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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Alternative Operating Systems > Windows 7: anybody brave?

Windows 7: anybody brave? (Page 3)
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seanc
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Jan 12, 2009, 08:39 PM
 
Speaking of bootable discs - I wish I could PXE boot a Mac to a WDS (Windows Deployment Services) server.
I'll have a play around with that some day.
     
jimd144
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Jan 12, 2009, 08:40 PM
 
I am running the 64 bit version in Fusion. Runs great. Much snappier than Vista.
     
Gankdawg
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Jan 12, 2009, 08:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by seanc View Post
Disk Utility > Select ISO from left hand pane > Burn.
That should give you a good disk from OS X. Burn it at the slowest possible setting for max results.
That's what I've done, only at the highest speed. I'll do it at the lowest speed and try again.

If that works though, does Windows just recognize it as a startup disk? I will try holding Option down upon restart again after I re-burn the ISO.
     
ibook_steve  (op)
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Jan 12, 2009, 09:11 PM
 
Originally Posted by Gankdawg View Post
That's what I've done, only at the highest speed. I'll do it at the lowest speed and try again.

If that works though, does Windows just recognize it as a startup disk? I will try holding Option down upon restart again after I re-burn the ISO.
I don't think so. Use Boot Camp Assistant to insure it will boot from the install disk.

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Art Vandelay
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Jan 12, 2009, 09:54 PM
 
Originally Posted by jimd144 View Post
I am running the 64 bit version in Fusion. Runs great. Much snappier than Vista.
The 32-bit version is even faster.
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MikeD
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Jan 12, 2009, 11:43 PM
 
With bootcamp, can you have your old XP version and then another partition for Windows 7? Or would you guys just make your one BOOTCAMP drive be your Win 7? I'd be 'upgrading' to Win 7 from XP so not sure where to start. I do also have parallels running too. Should I start all over with boot camp assistant? then reload via parallels? Or is only the boot camp assistant needed?
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Tarball
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Jan 13, 2009, 01:36 AM
 
I've been running Win7 on my aluminum MacBook for a few weeks now, not a single problem in either boot camp or VMware
     
64stang06
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Jan 13, 2009, 01:41 AM
 
You can't upgrade from XP to Win7, it's in the documentation. Plus, Windows 7 needs at least 16GB space, so if you have less than that, it's just best to delete the boot camp partition and recreate it.
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mr. burns
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Jan 13, 2009, 02:49 AM
 
well, i've been running 64-bit vista fine with my 2006 mac pro with radeon x1900xt, so i went with the 64-bit windows 7. everything works except i can't install any video drivers. tried installing my 7.12 catalyst and it didn't work. then i tried to install the beta 8.12 drivers that are made for windows 7 and that didn't work. both times the installer got stuck at 'enumerating source media for installable packages'. tried installing the bootcamp drivers and that didn't do anything. so i have windows 7 running with no hardware acceleration and the refresh rate is stuck at 60Hz [on a CRT monitor] and it's making me sick. :/

any ideas?

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mr. burns
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Jan 13, 2009, 03:31 AM
 
strange. there must have been some sort of driver version conflict or something. i uninstalled the video device and rebooted and everything works now.

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PhilH
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Jan 13, 2009, 05:58 AM
 
I got Windows 7 running in Parallels 4.0 on my 1st gen MacBook Pro with no problems. Haven't given it much of a go yet, but it seems to perform quite well.

Parallels Tools worked perfectly, so stuff like sound and network all work.
     
MikeD
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Jan 13, 2009, 08:15 AM
 
So are a lot of the problems from people trying to install in BootCamp? How has the 32bit edition been?

I'm assuming the bootcamp drivers are only available via bootcamp assistant and there really is no 'Win 7' compat updated version right?

Thinking about putting the 32 bit on my unibody macbook pro as a bootcamp partition (replacing old XP) and using w/parallels as well.

That or just making a new parallels Virtual Machine.

Mike
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Maflynn
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Jan 13, 2009, 08:45 AM
 
I started playing with win7 on my mbp last night, while I only scratched the surface, I did like what I saw.

