Virtual Windows XP on OS X, for free!

There was trouble in paradise. Don’t get me wrong – I really love OS X. I can say with my integrity (boy, that word doesn’t come up much anymore) intact that I love OS X with all my heart. It’s here to stay. There have just been a few tough patches in the transition from Windows Vista to OS X.

Firstly, I had to buy a new version of Office. When mine was totally fine. Stupid.

Then Photoshop. Stupid.

Stupid, but at least do-able. I was able to get my hands on these items (which can be acquired by other “torrent”-ial means, I’ll just say) and install them into OS X. And they worked like a charm!

Friends over at APH Networks also introduced me to Darwine and TRiX, and I was able to get some Windows applications running. Most unfortunately, Windows Live Writer just wasn’t one of them (apparently some .NET incompatibilities were the cause or something like that).

Anyway, that was that. For a month, I’d had to write using WordPress’ built-in service. I tried Qumana, but that was mediocre (no offense) – even though it was easily the best out of all the free OS X blog publishing software I could find. Downgrading from Windows Live Writer to Qumana was probably the only negative to my transition to OS X.

So I finally took the dive and got Windows XP.

Similarly, I downloaded a piece of FREE software by the name of VirtualBox; in comparison to the software Parallels and VMware Fusion (both paid solutions), VirtualBox was free and still comparable. I finally got Windows Live Writer back on OS X, running simultaneously with all my OS X programs.

You must be wondering how I did it.

1. Get your hands on Windows XP. Preferably Professional, as always.

2. Get VirtualBox. http://www.virtualbox.org/

3. Create a new machine in VirtualBox, and don’t forget to go into Settings and make sure your computer’s optical drive is in-sync with the virtual computer.

4. Insert Windows XP into your optical drive, boot your new virtual machine and install Windows XP.

4i. Go into Devices, and install guest additions. Trust me, they’re a huge help (especially in adjusting screen resolution, whew).

That’s it! 4 simple steps, probably takes you an hour or two. And now you have Windows XP on OS X, and not using dual-boot (rebooting is so 1999). Haha.