Restart in Windows from Mac OS X

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Level 1

46 points

Restart in Windows from Mac OS X

In Windows, in the bottom right of the screen when you first start up, there is a little boot camp icon. When you click it, it gives you the option to restart in Mac OS X. Something like this is needed in Mac OS X, except to offer starting up in Windows. Normally, I would have to click on the Apple in the top left corner of the screen, click "Restart...", then a box shows up offering "Restart" or "Cancel". Here would be the perfect place to offer the option of restarting in Windows. Either that, or something optional in the menu bar (like Time Machine).

My question is: Is there any simple way to restart from Mac OS X into Windows without the minor inconvenience of waiting at the computer while everything closes and shuts down then holding the Option key?

Message was edited by: Alias7

Mac OS X (10.4.10), 20" iMac 2.4GHz

Posted on Mar 20, 2008 4:28 PM

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Answer 1

Bjoure

Level 1

8 points

Mar 20, 2008 4:33 PM in response to Alias7

I'd like to know about this too.

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Answer 2

Axel Foley

Level 10

148,254 points

Mar 20, 2008 6:16 PM in response to Alias7

Allas7:

Absolutely there is, or rather there should be. In the OSx side open PREFERENCES and then choose STARTUP DISK option. You should see OSx and WIndows. Choose Windows. Once you do this then the computer will always boot from the Windows side until you change it on the windows side or hold the ALT key at bootup.

Axel F.

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Answer 3

Alias7 Author

Level 1

46 points

Mar 21, 2008 8:00 PM in response to Axel Foley

Well, I knew that existed. The problem is, I don't use Windows that often. But when I want to, there is no simple way to switch (other than holding the option key at start up, which is pretty simple, but lacks convenience). Opening up System Preferences every time I want to start up in Windows is worse than holding down the option key after the start up chime.

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Answer 4

Mar 23, 2008 7:43 PM in response to Alias7

There is a simple way of doing what you want. Go to: http://www.kainjow.com/ and download Bootchamp.

Blurb from website: BootChamp is a small utility that when launched, will boot your computer into your Windows partition. It requires authentication in order to properly set your Windows partition as the startup disk.
How is this different than selecting your Windows volume from within Startup Disk in System Preferences? Well, using Startup Disk actually changes your startup disk permanently so that each time you restart, it boots into whatever you have selected. Essentially what my program is doing is what happens when you hold down Option at startup and select Windows. However, the app only requires a click to launch and your admin password, and then it restarts your computer into Windows without further input from you. It will not actually change your startup disk.

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Answer 5

Jun 2, 2008 2:46 PM in response to Andrew Gara

I was interested in doing the same thing, booting from a program or whatever instead of having to hold down the option key. The web site however states that bootchamp has not been tested on a FAT partition only NTFS. Since I have Windows XP on a FAT partition, I am not willing to try something that may or may not work. Hopefully, the author of the program will upgrade it to use a FAT partition also?

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