Installing Windows 7 RC1 on your Mac... for free
Of course, you may not own Fusion or Parallels, and perhaps you don't want to have to boot into Windows separately. In that case, you can download a copy of Sun's VirtualBox application (it's free) and then download a copy of Windows 7 RC1 from the Microsoft website (it's free, too!). Follow these detailed instructions or watch the video, and you'll have a free way to test Windows 7 until at least June 1, 2010. Windows 7 will shut down after every two hours of use after March 1, 2010, which is Microsoft's subtle way of telling you to buy the OS or update to a later build.
If you're a VMWare Fusion user, the VMWare team has instructions and a video available here. Want to try out Win7 RC1 with Boot Camp? There are instructions here. For Parallels 4 users, I was unable to find a good set of instructions, so if any TUAW readers can provide me with a link, I'll update this post.
How is Windows 7 RC1 as an operating system? It's faster than Windows Vista on my 3 year old iMac, and some features look surprisingly Mac-like. I'll leave it to you as an exercise to see how much you like or dislike it.
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Sometimes you have to use Windows. Supporting clients in multiple-OS environments makes this a necessity for some Mac users, while others...
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My MBP CD gets to the point of extracting files then stalls. Sometimes I am luck and I get to 80%, most times I don't get passed 0%. I have tried everything I can think of - burn iso at a slower speed, restart the process from scratch, use different dvd types (-,+,&brands). Anyone have and idea how to fix that?
June 08 2009 at 12:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWould I be able to run TradeStation on Windows 7 on a macbook pro 10.5.6 w/a 2.53 Ghz Intel Core2 Duo processor and 4 GB DDR3 speed with 140 GB memory available?
May 29 2009 at 11:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyIt won't install in Bootcamp on a 2 year old (White) iMac. I just get the BSOD. Any work around for this?
May 11 2009 at 10:05 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyRunning OS 10.5 on a MacBook Pro, I installed the first RC of Windows 7 and also have Vista ultimate loaded via VMWare Fusion but my big problem with both is that VMWare doesn't support the Aero interface.
After booting up W7 like 3 times I didn't bother with it afterward. I have a slight curiosity to boot it up again but frankly I don't see the point if I can enjoy the Aero look. It might as well be XP with a new skin (which is basically all Vista and W7 are anyway).
The only thing I saw improvement on in W7 was the wannabe Quick Look feature that didn't work nearly as well as Mac. Unless that's improved I see no other reason to download and install this again. And again, unless VMWare starts supporting Aero I'm really only booting up Vista in order to test applications/settings that are specific to Vista.
How do you get the Boot Camp assistant to load the disk image as a CD?
May 11 2009 at 8:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI'd installed the beta, and found it to be quite sluggish on my 2GB 2.4GHz MB. I upgraded to 4GB RAM, and devoted 2GB to W7, and that helped a little bit. I could never get the graphics to run any higher res than 1024x768.
Just installed the W7 RC1, and it still feels sluggish. But I found that the native VGA graphics driver that comes with W7 supports 1280x768 (close to the MB's 1280x800). When I installed the VBox add-ons, the new graphics driver wouldn't go past the 1024x768. Uninstalling the VBox graphics driver (and just the graphics driver) reverted to the default W7 VGA driver, that supports 1280x768. Unfortunately, this means I've lost some of the VBox extra features (e.g., seamless mode, auto-resize, etc). But full-screen works pretty well.
But, I've got no audio. I've tried both the core audio and SoundBlaster 16, but W7 doesn't have a driver for the former, and doesn't see the latter.
Any ideas how to get around these two issues?
I'm running Windows 7 in boot camp mode on a mbp and it runs beautifully!!
You "mac people" need to take the silver spoons out of your butts and realize what world we're all living in. I use OS X primarily as well, but Windows is a necessity for many, many people. Actually, somewhere around 90% of the planet....still.
I'd be willing to bet, Jon, that if you took a pole of the applications that people used on a day to day basis, and what their needs were in computer software... that 90% of people do not NEED Windows. They simply have it because that's what they've always had. That is the case for the majority of people that I know, and have talked to. I have one person I've met that has NEEDED Windows, and he was military. He had a recruitment application that just wouldn't run in anything but Windows XP.
The assumption that the business world needs Windows is ludicrous. I don't mind if people like it, and in fact, I commend people if they've made up their minds... but the differentiation between "need" and "comfortable with" should be made.
VirtualBox is supposed to support multiple monitors but I am not having any luck. I have a mac pro with 3 monitors and when I enter full screen in virtual box, only one screen is working. Anyone know the trick to utilize all 3 monitors?
May 11 2009 at 9:36 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyFor anyone interested. My Windows 7 review.
So far I've found it to be much faster than the first release of W7, but both versions completely suck up ALL of my remaining RAM. I'm working with 2 gigs (maximum I can install with first gen Intel laptop).
Some of the special graphic features don't work. But I can live without the eye candy since it isn't critical to getting work done.
I'm running it from Parallels. It installed very easily. Just mount the ISO disc and done.
Because of it's excessive RAM usage I don't know if I'm going to drop XP. I have no way of running speed tests but I feel like 7 might be a little faster - the draw back being there is no RAM left for my Mac apps.
Visually is looks great. I'd be lying if I said it did. It's probably the best looking OS that Microsoft has released. They must have had to swallow pretty hard to let something that looked good go out the door. I'm sure it went against someone's sensibilities and the need for the "corporate" look. It will be hard for Windows' lovers to complain that Apple is just a "pretty" experience now. Windows is quite pretty.
Oveall an improvement, but my guess is that Windows 7 is still window dressing and that the basic OS is no better than Windows 2000.
Last words: In a world without walls - you don't need Windows.
"Visually is looks great. I'd be lying if I said it did."
Correction: Visually is looks great. I'd be lying if I said it didn't.
not enough coffee yet - sorry.
One more cup of coffee perhaps? "Visually is looks great." to - Visually it looks great
;)
How good is the security in Windows 7? Should I still install some sort of Virus protection on the system? If so, any suggestions?
Its pretty secure, better than any windows OS so far, but you should run something anyway, i recommend avast!, its free (but requires you to get a free code from their website, but its not to resource hungry and i haven't had anything slip through yet
May 11 2009 at 6:46 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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