In a comment to my previous post there was a question from Shawn Oster regarding Windows keyboard shortcuts on the MacBook Pro. Here is a page from Apple's website that pretty much explains the landscape when it comes to the keyboard. I decided to post it here because the URL is from Boot Camp Installation & Setup Guide which is a PDF file and not terribly accessible not to mention that that page didn't come up searching Google. Btw, on page 20 of this PDF you'll find the table below as the secret to right clicking which is to simply hold two fingers down on the touch pad and click the button.

PC key command	Apple external keyboard	Built-in Mac keyboard
Control-Alt-Delete	Control-Option-Delete	Control-Option-Delete
Alt	Option	Option
Backspace	Delete	Delete
Delete	Delete	Fn-Delete
Enter	Return	Return
Enter (numeric keypad)	Enter	Enter
Insert	Help	Fn-Enter
Num lock	Clear	Fn-F6
Pause/Break	F16	Fn-Esc
Print Screen	F14	Fn-F11
Print active window	Option-F14	Option-Fn-F11
Scroll/Lock	F15	Fn-F12
Windows	Command (x)	Command (x)

The other day, like Dan Miser, I got a MacBook Pro (MBP) laptop for use at work. I'd shopped around looking for a similarly outfitted machine from Circuit City, Best Buy and Costco and didn't have much luck as they either came with a very slow 4200 RPM drive, too little RAM, 15" monitor or some other issue. Ordering a high-end XPS from Dell was going to four weeks to arrive and I started work on Monday. I'd been researching MBP's for awhile as a replacement for my aging home machine and hadn't really been thinking about it as a work machine but while out shopping at Valley Fair and I walked into the Apple store to check out the iPhone and I wandered over to look at the MacBook's. One of the really nice things about an MBP is there aren't a lot of options to choose from.

If you look online, the Apple website has one page of options for the 17" MacBook Pro compared to the 12 step (seriously, there are 12 steps) wizard on Dell's site for a 17" XPS laptop. The defaults for the MBP are really in my sweet spot where the Dell machine requires considerable tweaking along with choosing all their "recommended" options.

Why doesn't Dell default to their own recommendations? I just don't get that!

For example, the MBP defaults to 2GB of RAM while Dell recommends 2GB but defaults to 1GB?? Anyway, I asked an Apple store employee if they had variations of these machines in stock and they did so suddenly this was looking like a viable option. I went home, found a bunch of links where people posted very positive results running Windows on the MBP and now I'm running Vista on a Mac.

Setting up Vista was a total piece of cake. I downloaded Boot Camp, installed it and ran it. It prompted me to create a Mac Windows Drivers disk, asked me the drive partition size and prompted me to start the Windows install. It really couldn't have been much easier. After Vista installed I put in the drivers disk and a few reboots later and Vista with it's Areo UI boot up just fine. Anyway, Vista appears to be working great on this machine. I'll post an update regarding performance once I get some development behind me.

Oh yeah, there's also OSX which I'm now free to play with and leverage it's strengths.

On a different note I'm still watching this series of post's regarding the "Ultimate Developer Rig" from Scott Hanselman and Jeff Atwater. 

In this post I mentioned that a few months ago I got a new machine at work. Here are the steps I take to configure Windows XP SP2 on all of my machines. Of course, I use the File and Settings Transfer Wizard to avoid having to do all this manually but here are the steps anyway. As I think of other things I'll update this post.

From the Control Panel:

• Select User Accounts
  • Create new administrative user account

Log out and log back in using the above account.

From the Control Panel (switch to Classic mode) do the following:

• Select Display Properties
  • Under Settings change the resolution accordingly
  • Under Desktop set the background to (None)

• Select Add/Remove Programs and click Add/Remove Windows Components (have the OS CD ready)
  • Uncheck Accessories/Games
  • Uncheck MSN explorer
  • Check IIS
  • Check IIS\FTP Service
  • Uncheck Outlook Express
  • Uncheck Windows Messenger
• Revisit Windows|Update to ensure the recently installed drivers are the latest
• Select Sounds and Audio Devices
  • Remove sound from Windows Explorer\Start Navigation
• Select Windows Security Center
  • Under Virus Protection click "Recommendations" and check "I have an antivirus program that I'll monitor myself"
• Select Network connections
  • Double click Local Area Connection and click Properties
  • Check "Show icon in notification area when connected"
• Select Start|Run and type gpedit.msc
  • Browse to Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update and enable "No auto-restart for scheduled Automatic Updates installations"
• Select Folder Options
  • Uncheck "Display simple folder view in Explorer's Folders list"
  • Check Display the full path in the title bar
  • Uncheck "Use simply file sharing"
• Select Mouse
  • Under Pointers select "Windows Black (large)"
• Select Internet Options
  • On the General tab under Temporary Internet Files
    • Settings... and change the disk space use to 5MB
    • Click Colors... and check "Use hover color"
  • Under Programs
    • Uncheck "Internet Explorer should check to see whether it is the default browser"
  • Under Advanced
    • Set Underline Links to Never
    • Check "Use inline Autocomplete"
    • Uncheck Show Go button in Address bar
• Select Date and Time
  • Under Internet Time set Server to "admin.inprise.com"
• Select Taskbar and Start Menu
  • On the Taskbar tab
    • Uncheck Show the clock
    • Uncheck Hide inactive icons
  • Under the Start Menu tab select Customize
    • On the General tab
      • Click Small Icons
      • Set Number of programs to display on Start Menu to 12
    • On the Advanced tab
      • Under Control Panel select Display as Menu
      • Uncheck Help and Support
      • Under System Administrative tools select Display on the All Programs menu and the Start menu
• Select System
  • Under the Remote tab
  • Uncheck Remote Assistance
  • Check Allow users to connect remotely to this computer
  • Click Select Remote Users and add the above user account
• Select Folder options
• Check "Display the contents of system folders"
  
• Check "Show Hidden files and Folders"
  
• Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types"
  
• Uncheck "Hide Protected OS files"