viruses or other security issues that can plague a Windows user’s computer. But there are times when you need Windows, but don’t have a separate (or don’t want a separate) computer for the job. You have two choices:

1. You can install Boot Camp on your Mac, and then install Windows
2. You can install Windows through a virtualisation program

I’ll explain both simply, and then the next few articles will go through each option in a little more detail.

Boot Camp

Boot Camp is a piece of software from Apple that “creates a separate partition” on your hard drive. For all you non-geeky / non-nerdy people, that simply means that that this program will take a part of your normal hard drive, and create a special place on it that you can then install Windows. You’ll have to restart your Mac to start up in Windows, but once you do, you’ll have Windows running just like any other Windows PC.

Virtualisation

Virtualisation software will allow you to run Windows inside a window. Rather than restarting your computer to switch to Windows, you’ll be able open a program and have Windows running in less than a minute. The real advantage here is that you can simply switch on Windows, do what you have to do and then switch it off. All the time you can have iTunes playing your tunes, or Mail checking your emails and so on. The disadvantage is that this way is always going to be a little slower than Boot Camp. But if you need an occasional Windows fix, this is the best way to go.

In the next few articles, I’ll talk you through both options.