How to Run Windows on a Mac

Apple actually makes it pretty easy to create a Boot Camp setup on your Mac. You just need to make sure you have enough disk space to accommodate the second operating system. The minimum disk space requirement for a Windows 8 installation is 16GB for the 32-bit and 20GB for the 64-bit version of Windows, but you'll definitely want more than that for applications and data files. I'd suggest at least 40GB. This could actually be a stress on a lower-end Air. (Note that running Windows on Macs via virtualization also takes a lot of disk space—16GB for Parallels, the most popular option.)

Which versions of Windows your Mac will be able to run depends on the vintage of your computer; in general Macs from 2009 and earlier (except for Mac Pros) won't be able to run Windows 8, while the newest machines built form 2011 on, won't be able to run Windows XP and Vista. A complete chart of which machines support which Windows versions appears on this Apple support page.

The page also tells you which version of Boot Camp can run which versions of Windows. Version 5 (only available on OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.3 and later) works with 64-bit Windows 7 and 8, while Boot Camp Version 4 works with 32-bit Windows 7, XP, and Vista. Version 4 only runs on Macs running OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.2 and earlier. Another great resource is Apple's Boot Camp Support page.
With that behind us, let's start boot-camping your Mac!

1. Run Software Update and makes sure your Mac OS X version is all patched to the latest versions. Also go to http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ and check for Bootcamp-specific updates. 
2. Before you can start bootcamping, check which exact Mac version you have, by choosing "About this Mac" from the computer's Apple menu. 
3. Based on the info from step 1 and the Apple support table, determine whether you can run the Windows version you want to run. 
4. Back up your Mac! This kind of deep system change can occasionally produce unpredictable results that could result in data loss. 
5. Print out Apple's downloadable Boot Camp Guide. There's another opportunity to print this after the next step—you'll really want this for the procedure. 
6. In Spotlight search, type "Boot Camp," and click on Boot Camp Assistant. You'll also find it under Applications | Utilities, if you prefer going through Finder. Run it. 
7. You'll now be in the Assistant's wizard interface, where you'll see a Print Installation & Setup Guide button. Do it, if you haven't already. 
8. Hit Continue in the wizard. This takes you to the page where you choose what you want it to do. There are three check boxes: (1) "Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk," (2) "Download the latest Windows support software from Apple," and (3) Install a "Windows 7 or later version." If you've already got your Windows Installation media, you can uncheck the first. If you've downloaded an ISO file of the Windows installer, leave it checked. The last option creates the Boot Camp Windows partition on you Mac's hard drive, so you'll want that one checked. 
9. Create the bootable USB drive if you've copied the Windows installer ISO to your Mac. You'll need a key of at least 8GB capacity, and the process will erase all its contents. The preferred method is to create the bootable USB installer through Boot Camp, since this will add support files, saving you a step later. But I ran into an issue where the process halted in the middle. Instead, I used Microsoft's USB Download Tool to create the bootable installer USB key. 
10. Next the wizard will download the Boot Camp support software. You'll need another USB drive to save this data to. 
11. Choose how much hard drive space you want to dedicate to the Windows partition by dragging the divider in the rectangle graphically representing disk space. This depends both on how many programs and how much data you intend to use in Windows programs (for example, if you'll be editing video, you'll want a lot) and on how big the Mac's hard drive is. The minimum space for 64-bit Windows 8 is 20GB, but I recommend double that for general usage. 
12. Hit Install. At this point, the disk is actually partitioned, and you'll need to have your USB drive containing the Windows installer plugged in. The machine will reboot, and start up the Windows installer. 
13. Go through the simple Windows 8 installation process, choosing Custom for the installation type, and the drive partition named BOOTCAMP. You'll need to click Drive Options (advanced), and then click Format. 
14. Click Next. This kicks off the regular Windows installation, in which files are copied to the hard drive and extracted and installed. It took me about 10 minutes. Once that's done, you'll be in Windows. 
15. Install the Boot Camp support software by double-clicking setup.exe in the Boot Camp folder in the USB drive you saved these to up in step 10. This installs hardware drivers for things like the display, camera, and keyboard function keys.

From this point on, whenever you restart your Mac, you can hold down the Option key right after hitting the power button. This will present you with an option of starting in Windows or in OS X. You can set either to be the default in OS X System Preferences/Startup Disk. You can also switch to OS X from Windows using the Boot Camp utility. You can get to this by typing Boot Camp from the Start screen with Settings selected, or from its diamond-shaped system tray icon in the desktop view. Running this will require a User Account Control dialog OK.

We got surprisingly good functionality in Windows 8, including working brightness and volume keys and two-finger scroll support. Mac's don't have the same keyboards as Windows, though, so you'll have to get used to using Option instead of Alt, and Command instead of Windows key. A full list of equivalences is at this Apple support page.

Source : wmpoweruser