We ordered a MacBook Pro for a Program Manager in my team today and I volunteered to install XP because I enjoy bare-metal OS installations.

Below is how I got this to work.

Overview of Steps

  • Please read the Installation Notes at the bottom of this post before you try installing XP on a Max
  • Have a blank CDR available
  • Have a USB keyboard available
  • Have a two button USB mouse available (for right-clicking in windows XP)
  • Download the Boot Camp software into the Mac
  • Get an bootable XP Install CD (Not an upgrade CD)
  • Install Mac OS X updates
  • Install any Firmware Updates needed (http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/). I needed this one. (Boot Camp does check to see that you have the needed OS and firmware updates.)
  • Install Boot Camp on the Mac
  • Run Boot Camp
  • Boot Camp will create a Driver CD for you
  • Boot Camp will let you allocate space for the XP partition (I selected about 32GB for XP. This left 60GB for the OS X parition)
  • Boot Camp will ask you to insert a the XP CD and reboot
  • Normal Windows OS installation will take place
  • Early on in XP setup You'll have to pick which partition to install XP on. For me, this was the parition labeled C:\
  • When it asked you how to format that drive I picked NTFS & quick format (see at bottom note below. Maybe I should have chosen FAT32)
  • NOTE: You won’t be able to access the network because the XP CD doesn’t have the necessary drivers so don’t bother trying to join a domain during the networking setup
  • Finally (about 40min later) you’ll reboot into XP
  • Insert the Driver CD and install the drivers. A couple of the drivers spit out a warning message that they aren’t certified. Go ahead and install anyway
  • Reboot
  • Go to Windows Update and get all the needed critical security patches (there are about ~45 needed IIRC)
  • Reboot
  • Done: You are ready to use XP on your Mac

Installation Note: how to CTRL-ALT-DELETE

  • At some point you are going to have to press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to log in.
  • You’ll press CTRL-ALT-DELETE and nothing will happen. That’s because the Mac keyboard has a “DELETE” key that works like a Windows “BACKSPACE” key and has not key that corresponds to the “DELETE” key
  • Plug in that USB keyboard
  • Press CTRL-ALT-DELETE on the USB keyboard
  • Download the Windows 2003 Resource Kit from this URL: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&DisplayLang=en
  • Run the remapkey.exe from the resource kit
  • It shows two pictures of keyboards: one on top, and one on the bottom
  • Remap the right Apple button to the DELETE key dragging the DELETE key from the top keyboard into the RIGHT-WINDOWS in the keymap UI (a.k.a RIGHT APPLE on the physical keyboard) key on the bottom keyboard
  • Reboot
  • So now instead of using CTRL-ALT-DELETE you now press CTRL-ALT-RIGHT-APPLE

Installation Note: Right-Clicking

  • PC Laptops with a touch pad have two buttons just like PC mice
  • The Mac touchpad only has a single button; so this may irritate you
  • That’s why I used the USB mouse
     

Installation Note: Controlling which OS you boot into

  • Once you install Boot Camp you'll notice that you Mac keeps booting into XP
  • To control which OS to boot into hold down the Option key when powering up your Mac

Installation Note: NTFS vs FAT32

  • During XP install, I selected NTFS (because I like NTFS) for the OS parition.
  • Later I read that if I had chosen FAT32 then OS X could have read/written to the parition with XP

More Key-Remapping [Update 2006-05-02]