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b1NARY73 · Feb 13, 2007, 10:00 PM

I am just curious, I installed bootcamp on my Recently purchased MBP 2.33. I almost pulled over to Comp USA to pick it up.... but I thought I might do a little research before plugging down some coin for it. I played with it over the weekend on my Dad's new 17" HP Lappy ( Which is actually quite nice ) and was impressed with the interface and overall speed of the system. I would love to have the best of both worlds since I use a PC for work. So.... anyone install it yet, and if so, what are your thoughts?

ddma · Feb 15, 2007, 04:47 AM

Hi b1NARY73,

I am MacBook Pro 15" (Core Duo). My company have recently received Windows Vista Business DVD through MS Partner Program. Since I have heard a lot about the current Boot Camp's Macintosh driver does not auto install drivers in Vista, I did a few google search before I dare to install it.

You can follow this nicely written guide and it should help you to install most drivers in Vista. However, the brightness control does not work at all (when it runs, Vista automatically restarts).

Vista Final (32-bit) Boot Camp Installation Guide

I have tried to install Ultimate (without CD-key, you can choose whatever version you want with 30-day trail). It is about the same as the business version but it includes Windows Media Centre and allow you to download different language packs over Windows Updates (which I don't understand why it doesn't come with the DVD).

Anyway, Vista has been running here on my MacBook Pro for a few days and no serious problem encountered. However, it had two BSOD before I login my account. It was an unknown issue but I think it is because some of the drivers are not 100% compeitable with Vista. But once login, there is no problem.

eminton · Feb 15, 2007, 08:58 AM

why run vista? i know its the greatest thing but if you want to use alot of your old programs, XP-Pro is still good and there isnt really a reason to go out and buy vista until the bugs are worked out in a service pack. if you do boot-camp, stick with xp as it is not going to bog down your system or leave you hanging

solofx7 · Feb 15, 2007, 09:24 AM

alot of what is said here is true.
I have Vista running through boot camp and now there are drivers out there and ways to force them to work, but be forewarned because the OS looks pretty, you are gonna take a performance hit during gaming.
that being said the OS runs smoothly, but there are some odd clunky interface issues.
hmmm... i do not think that it is worth a purchase. It really depends on what you are doing on it.
I think that XP is a better place to go right now as it appears more stable and user friendly during alot of things.

solofx7 · Feb 15, 2007, 09:24 AM

PS there are alot of user guides on the net on how to install via bootcamp.
that being said there are some very very good ones and some kinda stinky ones.

Recontech · Feb 15, 2007, 12:10 PM

Other than wanting it for gaming or business use, what benefit do you get running Vista versus OS X?

b1NARY73 · Feb 15, 2007, 12:28 PM

Originally Posted by Recontech

Other than wanting it for gaming or business use, what benefit do you get running Vista versus OS X?

I have to use Windows for my work during the day. The Macbook Pro gives you the best of both worlds, instead of buying two laptops, You only need to buy one. IF I could use OSX for everything, this would not be an issue. I am installing windows XP Pro after doing alot of research, and seeing what the Vista Ultimate upgrade costs...!!!!??%&^$. Frackin expensive. Thanks for evryone's feedback!

GENERAL_SMILEY · Feb 15, 2007, 12:54 PM

I run Vista (Ult) on my 2.33 C2Duo, in a 30GB Bootcamp partition - (for about four weeks now).

Personally I find it quite unreliable - often failing to load various things on boot - possibly this is more of a failure by various software providers - but I have the free version of AVG for instance and that must fail once every 20 starts.

Sometimes the display driver fails as well, but it seems to recover. My Wacom tablet also has issues, the main one being that it is the last thing to load, and while most of the system is awake, it is still a couple of seconds from kicking in.

However, it is not all bad - it is pretty responsive, it has a much better network manager than XP, (and in some ways than OS X).

It looks quite good, although you really do not have to drill down very far to find the old icons, and graphics - why they didn't finish it?

I put F.E.A.R. on it, runs pretty good - but it doesn't necessarily run better than Quake 4 on the Mac, (it is, however, a lot more frightening).

Personally if I was going to start again I'd probably put XP on, so I could use Parallels with coherence - but since my PocketPC phone broke I don't really need to boot into Vista - so I'll probably just wait.

solofx7 · Feb 15, 2007, 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by Recontech

Other than wanting it for gaming or business use, what benefit do you get running Vista versus OS X?

i personally only use it for gaming and or windows specific programs...
that is all i use Vista or Windows for.

Z4cane · Mar 11, 2007, 10:59 AM

Sorrr for bumping an old thread, but I just installed Parallels and Vista Ulitmate (I had a free copy). I am running the latest Parallels build (3188), but I can't seem to get coherence mode to work. Any clues?

Thanks

ghporter · Mar 11, 2007, 11:42 AM

First off, ALL discussions of running something other than MacOS on your Mac belong in the Alternative OS forum-how I missed this thread so long, I don't know.

Second, why NOT run Vista? Run whatever legal software you want on your Mac! But I do not think that Vista is "ready for prime time" on any platform-as is typical with new Microsoft OSs, they are having problems with some (minor) internals not working with fielded hardware, and there's also the problem of a gaping lack of third-party drivers for sometimes very important hardware. While some reports say that the current Boot Camp Mac drivers work ok in Vista, they're not optimum for that OS, so there WILL be people with big problems. I have not bought Vista for any of my PCs, and I'm not likely to for quite some time-not just because I don't want to have to build a new desktop machine just to have the pretty eye candy effects Vista brings, but because of the above mentioned support and stability problems.

Moving to the appropriate forum...