The long-standing battle between the personal computer and the Mac has only intensified with the recent release of Microsoft's Windows 7 and Apple's Snow Leopard, which are the two newest operating systems in the market.  It doesn't always have to be about which operating system is better, however.  Sometimes, it's nice to be able to take advantage of the great features of both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard.  This article will give a short tutorial on how to get Windows 7 running on a Mac with the use of Apple's Boot Camp software.  Now, for some die-hard Apple fans, this may seem like sacrilege, but for others it is a great way to explore and use the features and functions of both of these operating system heavyweights.  So here it goes.

1.  Basic system requirements

To install and run Windows 7 on your Mac without any hiccups, your system will have to meet these minimum requirements:
-  An Intel-based Mac
-  The Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or 10.6 Snow Leopard installation disk
-  10 GB of free hard drive space
-  Windows 7 installation disk

2.  Access Boot Camp and get started

If you meet the minimum system requirements, then you can initiate the procedure by opening Boot Camp Assistant on Mac.  Just search for the application with the Spotlight feature.  Boot Camp will then walk you through the installation.  Before actually starting the Windows 7 installation, Boot Camp Assistant will remind you that it would be ideal to back up your hard drive.  Backing up your data is the best way of ensuring that you can restore your files and your system in case something goes wrong.

3.  Create a partition

After the backup warning, Boot Camp Assistant will then go into the next step, which is partitioning.  You will have to create a separate partition on your hard drive for your Windows 7 installation.  It is advisable to make this partition at least 5 to 10 GB.  But if you plan on making full use of Windows 7 by installing applications and games, you may want to bump up the partition space to around 30 to 50 GB.  Select your partition space, click "Partition," and let Boot Camp Assistant do the rest.

4.  Installing Windows 7

Now that your system is partitioned and ready for the Windows 7 installation, you need to grab your installation disk and insert it into the disk drive.  The actual installation of Windows 7 will probably take a while and it will have a few settings and options for you to configure along the way, so don't go too far from your Mac while the installation is in progress.  After accepting the terms and agreements, choosing your language settings, and selecting the type of Windows 7 installation you want, you will then have to select the partition you created with Boot Camp in step 2.  The partition will then be formatted into the NTFS file system, and the installation of Windows 7 will commence.  After the installation is done, all you have to do is select the Windows boot up option from the OS X boot screen, which can be accessed by holding the Alt key while the system is booting.  You may need to install some drivers from your OS X installation disk, which is easy enough once you get into Windows.

To further get into this operating system on mac computers you might be interested in visiting ixdownloads windows 7 forum where you both can ask questions and help other.