Chapter 1. Downloading, Installing, and Removing Boot Camp and Windows XP

Boot Camp might conjure up all sorts of images in your mind, such as drill sergeants yelling, you running with a heavy back pack on, and other not so pleasant activities. The good news is that that version of boot camp has nothing to do with the Boot Camp that is the main topic of this chapter. Apple's Boot Camp enables you to install and run Windows XP (the Home or Professional version) on an Intel Mac just like on a computer designed to run Windows (well, close enough that you won't notice much difference). Using Boot Camp enables you to have a fully functional Mac OS X computer as well as a fully functional Windows machine using the same hardware.

In this chapter, you'll learn all you need to know to install Boot Camp and then Windows on a Mac. This includes assessing your Mac to make sure it is ready for Windows, installing and running Boot Camp, and installing Windows XP.

If you decide that you no longer want to run Windows XP via Boot Camp (perhaps you'll choose to use a virtualization approach as described in Part II, "Running Windows on a Mac Using a Virtual Machine," of this book), you can use the information in the last section of this chapter to undo what you've done with Boot Camp.