The install process went smooth and fast, better then vista.
ease of setup was also a plus
Performance, even though its a beta (early beta at that) its faster then vista.
start menu and task bar - I hate it, I like the traditional windows task bar a lot better then what I'm getting now. From what I've read M$ is pretty resistant to offer an option to bring back the traditional or classic start menu/task bar.

Some stuff in IE8 was a little slow. I was playing with remote access (gotomypc) and performance in that was slower in bootcamp/win7 then vmware/winxp

I do like the way IE8 looks, but I've not delved too much into using it so I'm not about any compatibility issues,

Win 7 feels less of a major update and more of a face lift and an excuse for MS to dump the Vista moniker. In searching the net and reading various blogs I'm not seeing much in features other then tweaks to the existing architecture, i.e., UAC seems more user friendly and less intrusive.
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Jan 13, 2009, 08:59 AM
 
What did you find different about IE8 compared with IE7?
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Maflynn
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Jan 13, 2009, 09:10 AM
 
Right now visually its a little more polished with the tabs. There's "accelerators" which I'm not quite sure what they do, other then automate some websites for you. I turned it off initially. searching and filtering got tweaked as well. I've read that more sites have issue with ie8 and they offer compatibility modes so those sites render correctly. I've yet to really play with IE8 to see how true that may be.
~Mike
     
MikeD
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Jan 13, 2009, 09:31 AM
 
How do you guys feel about the performance under Parallels?
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Maflynn
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Jan 13, 2009, 09:34 AM
 
I just used disk utility. The steps/directions were already stated earlier in this thread. Its pretty simple.
~Mike
     
Gankdawg
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Jan 13, 2009, 09:35 AM
 
Originally Posted by seanc View Post
Disk Utility > Select ISO from left hand pane > Burn.
That should give you a good disk from OS X. Burn it at the slowest possible setting for max results.
Tried burning again at lowest speed and it worked! Install took about 15 minutes. Thanks for the help.
     
MikeD
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Jan 13, 2009, 09:39 AM
 
How do you set the speed? I just clicked burn and it just started ASAP!!!
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Gankdawg
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Jan 13, 2009, 09:41 AM
 
So I just entered 'espn' into IE8 and it couldn't find it. Still have to use control+enter for auto completion of a URL. Sigh and LOL at the same time. But then again, I'm still constantly amazed at my coworkers who find everything through the search box -- even a site they visited 5 minutes ago.
     
solofx7
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Jan 13, 2009, 11:34 AM
 
Originally Posted by Tarball View Post
I've been running Win7 on my aluminum MacBook for a few weeks now, not a single problem in either boot camp or VMware
have you played any of the newer games on it?
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rnicoll
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Jan 13, 2009, 11:43 AM
 
Originally Posted by solofx7 View Post
have you played any of the newer games on it?
Second Life and Guild Wars both ran fine on my MacBook Pro. I'm going to take a second go at my Mac Pro tonight, which has a serious graphics card in it, I'll tell you how that goes.
     
solofx7
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Jan 13, 2009, 12:12 PM
 
Originally Posted by rnicoll View Post
Second Life and Guild Wars both ran fine on my MacBook Pro. I'm going to take a second go at my Mac Pro tonight, which has a serious graphics card in it, I'll tell you how that goes.
do you have any of the newer games like Far Cry 2, Fallout 3 or anything like that?
I am trying to decide if i should use the beta as it appears to be more stable than vista, or vista...
for my gaming needs...
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ibook_steve  (op)
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Jan 13, 2009, 01:02 PM
 
Originally Posted by MikeD View Post
How do you guys feel about the performance under Parallels?
Works great. No problems at all. Other than that it is Windows.

Steve
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solofx7
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Jan 13, 2009, 02:04 PM
 
Originally Posted by ibook_steve View Post
Works great. No problems at all. Other than that it is Windows.

Steve
hehe...
on a side note, windows people i know are so angry about the whole thing.
they are just so aggressive.
i am like dude, just use your OS, it's cool... there is no need to fight about it....
i just do not understand the aggression.
all i did was ask about windows 7 and they got all pissed.
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MikeD
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Jan 13, 2009, 03:41 PM
 
For some reason when opening it up in parallels, it says that it doesn't support the version of windows on bootcamp. Even though it knew it was Windows 7 (experimental). Perhaps it's because I didn't install the bootcamp drivers in first...
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mr. burns
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Jan 13, 2009, 05:00 PM
 
Originally Posted by solofx7 View Post
have you played any of the newer games on it?
i've been playing team fortress 2 problem free.

not all who wander are lost.
     
seanc
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Jan 13, 2009, 05:06 PM
 
Originally Posted by MikeD View Post
How do you set the speed? I just clicked burn and it just started ASAP!!!
Just click the downwards facing arrow in the upper right, it'll bring down another section below the burn button - here you can select the speed and other settings.
     
