The Right Way to Run Vista on a Mac

The advantage of using Boot Camp software is that when you run the Windows operating system on a Macintosh computer, the entire hard drive of that computer will be used to run Windows, at which point the Mac's own operating system, OS X, will completely stop running, and the remaining portion of the hard drive space will also be entirely reserved for use by the Windows operating system. The disadvantage is that you cannot simultaneously run both the Windows and OS X operating systems on this Macintosh computer, whereas programs like Parallels and Fusion allow you to do just that. To switch between the Windows and OS X operating systems, you must restart your computer and then press the selection key to choose whether to enter Windows or the OS X operating system. However, Parallels and Fusion can use Boot Camp's Windows configuration capabilities to create a virtual version of the Windows operating system, which can run simultaneously with the OS X operating system.