What the Boot Camp Windows install doesn't support
I
just read over the Boot Camp install instructions (to find out
what Boot Camp is read this post) and they are
pretty straightforward. During the process you create what Apple is calling a 'Driver CD' which contains all the
drivers to let Windows use your Airport card, the networking on your Mac, and various other things.Here's what won't work in Windows on your Intel Mac:
- iSight
- Apple Remote
- Apple USB modem
- keyboard backlighting on the MacBook Pro
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Brad said 11:07AM on 4-05-2006
All the more reason to not use Windows on your Mac!
I'm totally against this. You bought a Mac for the purpose of using the Mac OS. Don't waste the time and install XP on it.
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Chris Mt.Pleasant said 11:09AM on 4-05-2006
Here's what must be running to work in Windows on your Intel Mac:
* Antivirus
* Antipopup software
* Antispyware
* A software firewall
* A spam filter
Congratulations. Have fun people.
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shrimp said 11:10AM on 4-05-2006
oh SNAP.
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Bruce said 11:15AM on 4-05-2006
It seems to me like it won't take long for someone to write drivers for these missing features. But then wouldn't Apple have made their own, or does apple want to limit the Windows side to make the Mac side look better? If this is the case I dont think Apple needs to limit the features just seeing OS X running side by side with windows will make people love os X.
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LD said 11:16AM on 4-05-2006
"Even after installling the Macintosh Drivers CD, the Apple Remote Control (IR), Apple Wireless (Bluetooth) keyboard or mouse, Apple USB Modem, MacBook Pro's sudden motion sensor, MacBook Pro's ambient light sensor, and built-in iSight camera will not function correctly when running Windows."
Come on, someone install this and tell me if it can read or read/write the HFS+ partition from Windows.
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tom (dB) said 11:19AM on 4-05-2006
If you did get a virus on your Windows instal could it transfer over to the OSX partition?
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dan said 11:20AM on 4-05-2006
So, Airport works?! I also read somewhere that bluetooth keyboards might not work, is that true?
Pretty good job Apple, any success stories yet?
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Chris E boy said 11:32AM on 4-05-2006
ive got it running successfully on my intel iMac at work. Everything works as advertised. The iSight is picked up by windows and installed but when you click on the icon in windows explorer, the computer reboots. Same applies to running dxDiag to determine the graphics capabilities.
One thing I will say. its very very fast. the 1.83 dual core imac outperforms my 3ghz pentium 4 by a hell of a lot.
Sound works well (although does not get rerouted to external speakers), my cinema display works great with it too. Wireless networking works great and the ethernet is successfully detected.
If i have one gripe, its that you cant get the startup menu to display automatically, you have to hold down the option key.
I was very impressed with the way that BootCamp re-partitioned the drive on the fly without a reboot.
Now if only I could find a reason i would want to run windows...
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Chris E boy said 11:34AM on 4-05-2006
and no. it wont read HFS+ drives, nor did I expect it to. You could try running MacDrive (which I run on my PC at home), cant see any reason that wouldnt work.
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Spencer said 11:39AM on 4-05-2006
I can see people buying Mac Mini's for Windows Media Center now.
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Djafke said 11:48AM on 4-05-2006
you must remember it is a BETA version. Of course, not all drivers are ready yet.
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Arnoz said 11:50AM on 4-05-2006
What about the graphical capabilities?
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Jay Contonio said 11:58AM on 4-05-2006
to #2, no you dont need any of those if you know how to use a computer.
I've been running XP Pro for a year without any antivirus software or spam software. I use Firefox and Outlook and everythings fine. I just know what to not click on and not download. Windows isn't as bad as you people make it out to be.
#1, People need Windows to boot on their macs. I need to work in Visual Studio .NET during the day and if I can do that on my Macbook than that's great. It saves me from buying some crap Dell. Also an occasional game or two that I might want to play doesn't work with the Mac OS.
You people bitching about Windows running on Apple hardware go screw. You don't HAVE to install it, and you dont even have to recognize it.
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Chris E boy said 11:59AM on 4-05-2006
@10.
As I said in my earlier post, I was unable to run the DirectX diagnostics tool to test the 3d stuff and since the mac is in work, i havnt got any games to test on it. The 2d stuff seems very snappy though, so the graphics drivers are accelerating 2d performance. After the windows update finishes (110mb!) i'll try running dxdiag again to see if it was a fluke or not.
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Mike Dominy said 12:16PM on 4-05-2006
I have been trying to get my IT folks at work, to let me have a Mac for at least 10 years now. Now that I've finally got approval I need to know if this will allow me to run MS Access. I have Mac versions of all the other software I'll need but I have one special time tracking app that uses Access. If I can do that, I'm all in!
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Jens said 12:20PM on 4-05-2006
In the instructions it's said, that you need the latest firmware update. On the linked page there is download for a mbp-firmware-update for those mbps from "early 2006".
does anyone know, if that update fixes anything relevant or how I can get to know if my firmware is up to date? I'm not experiencing any of the oh-so-popular problems like the whine on my replacement-machine, so I guess it's rather new and flawless (except for the ever-running-fan/harddrive). And I haven't seen that update being covered here on the site yet. Has anyone had a look at it yet and can say if it's a usefull update to install?
Here's a link to the page:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macbookprointelfirmwareupdate10.html
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Michael Maggard said 12:23PM on 4-05-2006
Can XP-on-Mac pass a virus to your MacOS-on-Mac (assuming XP isn't catgorically a virus)?
Highly unlikely
The executable formats of the two operating systems are different enough that they can't directly cross-infect eachother. However it is theoretically possible to do clever things with cross-platform scripting languages that could be nasty (same as MS Word macro viruses used to be cross-platform.)
However the number of machines with the right combination of software is low enough that while a demo of this might appear it wouldn't be self-sustaining in the wild.
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Chris E boy said 12:34PM on 4-05-2006
The firmware upgrade will tell you if it is already installed. It wasn't on my iMac, despite being up to date according to Software Update.
Its a fairly simple procedure and the instructions are short and sweet.
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Chris E boy said 12:42PM on 4-05-2006
Ok, i disabled the DirectShow and DirectPlay tests in dxdiag and I can now test the 3D capabilities of the iMac in Windows.
Microsoft's test are simple (a 3D spinning cube) but seem to run very well, proving that the driver supports 3D acceleration.
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Mike Burns said 1:04PM on 4-05-2006
Keep in mind that this is a beta. More drivers will probably be added.
If you run Windows XP, be sure to run Norton Antivirus 2006 (for Windows) (or equivalent). You need to prevent viruses, trojans and worms from getting into the Windows installation. Removing Windows viruses and trojans after they get in is normally not a simple task. Many of them replace system files, and when the modified files containing the malicious code are removed from Windows, it will no longer function normally. This means re-installing Windows.
Also, a few Windows viruses actually damage the computer hardware itself and make it unusable. I don't know whether anyone has seen this yet on an Intel Mac, but it wouldn't be fun to be the first.
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