MikeD
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Jan 13, 2009, 08:43 PM
 
Good to know! Either way, it worked and installed in bootcamp! Let's hope it also runs okay in Parallels (trying to install now). It gave me the message that boot camp doesn't support windows 7 yet (which of course worries me). Hopefully, all will be good. I only go in there once in a while anyways!
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ballison
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Jan 14, 2009, 02:54 AM
 
I have a problem with it...when I install it from bootcamp on my 2008 mac pro, it works perfectly. I restarted into osx holding option at startup to select the osx drive, it shows the windows drive as an option. however, after that first restart back into OSX. the windows disc isnt selectable as a boot volume, yet it still is the default boot volume (even though it doesnt show up in the preference pain for boot volume). Im VERY confused

my windows drive is actually a seperate disc from OSX

any suggestions?
     
ghporter
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Jan 14, 2009, 08:38 AM
 
ballison, once you're booted into Win7, have you installed the drivers from your OS X install disc? One thing that does is give you a Windows Control Panel applet for selecting boot disks called "Startup Disk" (amazing name, eh? ). That should do the trick for you. I think....

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vexborg
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Jan 15, 2009, 01:46 PM
 
Originally Posted by MikeD View Post
How do you guys feel about the performance under Parallels?
Quite good. It feels for me that it's on par with XP. Booting is a wee bit slower.
The gene pool needs cleaning - I'll be the chlorine.
     
MikeD
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Jan 16, 2009, 12:04 PM
 
Originally Posted by vexborg View Post
Quite good. It feels for me that it's on par with XP. Booting is a wee bit slower.
Thanks. I'll have it running then today. How about the 32 vs 64 bit versions? I installed the 32 bit version on my unibody MBP. I heard it can run the 64 bit one but I figured if I only use it for the Win Office now and then and for random stuff, it shouldn't really matter... What do you guys think? Maybe it runs faster under 32 bit too???

Mike
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solofx7
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Jan 16, 2009, 03:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by MikeD View Post
Thanks. I'll have it running then today. How about the 32 vs 64 bit versions? I installed the 32 bit version on my unibody MBP. I heard it can run the 64 bit one but I figured if I only use it for the Win Office now and then and for random stuff, it shouldn't really matter... What do you guys think? Maybe it runs faster under 32 bit too???

Mike
what kind of stuff will not work on the 64bit version?
will games work on the 64-bit version of windows 7 installed on a macbook pro unibody?
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Art Vandelay
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Jan 16, 2009, 03:43 PM
 
Under Fusion, the 32-bit version is faster and more resource efficient. 64-bit Win 7 requires more RAM allocated to it and also was using up 2GB more of hard disk space. Unless you have a need for it, I'd stick with the 32-bit version.
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moep
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Jan 18, 2009, 06:34 AM
 
I‘ve installed the beta in Fusion and I’m not that excited. It does seem like a step forward for Microsoft but overall it seems like a retail version of Windows Mojave.

Ars has an excellent article on this which i wholeheartedly agree with:

Arstechnica: What killed Vista will make Windows 7 fly
"The road to success is dotted with the most tempting parking spaces."
     
Gankdawg
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Jan 18, 2009, 08:41 AM
 
Works fine for me but no sound. I guess I will have bootcamp reinstall drivers and see if that works.
     
solofx7
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Jan 19, 2009, 02:45 AM
 
Originally Posted by Art Vandelay View Post
Under Fusion, the 32-bit version is faster and more resource efficient. 64-bit Win 7 requires more RAM allocated to it and also was using up 2GB more of hard disk space. Unless you have a need for it, I'd stick with the 32-bit version.
thanks, I still love the name constanza.
ps, i have innstalled Windows 7 under boot camp and all is well.
still prefer mac by a huge margin...
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