NOTE: This article is the second in a two-part series. The most effective way to do this is to use the various tools available that allow you to run Windows and Windows-compatible applications on a Mac. But if you are limited in regards to financial resources and space, or if you just want to be edgy, you can run BOTH Windows and Mac on one computer. So what's a computer user who wants the best of both worlds to do? Buy two systems? Sure, that's an option. Depending on the task at hand, sometimes a Mac is just right for the job, and sometimes a Windows application is what you need. We want the secure multi-media friendly environment of the Mac, and we want the ability to run the myriad of software out there that's mostly created for Windows. The reality is that there's both a sterotypical Mac user and a Windows user in all of us. One would think from all the media buzz, that computer users fall into two distinct categories: right-brain dominant, artsy, latte-slurping Macintosh users and left-brain dominant, corporate drone, numbers-crunching Windows users. How to Run Windows Programs on Your Mac Desktop