Zoe leaned back and watched the megabytes crawl. This was the magic trick. Apple, in its begrudging generosity, packs a tiny suitcase for your trip to Windows-land. Inside that suitcase (a folder ironically named WindowsSupport ) are the handshake protocols for everything: the camera, the Bluetooth chip, the audio jacks, the function keys that adjust screen brightness, and the mysterious force-touch trackpad.

Then the screen came back. The resolution snapped into sharp, gorgeous Retina clarity. In the corner of the taskbar, the Wi-Fi icon filled in, solid and white. She dragged two fingers on the trackpad—it scrolled smoothly. She tapped the F2 key—the screen brightness increased.

An hour later, Zoe stared at a bizarre sight: the Windows 10 desktop, blown up on her Retina display. Everything was huge. The resolution was stuck at 1024x768. The Wi-Fi icon had a red X. The mouse moved like it was stuck in molasses.

Without the correct drivers, the keyboard backlight stayed dark. The trackpad felt like a dead slab of glass. And worst of all, the Wi-Fi chip became a useless piece of metal. You’d be tethered to the wall by Ethernet like it was 1999.

She had a legitimate copy of Windows 10 on a USB stick. The plan was simple: carve out 60GB of Puff’s tiny hard drive and run Windows for her engineering software. But there was a catch she’d learned the hard way six months ago: Windows doesn’t know how to talk to a Mac.

Forty minutes later, the download finished. A folder sat on her desktop: “BootCamp.”

Puff had learned a new language. The MacBook Air, now split down the middle—macOS on one side, Windows on the other—hummed quietly.

She checked a box: “Download the latest Windows support software from Apple.”

The screen flickered and went black.

A black box flashed. Drivers began to pour into the system like rain on a dry riverbed: Installing Apple Audio. Installing Broadcom Wi-Fi. Installing Intel Graphics. Installing Apple Trackpad.

The little MacBook Air, a 2017 model named “Puff,” had been Zoe’s loyal companion through college. But now, Puff was running out of breath. The hard drive was gasping under the weight of “System Data” ghosts, and the fan whirred like a distressed bee every time she opened a second browser tab.

She plugged back in the same USB drive she’d used for Windows. But this time, she navigated to the folder on that drive.

“Download bootcamp drivers,” she said to herself, smiling. “Always pack your bags before a trip.”

For one terrifying second, Zoe thought she’d bricked it.