Last night I successfully installed Windows XP on a Mac Pro using Apple’s latest release of Boot Camp. Boot Camp installed flawlessly. Windows XP on the other-hand could not recognize the Apple USB keyboard. I encountered this same problem with XP under the previous version of Boot Camp. Switching USB ports did not work.
What did work was using using a Microsoft keyboard. I just happen to have a Microsoft Standard Wireless Optical Desktop keyboard and mouse left over from the days when I still had a PC. I re-booted the system with the new keyboard which restarted the XP install. It completed without incident. Installing the system drivers from the drive disk created by Boot Camp worked great. Found that XP recognizes my iSite camera, however its generic driver produces an unusable washed out image. I did have to call Microsoft to register the install. Apparently, I used up my alloted install attempts. I really hate having to repeat a 40 digit number first to a computer and then again to the help-desk. Then for a reword, Microsoft returns with a 40 digit number. So much for purchasing a legal copy of XP.
What is nice about the Boot Camp install is its ability to use any drive. In my case I have a second drive of 500G. I allocated 200G for XP. Parallels would not install on my second drive.
Installed Microsoft Office 2003, Visual Studio 2005, NOD32 (because Leo Laport said its the best), and Windows Defender Beta 2. Installing Windows Defender gave me a scare. Initially I could not download the product because Microsoft could not detect that the installed copy of XP was legal. As a Microsoft Partner, I have legal copies of their software. So here is a clear case of a false positive. A second attempt after closing the browser worked. Why?
My sole reason for using XP is to run Visual Studio 2005. In my work life I principally code .NET C# and being an acknowledged work alcoholic I am compelled bring work home. Using Boot Camp means I no longer also need a PC at home. So, I can proudly admit that I have been PC free for two months.
Ramblings of an old computer engineer/developer 