Boot Camp

Boot Camp, tentatively named, is a collection of technologies made available by Apple Computer that assists users in installing Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2 only, both Home or Professional Edition) on Intel-based Macintosh computers. Boot Camp currently consists of a non-destructive partitioning tool and a CD image with device drivers for Windows XP. In addition to device drivers for the hardware, the CD includes a Windows control panel for setting the primary operating system. Boot Camp is not a virtualization tool, which would allow the Windows and Mac OS X operating systems to run concurrently; instead, the computer must be restarted to use either operating system. A boot manager allows for selection of operating systems.

Boot Camp requires that users upgrade the firmware on their Intel-based Macintosh to the latest version, which includes the boot-loader and BIOS compatibility module required to get the EFI based machines to boot legacy operating systems.

Apple does not officially support Boot Camp or Windows at this time nor does it sell copies of Windows XP at its stores.

The technology is currently final and included in Mac OS X v10.5, "Leopard". Bootcamp downloads have been removed from the Apple site for tiger users making Leopard a prerequisite for running it.

Apple promises no support for this software, as it is in beta. In many instances, Mac OS X can simply be reinstalled to fix issues that may arise.

Requirements

 * Mac OS X 10.4.6
 * 10GB free hard disk space
 * An Intel-based Mac with up-to-date firmware
 * An available writeable CD or DVD
 * A Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation disc and unique key/license; Home or Professional (No multi-disc, upgrade or Media Center versions). It seems to be possible to install XP using a Service Pack 1 disc; however, some drivers will not install.

Unsupported devices
While the driver disk created by Boot Camp allows Windows XP hardware support for the majority but not all of a Mac's system components, it does not currently support the following:


 * Bluetooth Apple wireless keyboard or mouse and coupling with bluetooth devices
 * Apple USB Modem
 * Keyboard backlighting on MacBook Pro