As a Mac-using attorney, I often raise eyebrows when people look over my shoulder to see Windows XP. Recently I attended a seminar for Casesoft’s excellent relational database application, Casemap. Casemap does not support Apple OS X so when my computer’s Apple logo began glowing amidst a sea of Dells, I got a variety of responses ranging from curiosity to denial. Yes, you can run Windows on a Mac.

In 2006, Apple moved the entire Macintosh line to Intel processors. Now Apple and PC clones are all using compatible hardware. Almost immediately, Apple and third party software developers found ways to run Windows on Apple hardware. There are currently three primary ways to accomplish this.

Apple Boot Camp -- Boot Camp is Apple’s own virtualization application built into every new Macintosh computer. It allows you to partition your hard drive for both a Windows and OS X install. Once you enable boot camp, you are presented a choice when you boot up your Mac, Windows or Apple OS X? You simply click the desired operating system and away it goes.

If you choose Windows, your installed Windows partition will load no differently than if it were a Dell or Lenovo. You can run any windows application your hardware will support. If you click the button for Apple OS X, your computer boots into the Macintosh operating system. This, in essence, gives you two computers in one. The only downside to this usage is that you can not load both operating systems at the same time. This leads to the second method, third party virtualization solutions.

Third Party Virtualization -- While Boot Camp provides a free and easy solution to run Windows on your Mac, some users prefer to run both Windows and OS X at the same time. Using virtualization applications such as Parallels or VMWare Fusion, both of which cost $70, you can install Windows (or Linux) to run as its own OS X application. These applications support any version of Windows from Windows 95 up through the recently released Windows 7 beta.

For instance, I use Casemap in a Parallels installation of Windows XP. However, I do my presentation work and word processing in OS X applications. Using virtualization software, I am able to run Casemap right next to my Apple word processing application.

There are several additional benefits to using virtual machines. They are simply a disk image on your hard drive so they are easy to back up or restore. Taking advantage of this portability, I’ve installed a version of Windows beta 7 on my Mac. Because it is a virtual machine, I am immune from the perils often associated with running a beta operating system.

Virtual Windows without the Windows -- Using Boot Camp, VMWare, or Parallels all require installation of the Windows operating system. If you are going to run Windows, it stands to reason you would need the software and a licensse.

Another Mac software product, Crossover Mac ($70), allows you to run certain Windows software natively in OS X without installing Windows. This application installs its own compatibility layer on your Mac and translates the programming calls for Windows resources into their compatible OS X equivalents. This does not work for all Windows software but does work for many of the standard business applications, such as Microsoft Office.

The good news is that now you don’t have to choose between Apple OS X and Windows. You can easily run both taking advantage of the best applications in both operating systems.

David Sparks is a practicing business litigation and estate planning attorney in Orange County, California and the publisher of MacSparky.com. David will be teaching sessions at TechShow 2009 on using Macintosh computers and the iPhone