Mossberg: Boot Camp Runs Perfectly

by , 8:15 AM EDT, April 6th, 2006

Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) has been testing Apple's Boot Camp and Windows XP on his Intel iMac, and says it runs perfectly. He also said that his iMac was "blazingly fast" when running Windows.

Boot Camp is Apple's software utility that lets you install Windows XP on Intel-based Macs, and choose to boot either Mac OS X or Windows when you turn your Mac on.

The installation process took under an hour, most of which was used to install Windows. After that, he installed 15 different Windows applications, including Microsoft Office, and found that all ran normally. Mr. Mossberg went on to say that test of Web browsing, email and music playback all ran flawlessly.

Despite the glowing recommendation, Mr. Mossberg did find a few flaws that Apple is already working on fixing. Every time you boot Windows, you have to reset the clock. Mr. Mossberg also had to reinstall his printer software each time Windows booted. Some peripherals, including the built-in iSight camera don't work, and you are required to use a USB keyboard and mouse during the Boot Camp installation.

Mr. Mossberg also noted that you must choose "C" as your target for the Windows installation. If you choose any other drive, you risk deleting Mac OS X.

Overall, Mr. Mossberg sees Boot Camp as a fast, reliable, and powerful tool for running Windows XP on the Intel-based Mac product line, and points out that the iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini are the only computers in the world that allow mainstream users to run both operating systems at full speed.

And just as important, Boot Camp removed another obstacle to switching to the Mac.