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hi guys. for christmas, i received the new 13 inch macbook (the 1299$ one) and i'm loving it so far. i've been using windows my entire life, so some of the shortcuts, functions, and etc are pretty new and fascinating to me. i'm amazed at how speedy and efficient this entire thing is, apple is just genius. (spaces and expose are amazing).
however, being a complete mac noob and having all my asian friends crowding around their cheap windows, i have no clue how to run this thing. i don't know many of the shortcuts and special features of the mac that weren't previously avaliable on my pc. i was wondering if any of the mac users here could leave some helpful tips and some new features that I could check out on my macbook. this seems kind of general and stuff but i really want some feedback from tl users because i usually see alot of cool stuff in the tech threads around here. thanks.
p.s. i'm trying to get windows on this thing (using bootcamp? someone recommended parallels to me) but i'm kind of worried. im planning on downloading a windows xp cd and finding a cdkey online and hoping itll work for bootcamp... are there any risks (aside form the fact im being completely illegal..will it fuck up my mac if it somehow fails) and complications that may occur while i try to install?
thank you.
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http://guides.macrumors.com/Mac_Beginner's_Guide
That's a bit messy, but it has all the information you'll ever want. Ideally you will have someone around you that can show you some of the immediatedly useful things you need.
Regarding XP: No risks or complications. If you don't use a volume license key (so look for this kind), you won't be able to use Automatic Update. Alternatively, just download a SP3 XP CD and don't update at all. There's a whole mess of shit here, so make sure you read what it says in the torrent descriptions.
I would recommend Boot Camp. For newer games, you will have better performance. For SC, you will have the benefit of mouse drivers and correct "feel".
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The risk of downloading a windows xp cd and burning it onto a cd then trying to use it with boot camp well the risk is that it doesn't work or is filled with viruses but i doubt the virus part if you are reading torrent comments.
You also risk it not working and becoming a useless chuck in like 10 days because you couldn't activate it. Also with that you risk unable to being able to update anything windows which would be a bitch. Can't afford the 150 ish for a xp cd. or like 85 for an oem disk
but it should just work like anything else if i think i know what boot camp does. Which is creates a partition which can be used to put another o.s. on it.
If it fucks up the most it should do is force you to try to delete that partition or re partition it. I don't know how a mac gets boot up priority but as long as the xp isn't your main boot mac should work even if it does fail to work. You'll just be temperately out of disk space until you free it up again.
In short baislly it's no risk to your mac but you coudl see
A cripled XP
Or a dead part of your HDD until you get the XP working.
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Melbourne5338 Posts
Make sure you get quicksilver, makes the mac more fun. (Also allows you not to have every program you install in your dock so you don't look so silly)
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United States5625 Posts
Izzy, you mentioned boot priority: you can set the default partition to boot from, or you hold option as you boot up, and then you can choose (or you can hold 't' as you boot, and your computer acts like an external hard drive). I second the motion for quicksilver. I personally use bootcamp, and I like it. I have no experience with parallels, so I can't speak for or against it. I do recall having a little bit of trouble getting mac drivers installed on the windows partition though. I recommend installing MacDrive on the windows half, it lets you look at the mac part of your computer while in windows (mac side can do it automagically). As for keyboard shortcuts, press command+control+option 8. + Show Spoiler +I have no clue why someone felt the need to hotkey the ability to invert colors
Wow, that's a bit more of a giant wall o'text than I thought.
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EPT
