I want to run windows on my macbook. Google ranks lots but I've discovered the hard way the all tutorials are not created equal. Any one know of a good FREE web based tutorial on installing windows?

You don't need any outsourced tutorials on the process; Boot Camp has a very straight-forward PDF set of instructions built-in. It's recommended that you print it out in case you run into trouble during the install process. It covers both XP and Vista installs.

Here's the Apple Support page for Bootcamp (http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/), but like Robert said, it's pretty straight forward. If you want to use an external computer monitor and want to make it your primary display you will need to use Vista.

Here's the Apple Support page for Bootcamp (http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/), but like Robert said, it's pretty straight forward. If you want to use an external computer monitor and want to make it your primary display you will need to use Vista.

Wow, talk about a dealkiller. No external monitor with XP? That's unfortunate since that's how I use the Macbook 90% of the time. Vista is something I've learned to run away from.

Or go Parallels or VMFusion. Bootcamp gives you the best possible performance but it also requires you to restart and boot into a different OS every time you want to use it. The virtual windows programs have great performance as well and you can run them in a window in OS X.

Noah

+1 for Parallels/VMWare. I use Parallels on iMac and MacBook Pro to run XP, and works like a dream.

Another vote for VMware Fusion. One immense benefit versus running Windows natively is AutoProtect which gives the ability to revert to an earlier snapshot of the whole virtual machine. Thus when Windows screws up (or you screw up Windows) as will inevitably happen then you just restore a snapshot from an hour ago, the day before or whenever & within a minute or 2 you are back up & running.

Wow, talk about a dealkiller. No external monitor with XP? That's unfortunate since that's how I use the Macbook 90% of the time. Vista is something I've learned to run away from.

I'm sure that's not the case; I run a MBP with BootCamp/XP SP3 and have my 30" ACD as my main monitor without issue. In fact I run Flight Simulator in full-res and things work great (see grabs). I don't see why the MacBook would be any different since the Preference Pane for controlling externals is identical as is the software codec that handles display commands. You should be fine, Brian.

Yes, the external primary monitor issue could just be my setup. At the time I only tried XP SP2, and I'm using a Samsung external monitor with a late 2008 MBP. The option was there, but grayed out. I have a feeling SP3 might have been the ticket.