Comments on: Experience with XP on an Intel Mac mini

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 21:22:14 +0000

You can apparently boot into Windows from a USB or Firewire external drive: "External FireWire and USB disks will not be recognized by the Startup Disk control panel in Windows XP. If you want to start from a bootable external disk, hold the Option key as the computer starts up, then select the external disk."

As for the second question, see my update above from 16.04.06. I essentially have a small Windows partition for "core" software; anything I need extra can go onto the Mac partition which can be read by Windows using MacDrive. So it follows that you could install Windows apps on a USB 2.0 or Firewire drive and make these visible to Windows via MacDrive if the external drive is HFS (Mac) format. If your external drive is NTFS (Win) format, then you can access it from Windows as normal without any additional software.

Another option is Parallels virtulization software. This would let you shrink or expand a virtual Windows installation at will, and in addition run another OS such as Ubuntu, or even multiple installations of Windows. I had a mini rave about it here.

You have options, and the best of both worlds. Go for it Mario—you won't look back!

By: Mario

Mario — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 19:57:16 +0000

I am a windows user thinking of moving to mac.
Can you load XP on a external firewire or USB HD and boot from ther when you need to use XP?
If not, can you have only XP on the mac (appart from the OS X and other mac software) and the rest os windows software on a external hd? I don't want to waste mac hd space with windows.

By: ryan

ryan — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 22:50:22 +0000

"So less time in Windows with fewer programs to cause conflicts = apparent stablility? Just a theory"

Agreed, the less you USE windows the less problems you have with it. I can definitely attest to that, my work machine is absolute bare bones, JUST what I need, ONLY major websites (digg, applenova, a blog or two) that I trust and absolutely nothing else. No little haxies, no big bubbly theme crap slowing me down, it's down to the absolute basics and I rarely have any trouble with it.

When I used to use windows at home it would constantly be crapping out on me becuase I'd be installing this and removing that, download this or that, updating this while running that, everything goes straight to hell :)

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 21:40:40 +0000

Russell, I don't see why Windows itself should be more stable on a Mac. This impression could merely be because Mac users need to run Windows only from time-to-time, perhaps using one or two key non-Mac programs. So less time in Windows with fewer programs to cause conflicts = apparent stablility? Just a theory...

By: Russell Wilde

Russell Wilde — Sun, 23 Jul 2006 16:59:21 +0000

I have recently bought my self a new MACBook, Intel 2GHz 1 Gig RAM, and following an atricle in MAC Format I read

"Everytime someone buys a new Intel Mac an angle gets his wings, however everytime Windows is loaded on a Mac the same angle gets twanged into a tree"

But that said, it seems in my opinion Windows runs better and more stable on a mac box than it does on a windows box. I think this again shows how much better organised Apple is.

But they did need to tell aspyr that they were bring out the new intels so they could do a patch for my Civilization III!!!

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 05:29:25 +0000

Thanks Ryan. Unfortunately RDC does not support connections to Windows XP Home. But you're right: I could install and configure (initially via Windows Messenger) a VNC server on their machine and gain access to it from a Mac client such as Chicken of the VNC. Previously I've done this the other way around (here).

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:29:51 +0000

I like the post, I'm looking to get an intel mini to replace one of my aging ppc's as I need to run windows occaisonally for my software engineering program.

One thing I wanted to mention to you is that you don't need windows to use messenger or to 'take over' their machine!

AdiumX (www.adiumx.com) is a much better messaging client and supports just about ALL (!) the protocols you can imagine.
VNC will allow you to connect to any machine with a vnc server installer or you can just use microsofts remote desktop client to connect to their machine if they have support for it in their version of windows...

Take care,
Ryan

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 12:50:06 +0000

I know, I'm so fickle! WP is a great blogging tool (and I'm impressed the way you've extended it beyond just that), it just didn't feel right for me, so I'm back to RapidWeaver for the time being. I noticed that you'd linked to Four and Nine - thanks - would you mind changing it to the Digital Art site at http://www.kenjoy.net? Thanks.

I understand why you need XP - have you not been able to "Switch" your folks? I got so fed up with maintaining XP for my Sister and her family, I bought them a Mac mini!

Anyway, for whatever reason, fortunately I don't seem to get any comment spam - my sites are not popular enough I guess :(...but a great plugin.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 12:34:32 +0000

Actually Ken I asked for the disk soon after the OnMac hack was published, which I'd tried to implement unsuccessfully with a slipstreamed disk I made following instructions on the Microsoft website.

One of the most useful things about having XP for me is that I can offer remote assistance to my parents, who also use XP. When they have a problem I can "take over" their PC to fix it—from 12,000 miles away. This requires Windows Messenger and thus a PC with XP installed.

The comment verification was something I added this morning! It's a plugin called "Did you pass math?" by Steven Herod. I'm actively trying to integrate it into my template and have applied some CSS to it; the idea is to try and block bots from leaving spam. Askimet seems pretty good, catching over 30 spams in the month this blog has been using WordPress. However, I prefer not to be tempted into looking what it's caught—I'd rather they didn't find their way into the filter in the first place!

You've left WordPress so soon Ken? I don't know what to say... you hardly knew each other ;-)

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 12:17:55 +0000

I loathe Windows XP with a passion (use it every day at work) and thankfully have absolutely no need for it at home, so no Boot Camp for me (still only have PPC Macs anyway), but interesting post, Bruce. Microsoft must have been pretty quick in sending your disk out.

BTW, I like the comment verification - is that a WordPress plugin or is it built in (I've done away with WP!)?