Using Boot Camp to install Windows XP on a Mac
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]
