It's an exciting time to be a Mac user. Everyone knows that we get to use Mac OS X Leopard, the world's most advanced operating system. And now, if you have an Intel-based Mac and an application called , you also have the option of using the world's second and third and fourth best operating systems! Yes, we're talking about Microsoft Windows, the operating system that the rest of the world has the misfortune privilege of using. Why would someone want to go and do something like install Windows on their Mac? We're guessing that they'll probably want to use some applications that are unavailable for Mac OS X, like... Anyway, if you'd like to do the unthinkable and install one of the other operating systems, then follow along. What is Virtualization, and how does it work? Before we start, we want to tell you a little about how VMware Fusion works its magic. You can use it after you've booted into Mac OS X. It resides in your Applications folder and it sits on your Dock, just like Safari and iTunes. This is actually a file that lives on your Mac, but to casual users it appears to be an actual computer running within Mac OS X. For example, you can see Windows boot up on the virtual machine. Microsoft Windows XP and Vista are just two of many operating systems you can install. You could also install a Linux-based operating system, for example. In fact, you can even switch out of your virtual machine and back into Mac OS X at any time. The two operating systems are running in parallel, so you'll never have to restart your Mac to get from Mac OS X to Windows, or vice versa. This includes making a single physical resource such as a server, an operating system, an application, or storage device appear to function as multiple logical resources. In the past, when computers were relatively slow, computer hobbyists would use a technique called to connect several computers together to create one supercomputer. Today, with powerful computers such as the , the trend has been away from Beowulf clusters and towards virtualization options such as VMware. Today's Mac Pros are so powerful that most individuals have trouble enough utilizing a single Mac Pro's resources! Virtualization essentially allows individuals to turn one computer into multiple computers. This technique is particularly useful in IT departments, where many servers can be virtually combined onto one single physical computer. In this tutorial, we'll simply show you how to install Windows on your Mac. However, VMware has many other powerful uses with which you can experiment. Don't stop with installing Windows! Gamers Can Forget Virtualization We know that some will be tempted to use VMware to play Windows-based games. Is such a thing possible? Games don't work for us on VMware Fusion. It all sounds great, until you actually try to install and play a game with VMware. Your mileage may vary. Our graphics look weird and our mouse doesn't respond. Sure it's a bummer, but you can still use Apple's to install Windows and play games. Unfortunately, installing Boot Camp is another tutorial entirely. Why Pick VMware Over Parallels? If you know anything at all about virtualization on the Mac, you may be wondering why we choose VMware Fusion over , another application that allows you to run Windows on your Mac. The two products appear nearly identical, at least at first glance. We selected VMware Fusion, because at this time we feel that it's a more polished application. Fusion provides more features, and VMware provides better support than the competition. And then there's the experience factor. The guys over at VMware have been in business for years, and they really know their virtualization stuff. Having said that, you might want to give Parallels a try. The installation process is similar to VMware Fusion, as is the price. How to Run Windows with VMware Fusion Before you start, make sure you have some time to allocate to this procedure. It could take you an hour or so to install Windows and set everything up. If you have purchased a copy of VMware Fusion, enter the license code during the installation process. If you don't have a license code, just continue with the installation -- you can always purchase VMware Fusion and enter the license code later. You should see the window shown below. Click Continue to start the process. For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll be installing Microsoft Windows XP Professional. Remember that this Windows hard drive is actually a file on your Mac's hard drive, so this space could potentially be subtracted from the available space in Mac OS X. VMware Fusion will only allocate as much space as is required by Windows, so the number you specify is the maximum amount of space that Windows can use. Space cannot be reclaimed. If you install an application in Windows and then remove it, the virtual machine file does not shrink. It takes care of most of the installation headaches associated with Microsoft Windows. Just enter your name, a password, and your Windows Product Key. This feature is a bit buggy, and think twice before enabling read and write permissions. If your virtual machine gets a virus, it could wreck havoc on your Mac! Notice how PC-like it looks! You'll see a blue screen with lots of files flying by. No, this is not what's known as the , although some may call it that. It should be apparent that the Windows XP installation process is nothing like the Mac OS X installation process. Windows will take some time to configure itself. Note: Do not stop this installation -- VMware Fusion will not work correctly without VMware Tools. After your virtual machine reboots, you should finally be able to use Windows. Use Unity to Bring Windows Apps to Your Mac's Desktop Now that we have Windows installed on our virtual machine, we can start having fun. VMware Fusion has a great feature called Unity that allows you to run Windows applications right on your Mac's Desktop. They will appear on your Mac's Desktop and on your Mac's dock. Configure Your Virtual Machine's Settings VMware Fusion does an excellence job of configuring your virtual machine's settings, but those who need more performance will want to tweak the default settings a bit. You can do this by selecting Shutdown from the Start menu in Windows. Of course, most of the settings are beyond the scope of this tutorial. We'll be focusing on the two panes that most people will probably want to mess with: Display and Memory. Select Display from the left-hand sidebar. This will help you to play games and see those fancy Windows effects in Vista. Up the memory as much as you like. However, the more memory you allocate to Windows, the less memory you'll have to run applications in Mac OS X. And remember that if you're using a 32-bit version of Windows, you won't be able to allocate more than 3GB of RAM. See for more information. In his free time, he does the desert rat thing and hikes and road bikes around the Southwest. The rest of the time, he studies straw-bale houses, reads Anarchist philosophy, and pretends to not be working. You can email him at:.
