How to set a dual booting option at startup?

[ChitoCrisis]

I believe the Macs at my college allow the user to select from either Mac OSX or Windows at startup. However, it's a little different than holding down the option key at startup. I think it shows both at startup by default and if none is chosen, Mac will boot automatically within a couple of seconds.

I was wondering if I could do this on mine? I tried looking but couldn't figure it out. Thanks.

 

[rien333]

I actually hate the program, but I think you mean this one: http://refit.sourceforge.net/

Hope I helped.

 

[balamw]

Bootpicker http://www.apple.com/education/resources/bootpicker/ is actually more likely in a lab environment.

B

 

[Synthion]

I have some experience in this, and it is a nightmare if you mess up, SO DON'T.

First, use BootCamp. It is built in to OS X in Utilities, and is remarkably easy to use. However, it uses it's own program so there is no wiggle room. Also, it is Windows only. If you're into Linux, BSD, Solaris, MINIX, PureDarwin, FreeDOS, Haiku, BeOS, or just about any other Operating system, keep reading.

rEFIt: rEFIt is a great bootloader tool. You install it, reboot, and reboot again, and it should appear every time you reboot. From here you can be as free as you want. Any OS, whether installed or from installation media, (CD, DVD, USB stick), will pop up as an option. At first only one option, MAC, will show up. You can add others later. Also, you can uninstall it at any time from OS X.

BE CAREFUL. I WIPED MY HARD DRIVE ONCE.

 

[Animalk]

Does rEFIt have any effect on patches and updates to OS X.

I'm asking because I would like to use OS X as if nothing else was on the machines. I need to have my software update and patch to latest versions without any extra fiddling from me.