“For those unaware, a website titled Windows XP on Mac has been collecting a pool of donations for anyone who could successfully boot Windows XP on an unmodified Intel Mac. The pool grew slowly at first, but as the news of the contest spread, it passed the US$13,000 mark. The first hint that “narf” may have figured it out came in the form of a set of photos on Flickr that seemed to show Windows XP on an iMac of some sort. Next came the videos and an acknowledgement from the contest administrators that a solution had been submitted. And finally, this morning, onmac.net announced that a proposed solution had been found and had been tested successfully. The contest had been won, and it looks like “narf” is about to almost US$14,000 richer,” Clint Ecker reports for Ars Technica.
“The WindowsXP on Mac website has now posted the solution developed by Narf. It is fairly complicated and will probably be a little difficult for novice users to get a handle on, but I’m certain that an easier, more accessible way to deploy this will become available in a relatively short amount of time,” Ecker reports. “The implications of this method of installing Windows XP onto any Apple Mac are exciting, to say the least. Anyone with a little know-how is going to be able to dual boot their machines and have access to a world of applications not yet available on their OS of choice. For most people that means they’ll be playing EVE Online on their iMacs and for others, they’ll finally be able to run a modern PSPICE application on their Mac mini. Apple computers are now the first machines on which you can boot all three major operating systems without (potentially) violating anyone’s EULA (it’s not yet clear whether or not modifying the Windows XP boot CD is technically legal or not). What is for certain is that a more user-friendly manner of getting Windows XP onto Apple’s Intel computers is going to arise from narf’s implementation, and in my opinion, it will be a net benefit for everyone involved.”
More info, instructions, and links here.
Download link for “Windows on the Intel Mac Bootloader” can be found here.
How to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Apple Macintosh: http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/HOWTO
Advertisements:
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related articles:
‘Windows XP on Intel Mac’ contest won – March 16, 2006
Video of Microsoft Windows XP booting on Apple iMac Core Duo? – March 15, 2006
Windows XP booting on an Intel-based Mac? – March 14, 2006
Growing reward pot awaits first person to get Windows XP running on Intel-based Mac – January 24, 2006
Intel-based Macs running both Mac OS X and Windows will be good for Apple – June 10, 2005
Hurray!!!
Windows wins!!
I can convert my insecure Mac OS X to insecure Windows and run more software!!
Sweet. I can’t wait to play Counter Strike source on my iMac
FINALLY: AutoCAD on my Mac!!!
ya can keep ya windows far far away from my mac, hope this is too hard for the average user to do so it doesnt effect OSX application production or sales
Finally an Apple computer can enjoy viruses too.
Good!
Now we go back to coding for one operating system again.
Want to run our software? Boot Windows.
End of discussion.
the death of a King is emminent. OS X is dying.
I hate Windows, but like many people, there is one particular application that I can’t run on a Mac (Statistical Analysis System also known as SAS in my case). So I welcome this. Perhaps I can disconnect my computer from the Internet when I boot in Windows.
Yaawwwwwnnnn…….
As you can see, it only took someone a few weeks and $14,000.
Microsoft could have had it done in less time and they have more money at their disposal.
Microsoft has stated they WONT make a version of Windows for Mac’s, now why not?
I would love to have a external drive that will boot my Mactel in Windows, to play games and such, I wouldn’t do anything sensitive, but as long as it can work to play games….
When an Windows virus corrupts your hard drive, making it unable to boot from any system, then let me know how wonderful it is to use.
I use Mac OS X to PREVENT problems. Why on God’s green Earth would someone want to invite a digital molester to live in their attic merely because he can play a few games?
Buy a cheap Dell for those aps, so you can keep your Mac isolated and have at least one secure system in your home or workplace.
I still fail to see the purpose behind all of this insanity?
I really wish I had all of their time and money to waste on such silliness.
In all the excitement I forgot why I want to do this?
It’s simple, you have two external drives with Windows XP on it.
One you boot from one to run your games etc online on your MacTel box.
If it gets corrupted by a virus/malware etc. you simply go offline physically, boot from a write protected boot cd and erase the infected drive, hook up the other drive and clone a new copy of XP.
Forget about running anti-malware programs and paying those fee’s. Just close up those open ports, follow some simple online securing XP instructions and your Mactel XP machine should be fine for several weeks before needing a fresh copy.
I can just see the headlines in 6 months
“Latest News: Macs get hit by massive virus attack”
then somewhere in the text will be ‘ a Mac computer running WindowsXX….blah, blah, dadadida’
In all the excitement I forgot why I want to do this?
To play games?
To use XP only software?
Audocad?
To view IE only websites?
Need I say more?
Your journey to the dark side is almost complete.
