Even the most devoted Mac OS X user may need to use Windows XP, or may just be curious about XP and its applications. This Short Cut is a concise guide for OS X users who need to quickly get comfortable and become productive with Windows XP basics on their Macs. It covers:

• Security
• Networking
• Applications

Mac users can easily install and use Windows thanks to Boot Camp and Parallels Desktop for Mac. Boot Camp lets an Intel-based Mac install and boot Windows XP on its own hard drive partition. Parallels Desktop for Mac uses virtualization technology to run Windows XP (or other operating systems like Linux) at the same time as OS X. But once you've installed Windows, then what? This guide by Todd Ogasawara, a Microsoft MVP and Mac journeyman, will help you unite Windows software with Mac hardware. (Note that this Short Cut focuses on using Parallels Desktop for Mac as the main method of using Windows XP on a Mac.) The format used in this Short Cut lets you read and absorb small chunks of Windows XP information, as they relate to your OS X experience. It may make sense to quickly skim though the pages to get a general sense about how to use Windows XP and look at some of the screenshots. Then, feel free to jump around and focus on the Windows XP topic section that interests you at the moment.