The Reason Why It’s So Difficult To Get Windows To Boot On Intel Macs

Microsoft has gone and confirmed the cause of why people are having so much trouble getting Windows XP and beta versions of Vista to boot on the Intel Macs. It seems that while Apple and Microsoft have both stated that they are not going to go out of their way to stop someone from running windows on a Mac box, Apple did choose to make it more difficult than it could have been:

Interest is also growing among Windows users, who cite the operating system’s unparalleled selection of software and want to port it to run on Apple’s stylish hardware. A Microsoft spokesman confirmed that neither Windows Vista nor XP will work “out of the box” with the MacIntels. The reason, said Microsoft, is because Apple decided not to install a piece of firmware optional to EFI called a Compatibility Support Module that was available from Intel.

So there you have it. If Apple had Compatibility Support installed, all of this may have been a whole lot easier. Our take, though, is that a power user won’t want to have a dual-boot Mac/Windows machine. We certainly wouldn’t. We would much prefer the ability to run Windows programs right inside of OS X, be it through WINE or an upgraded Virtual PC.

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