Do you own both a Mac and a Windows PC? You’re not alone: according to a 2009 survey 85% of Mac owners also own a PC. This means millions of people need to, somehow, make these two systems work together.
If you’re one of those millions you should check out “Computing Harmony: Seamlessly Blend Windows and OS X”, the latest free MakeUseOf manual. This manual outlines everything you need to know to get your Mac and your PC to live in harmony, so you can do the things you wanted to do.
At the beginning of the decade, compatibility between PCs and Macs was a real mess. Part of the reason for this, besides the use of different operating systems, was the use of different processors. PCs have long used x86 processors from Intel and AMD, but Apple continued to hold on to the aging PowerPC architecture. That changed in 2005, however, and compatibility between the two operating systems has improved ever since. It has become much easier to run either operating system on hardware of your choice.
It’s also easier to get these two systems to play nicely with each other, provided you know how. Read this manual and you will.
This free guide will show you how to:
- Format an external drive with FAT32 for compatibility
- Explore BootCamp and virtualization
- Use the cloud to seamlessly sync files
- Figure out which cloud service is right for you
- Use Android with your Mac and the iPhone with Windows
- Sharing files between Mac and PC over your home network
- Setting up printer sharing from one platform to the other
Guide Published: December 2011
How To Download
Use the share buttons below to download!
Option 1: Very easy! Share this page on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus. You need to use the buttons above to share and your download link will be revealed right below! That would also help us spread the word. Thank you!
Option 2: Subscribe to MakeUseOf Newsletter and get unlock password to our downloads. Enter the password below to download the file. (Already subscriber? Re-enter your email in the newsletter subscription form to retrieve the password).
Option 3: Purchase the book on Amazon. You'll have to pay 99 cents, but you don't need to subscribe to or share anything. You'll also directly support the creation of these guides.
Hide 30 Comments
Seriously not worth the read.
why not? what is that you didnt’l like in this one? please give us some feedback)
It would be great to include system requirements BEFORE the download. Remember- in this economy there are still thousands [if not hundreds of thousands] of PPC Mac users. We just can’t afford the Intel upgrade when we have perfectly good G5s and G4s that still work beautifully. Longevity and the ability to upgrade are reasons we bought the Mac in the first place. Something Apple seems to forget as evidenced by there Adobe/Apple flash upgrade.
Agreed, though Apple is the in business of selling hardware and software, why would you be surprised when they control both that they are going to force an upgrade?
The switch to intel was 5 years ago. While I appreciate and respect that you still enjoy using your 5+ year old mac, it’s simply not possible for everything we write to support multiple architecture, soo you should expect that very little in the way of new apps or new articles will be relevant to you.
The switch to intel was 5 years ago. While I appreciate and respect that you still enjoy using your 5+ year old mac, it’s simply not possible for everything we write to support multiple architecture, soo you should expect that very little in the way of new apps or new articles will be relevant to you.
Hi James, you are totally right but we tend to forget that the world is a bit bigger that the G5 and technology advanced countries. What about the poor countries (e.g. Africa – I live here) where people do not have the financial meens like us to buy new technology whenever it becomes available. I am one of the lucky ones. Regards Chirs
I though the point of a Hackintosh was to install OSX on unsupported hardware… Not on systems that came preinstalled with it.
I would say that if you’re running two separate systems and those rarely talk together because you dont want to bother with fiddling with it; then keep it that way.
however, I do find a few things neat, such as the formatting of an external drive to be host for files in FAT32 format. I haven’t read the whole thing yet, but I will keep it handy. I am well experienced with both Mac and PC; so I’d say there is somewhat useful information in here. Not for the enthusiast who’s been trying to get seamless experience for years. He should know most of this stuff and potentially better solutions.
Serieus niet de moeite waard te lezen
Tipies ‘n europeer wat alles verniet will hê en dan kla oor alles, groete Chris
Very nice that you give another freebie. I do not agree with the others that say it’s not worth the read. Yes, it doesn’t have extensive info about this or that, but please, this is far better because it’s free and helps you have a start point in the usage of those two systems. Love your work guys
Tech R&D Analyst – Good read, great starting point for those with absolutely no idea, have two iMacs, Windows PC, w/less printer, Apple W/less TimeCapsule & Hub, and multiple external drives linked together on Homesharing, etc… this still taught me a few things and pointed in good directions for some other points of interest. Nice job, keep ‘em comin…they are going to all my relevant contacts everytime! “Spread the word – spread the revolution”.
something about n900
You should probably preface that with some kind of verb clause.
iam frist time u r soft using
For all the good things that you have done, I have taken it to FB and Twitter
didn’t get a password, or it flashed off immediately
Janet,
if you are subscribed to our newsletter, you can enter your email address and name here (pretending to sign up again) to view the password. If you are not subscribed, obviously that will work also.
win7 won’t do fat32, why didn’t you mention exfat?
(as long as you’re not talking about linux connectivity);
doesn’t win7 do exfat either? (I have only vista, xp)
Windows 7 does do FAT32, see this article:
What A File System Is & How You Can Find Out What Runs On Your Drives
The problem is that under Windows, only drives that don’t exceed 32GB can be formatted with FAT or FAT32. Obviously, that affects almost all drives. However, both file systems can handle up to 16TB! Fortunately, you can circumvent the artificial size limit:
How To Format A Large Hard Drive With Either FAT Or FAT32
You may also want to read this article:
How To Format A USB Drive & Why You Would Need To
ExFAT is currently the best option for external drives that need to be read and written to by both Windows and Mac OS based computers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT
I enter the email address I receive the newsletter at, but it just shows “The password you entered is incorrect. ..” err msg. The email from MUO shows that I’m subscribed to it, but there’s no mention of any password in it anywhere.
I enter the email address I receive the newsletter at, but it just shows “The password you entered is incorrect. ..” err msg. The email from MUO shows that I’m subscribed to it, but there’s no mention of any password in it anywhere.
I enter the email address I receive the newsletter at, but it just shows “The password you entered is incorrect. ..” err msg. The email from MUO shows that I’m subscribed to it, but there’s no mention of any password in it anywhere.
The password should have been emailed to you in the Wlecome email from MakeUseOf.
Regradless, it’s “makeuseof” (without quotes)
Let me know if you encounter any other issues.
Aibek
The image can be merged better.
If it was “Linux” instead of “OS X” I’d be interested.
A Linux guide like this is a good idea. I’ll look into it..
MakeUseOf is awesome, and I even appreciate the things you do that don’t interest me.