Parallels Desktop for Mac and VMWare Fusion are two popular commercial solutions that virtualize a full set of standard PC hardware within Mac OS X. Hardware-level support means better performance from products taking advantage of this technology, as compared to previous software emulation products you may remember such as Virtual PC. The Intel processors inside recent Macs support 'virtualization' technology, which provides hardware-level support for running multiple operating systems inside complete 'virtual machines' or 'hypervisors' on a single computer. A dual-boot solution is also best for PC gaming. This is the best solution if 100% compatibility is of primary importance to you. The performance of Windows applications should be comparable to other Windows PCs. Boot Camp is part of Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard', but you'll need a licensed Windows XP SP2 or SP3 install CD to install Windows (available through Lehigh's Microsoft Campus Agreement.) When booting into Windows, the Mac essentially becomes a PC. VirtualBox, VMware)ģ) Remote Desktop: An application on the Mac displays Windows running elsewhere.Īpple's Boot Camp software repartitions the Mac's hard drive so you can choose at startup whether to boot into Mac OS X or Windows. Solutions for running Windows software from an Intel Mac fall into three main categories:ġ) Boot Camp: Separate partitions, each with its own operating system (aka Dual-Boot)Ģ) Virtual Machine: Software to run Windows within Mac OS X (e.g. What's more, Apple has provided Windows software drivers for those hardware components that are unique to the Mac, such as the built-in iSight video camera. With the advent of Mac OS X computers built on Intel Core-based processor architectures Apple shifted to industry-standard hardware that opened up the potential for running Windows software at a performance level competitive with Windows PCs.

Overview of running Windows on an Intel Mac

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