Mac: Booting into your Boot Camp partition usually requires a restart while holding down the Option key. Uf you're already in OS X, BootChamp is a menu bar app that makes it easier.

Mac OS X only: If you own Mac hardware, still like to get your Windows on from time to time, and virtual machines just won't do, here's some good news: Apple just released Boot Camp 3.1, adding support for Windows 7.

Tech thinker Anil Dash gets "uncharacteristically nerdy" and breaks down the process he used to install Windows 7 in Boot Camp — and then get access to it from OS X, without rebooting, using the free virtualisation software VirtualBox.

If you're on a Mac but want to know what the Windows 7 Beta fuss is about, the SimpleHelp weblog walks through installing Win7 using Boot Camp, Apple's solution for dual-booting Windows on a Mac. We've already covered how to dual-boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista, and the good news is that installing Win7 on your Mac is just as simple: All you need is your Leopard installation DVD, the Windows 7 Beta, 10GB of free hard drive space, and a few hours. What's your take? Are you willing to put a beta version of Windows on your Mac just to see if the eye candy is worth it?

Using Boot Camp to install Windows 7 on your Mac: The Complete Walkthrough

Mac OS X only: Free-for-now boot CD CampTune resizes your Boot Camp partition when the size of the Windows installation on your dual-booting Mac bumps against its limits. Without a tool like CampTune, you'd need to entirely reinstall Windows if you wanted to fiddle with the partition size of your secondary OS, making this a very handy app if you've underestimated how much space you need for Windows. CampTune is currently free to use, but their web site indicates it'll cost once it leaves pre-release, so grab it while it's hot. I haven't resized my Boot Camp with this, so if you give it a try, let's hear how it worked for you in the comments. Before you do, though, you may want to back up your BC partition with previously mentioned WinClone. CampTune

The writers at Macworld are going over to the dark side and listing all the Windows applications that make them want to dual boot or virtualise Windows on their Intel Macs. The main package that makes Windows-on-a-Mac worth it? Microsoft Office 2007, simply because it includes Outlook and Access, both Windows-only packages. (Yes, Office 2008 for Mac includes Entourage, but Entourage can't do everything Outlook can.) Likewise, some of the other Office on Windows programs have features MS Office on Mac does not—like Word's handy revision tracking. Other applications on the list include IE 7 (for web site testing), Windows Media Player 11, Visio, and Netflix. Oddly, Macworld didn't mention the one program I absolutely pine for when I'm booted into OS X.

Mac OS X and Linux: Now that you're dual booting Windows on your Mac, you want to save files to your Windows partition while you're booted up in OS X. By default, NTFS-formatted disks are read-only in OS X, but the NTFS-3G driver makes it writable. Download NTFS-3G, then use the following command to save and edit files on your Boot Camp partition:

The following post was originally published in Chapter 11 of our new book, Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better. You can have both a Mac and a PC on a single computer, using Apple's new Boot Camp software. Boot Camp lets you install Windows on your Mac in addition to Mac OS X. With Boot Camp set up, when you start your Mac, you can choose whether to use OS X or Windows. Boot Camp is a great way to consolidate the computers in your life and to run essential Windows programs that aren't available on the Mac. Here's how to set up Boot Camp to get a Mac and PC all rolled into one.

Just in time for next week's Windows XP Service Pack 3 arrival, Apple releases several updates to Boot Camp for Mac users dual-booting Windows. It's an .EXE file, so you'll need to download and install it when you're booted into Windows. Here's more on dual booting Windows and Mac in Boot Camp.

If you run Windows on your Mac with Boot Camp with an Apple keyboard, you start to miss certain keys: like Print Screen, Del, the Windows key, and Insert. For a while I was just living without them, but turns out there are key combinations that map to all the Windows keys in Boot Camp, like:Forward Delete in Windows - Fn+Delete

Print Screen in Windows - F14

Backspace in Windows - Delete

Insert in Windows - HelpThe rest of the list is over at the Apple site. Good bookmark for that Boot Camp'ed Windows install.Boot Camp Beta: Apple keyboards and keyboard mapping in Windows XP

Mac OS X only: Afraid of screwing up your Boot Camp partition when you upgrade to Leopard? Free application WinClone images your Windows Boot Camp partition for easy restoration to the same or another partition, just in case. The Leopard upgrade shouldn't disturb your Boot Camp setup, but a backup image is nice insurance, especially if you want to resize the partitions on your Mac's drive. WinClone can image an XP or Vista Boot Camp install. As always, back up your important data before using WinClone, which is a free download for Mac only.

Winclone