Apple has said they won’t stop anyone from installing Windows on a Mactel
This is a obvious indication that they plan or want to sell Mac’s with Windows installed in all their stores to sell more hardware.
Apple is a hardware company, Mac OS X is just the fancy paint job on the hardware.
People tend to forget that.
If you think for a minute that Steve Jobs won’t drop Mac OS X to run a version of Windows (XP or Vista) to sell more hardware, your a idiot.
“I can just see the headlines in 6 months
“Latest News: Macs get hit by massive virus attack”
then somewhere in the text will be ‘ a Mac computer running WindowsXX”
EXACTLY! And all the sheeple will just accept even more that computers go hand in hand with viruses, spyware, etc.
It’s very sad.
Could we get a reality check please? This development means so many things. First some people need windows for particular apps that aren’t available on the mac side of things. It sucks that is that case but we have to deal it. Yes, we all know that windows is not that great and that OSX is better but could we please be a little more objective about the situation. Secondly, it does mean that you need to take precautions now that windows is on the machine. Personally I would use an external drive to keep it in a separate area. Next, this is a security blanket for those that want to dip their toe in the mac waters. Instead of totally taking a dive into an entirely new OS people can have the security of knowing their old companion windows is still there. When I switched I kept my old PC for a while because I was used to it. After time I used the PC less and less until I no longer owned a windows machine. It’s a great way to weem people off of windows and onto OSX. Another positive is when PC people give you a hard time you have a great come back. “Yeah, I can boot windows, OSX, and Linux on my machine.” So much for it being a “toy computer” as so many say. From a technical standpoint what other arguements can they give you. You can run windows on basically the same hardware they do. Their anti-mac agruements are all becoming mute. Finally, those of us that are gamers can finally get titles to play on their machine. I personally am not a gamer but I know many that would never switch to a mac because of the lack of games. They only thing this dual booting thing will do is to bring more people over to the mac side. The dual booting option as well as the switch to intel seems to have been a necessary evil for Apple. The only things that will happen is Macs will be seen in a new light and it’s market share will increas.
Since you need a full version of XP pro and not an upgrade or OEM, Microsoft should officially support running XP on a mac. They should also encourage ATI to write a video driver too. Because all you who think your going to run games on your brand new iMac are obviously not aware that this solution has limited video support…ie. no games or Autocade ect.
But you know why they won’t? Because once people use OS X and XP together, it will painfully highlight just how inferior Windows is and would speed the adoption of OS X.
I expect Microsoft to shut down this site. Hurry up and get the download because it won’t be there very long.
I think we all should accept the realization that Vista will most likely be our next operating system.
Apple is transitioning to be a common PC vendor with all their expensive stores.
They are in the process of dropping Firewire and making their machines more like PC’s in every aspect.
Apple can’t possible sustain this sort of retail growth without tapping the huge Windows market.
Adobe got their taste of the huge Windows market, now Apple did with the iPod and soon will their computers.
I don’t think Vista will be all that bad, after all Mac OS X has not proven itself all that great, it’s been racked with security problems.
This line shows just how out of touch Ars Technica gets sometime:
For most people that means they’ll be playing EVE Online on their iMacs and for others, they’ll finally be able to run a modern PSPICE application on their Mac mini.
Nonsense, for MOST people, this means nothing.
If you think for a minute that Steve Jobs won’t drop Mac OS X to run a version of Windows (XP or Vista) to sell more hardware, your a idiot.
Ashvillian, you really are a dumb-ass mother fscker.
bite me. windows should never go near my ibook. bit me hard. windows is a vrius it self. mac is the more superior os and will take over the world one day. bite me windows.
No way in hell will I run Windows on my iMac. What Apple ought to do is push development of the Wine concept and amke it available for free. I know many people who would switch to Mac in a hearbeat if 1) they could install and run their Windows only applications, and 2) install and run Windows software that they cannot afford to replace just to use a Mac. If Apple is serious about attracting switchers and building market share, they need to do this.
MW: game. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention 3) games.
One more time, I want DARWINE not WinXP if I need to run Winapps/games, then you will still have all the security of OSX without the crap.
MW = anything
as in, anything but Windows!
For me it’s simple: I currently work in a relatively small industy. For some applications the ISVs sell maybe 2,000 or so copies of their software worldwide. Even if Apple hardware accounted for 10% of the users this would only be 200 copies. Based upon this there are several specialized applications which will never make it to Macintosh.
The scenario for me is traveling and needing access to these rare applications. Now I will be able to take my Mac laptop with me and still do the analyses I need to do at reasonable performance.
I’ve been running VPC and it’s a pain. Now I should be able to get full performance by dual booting.
Hopefully soon there will be a technique out where I can run Mac OS X and Windows concurrently so I can move data back and forth between apps running under the two different OSes. For me, that is the optimum choice.