Boot Camp in Lion requires Windows 7

Apple's latest version of OS X 10.7 Lion ships with Boot Camp 4 which, according to an Apple support document, only runs Windows 7. Previous versions of Windows like Vista and XP are no longer supported. There's no reason for this change, but Apple, like Microsoft, is likely increasing its focus on the newer OS and lessening it on legacy versions.

Mac users that must run an older version of Windows will either have to keep Boot Camp 3 if they wish to upgrade to Lion or use a third-party virtualization solution from VMWare or Parallels.

[Via Macworld]

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Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4840

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Apple's latest version of OS X 10.7 Lion ships with Boot Camp 4 which, according to an Apple support document, only runs Windows 7....

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Early Adopter

Really? I had Boot Camp with Win7 working on a year-old 13" MBP; after installing Lion, it wouldn't recognize the NTFS partition. Solution for now is BC deleted. Lion is fine, but not perfect...

August 03 2011 at 4:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Elmar Bertschinger

Use Parallels with Windows XP ;) !

August 03 2011 at 1:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

cookingscience

It's a shame that writers (and editors?) for a blog like TUAW can't distinguish between "does not support" and "does not run". Many people will be confused by this misleading article.

August 03 2011 at 1:03 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to cookingscience's comment

Yuusharo

What was misleading about it? The Apple support document clearly states that Boot Camp will only support Windows 7 in Lion, which is true. Users of older Boot Camp installations and OS's will need to hold onto a copy of Boot Camp 3's drivers if they want to continue running the older OS's... which is also true.

So what's misleading?

August 03 2011 at 1:17 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Yuusharo's comment

Adrian von Gegerfelt

What is misleading is the damn heading: "Boot Camp in Lion requires Windows 7". No, Boot Camp does not *require* Win7. Boot Camp does not support older OSes, but they might still run!

August 04 2011 at 5:08 AM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down

Tomasz Wartalski

There is also a free and very good virtualization solution: Virtualbox 4.1 from Oracle - works great on Lion.

August 03 2011 at 12:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Yuusharo

This has been true of any new Mac model since the Macbook Air 2010 edition. Apple didn't want to support drivers for older versions of Windows under the new models, so they now require Windows 7.

That's not to say that older versions of Windows won't work, or that your existing Boot Camp installation will stop working. You can install Linux or BSD on a Boot Camp partition if you'd like. This merely means that Apple will no longer support older versions of Windows officially. If you need it, you're own your own.

That said... really? People want XP or *shudders* Vista on their Mac? Windows 7 is such a nicer experience, worthy of the $100 upgrade. Go for it.

August 03 2011 at 12:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

esposimi

Just because it's not supported, doesn't mean it won't run. I used Fedora 13 on Boot Camp and worked fine, just had to compile my own drivers for the Broadcom wireless.

August 03 2011 at 12:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

YodaMac

I upgraded my Mac Mini to Lion (from Snow Leopard) and seem to have no trouble booting into Windows XP from my existing bootcamp partition. Exactly what are you saying wont work anymore?

August 03 2011 at 12:07 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to YodaMac's comment

Michael Black

It's entirely possible that it will still run it, but Apple will not officially support the older versions of Windows running on bootcamp. IOW, if you run into various issues, Apple will not help you on the matter

August 03 2011 at 12:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Michael Black's comment

Adrian von Gegerfelt

Well that's good news! But, to be honest, I wasn't betting on Apple supporting any version Windows at all ;)

August 03 2011 at 12:26 PM Report abuse Permalink +1 rate up rate down

AJH

I think that what they're saying is that, though a pre-existing Windows partition should work fine, the new Boot Camp doesn't support installing older versions of Windows.

August 03 2011 at 12:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply