Running Boot Camp – A Step-by-Step Guide to a Pitfall-Free Installation of Windows XP on a Mac

reviewed by Ted Bade

Running Boot Camp is an effort to make it a bit easier to run Apple’s Boot Camp assistant application to install Windows XP on your Intel based Mac. While Running Boot Camp is a fun document to read, it essentially reiterates the content of Apple’s own document, though it acts to support the reader in a friendlier manner.

This booklet is a 37 page PDF you can buy from O’Reilly.com. Conceptually, these mini books can be a great idea, getting information from experienced people to the consumer very quickly. If you are willing to print it, you can have it with you as you perform the process.

The booklet is broken into several sections, steering the user logically through the whole process. You’ll find a section on what you need, updating Firmware, running the Boot Camp assistant, installing XP, and finally on how to switch between XP and Mac OS X.

The Document is well-written and a lot more entertaining then Apple’s document. It offers a few pointers, warnings on what could go wrong, and how to avoid or repair them. The author's experience was with a MacBook and he offers a few suggestions pertaining to that computer. I found no information pertaining specifically to other Intel Macs that are currently available.

My personal experience with using this application was completely trouble-free. I found Apple’s document to be well written and easy to follow. Running Boot Camp adds another person’s perspective, which acts as a coach that helps you feel more secure when you run Boot Camp yourself.

There are a lot of screen captures included with this document that help you experience the process before you actually do it! It was a little disconcerting that the images and their captions were one page behind the text of the document that pertains to them. Nevertheless, the images shows what happens as you go through the process.

I also felt a lot more detail could have been provided about XP installation process, since this is what Mac users will be most unfamiliar with! However, in most cases this document gives no more attention to these issues than the Apple one. While I may agree that I really don’t need to understand a lot of this XP mumbo-jumbo to use it, this document would have really shone, if it provided information on these issues.

I would recommend this booklet to anyone who anyone who feels they need a bit more information about the whole process of setting up a Macintosh for and then installing XP on it.