Apple has withdrawn support for the older versions of Windows OS namely the Windows XP and Windows Vista. It has always displayed stubbornness about backward compatibility and providing support for outdated software and hardware. The Boot Camp utility allows users in the Apple Mac OS X to install and run other Operating Systems on it. But now the new MacBook Pros which were announced recently and the newest MacBook Air models will not be provided with support for Windows XP and Windows Vista OS through the Boot Camp.
Boot Camp is a utility for running the Windows operating system on your personal Mac. The applications running on the Windows OS will have complete access to the all the hardware functionalities like multiple processing, accelerated 3D graphics, high speed ports and multiple connectivity options like USB, FireWire, Wi-Fi, AirPort etc. The Boot Camp support drivers that allow you to utilize these options with your Windows operating system on your Mac OS X installation DVD as well as other drivers. These get automatically installed after inserting the disc into a Mac after completing the installation procedure of Windows. What Boot Camp actually does is create a partition for your Windows OS without wiping off your current Mac OS X. It also provides you with ease of switching between the two OS by pressing the option (‘Alt’) key when starting up. You can also use the start up disk control interface in Windows or the Mac OS X start up disk options to set one of the operating systems as the default one whenever you power up your Mac.
Boot camp had been introduced in 2006 and has been a part of the Mac OS X since 2007 with the advent of the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Apple released a statement saying that Windows XP and Windows Vista drivers have not been supplied for this range and are not supported. To be able to run Windows 7 on Boot Camp, the following requirements must be met, an optical drive is a must and MacBook Air users would need an external optical disc drive to install Windows 7 successfully. A blank CD or USB storage device or any other external storage device is a must. For the computers running 32-bit versions of Windows, a minimum of 16 GB of free space is a must and for the 64-bit versions of Windows you would require at least 20 GB of free space on your computer. You would also require the Boot Camp Assistant, which is pre-installed in your Mac under Applications/Utilities.
