Windows 7 and Apple’s Boot Camp drivers
In my last post I talked about my experience natively installing the brand new Windows 7 Beta 1 32-bit on my MacBook and I promised I’d talk about Apple’s Boot Camp drivers installation in a later post.
So, here we are. Few minutes ago I inserted my Mac OS X 10.5 DVD into the DVD-RW drive and started the installation. The installation lasted only few minutes (less than it usually lasts on Windows Vista I think) and after the reboot the operating system works perfectly. The installation of these drivers allow me to change the screen brightness, audio volume (audio which now works correctly) using function keys and enable the full functionalities of the touchpad.
Apple Software Update also retrieved some updates and then asked me to install QuickTime, iTunes and Bonjour (I know wisher is going to hate me since I answered yes to that question). I’m impressed from the speed of installation of QuickTime and iTunes, in the past they were a pain.
My MacBook with Windows 7 Beta 1 32-bit works now perfectly and I’m pretty happy about the actual operating system. I’ll make some other posts if I encounter problems or particular situations.
See you!
21 Comments:
It hasn't gone so painlessly for me, but I'm going to try installing it fresh one more time. I had been hoping to save my data from obliteration, but alas, I must be a masochist if I want to run windows.
I knew I was failed to misery the minute I saw the install option 'Do you want to make windows installer better?' F*** yea.. er F*** no. err.. oh f***.
As far as the OS itself is concerned, I gotta say that it is lacklustre and annoying at best. The interface is neither a paradigm shift nor an improvement on the 98/2000/XP/Vista brand of banal point and clickery.
I find it just as annoying searching for mundane options secreted away in tabbed niches as I did with XP, but now all the control panels are scrambled up and it takes even longer to find the blasted settings. When at last a panel is located, more often than not it turns out to be the exact same wretched control panel as it was in XP but the option I need has been reworded or obfuscated.
I suppose it takes a certain brand of self-loathing to subject oneself to the internet Explorer brand of web browsing, with its barrage of unintelligible dialog boxes and "How the F*** can I say no to these F****** popups fast enough and just load my damned page" style of surfing.
So like if you like to hear a *NEW* windows start-up sound followed by the same familiar beep of foreboding and all-new oh-so-well-meaning options that make you want to pull your mouse out of its socket, not to mention that incessant grinding of the hard drive that lets you know your data is being scathed and damaged akin to being cached by a blind wombat, then yes! this is the OS for you!
Oh, and for the icing on the proverbial cake, how about getting locked into windows because you didn't have your leopard CD handy? yea, that one was my fault. But obviously I was asking for it!
You probably missed a fundamental point, Windows 7 is, at the moment, a Beta operating system; the fact that the setup program ask for the beta-tester help in order to be improved is normal.
I think Vista's interface like an improvement over XP's one except for the Control Panel which is difficult to use if you don't adopt the Windows Search.
How have you been locked in Windows? Restart your Mac and press the Option key before the start-up sound and you can choose to start Mac OS X or Windows.
In conclusion, you probably aren't the kind of person that can beta-test and operating system. ;)
You're so right dude. And thank you for keeping the discussion alive rather than quashing my comment.
You are very right, I am overreacting. But considering that Microsoft has invited the whole world to beta test this thing, you'd expect there to be actual changes. The whole thing smacks of the mojave experiment, and for ten million bucks I hope Jerry Seinfeld is doing his part "to make windows better".
I will not be surprised if they just say 'would you be surprised that the Windows 7 you have been using is actually Windows Vista?'
And anyway, about the feedback options, of course I don't mind sending anonymous usage data for the beta program. It's just the phrasing of the options that requires a mental calculation of truth values before pressing yes no or cancel.
"Are you sure you don't want to enable this feature? You will not be able to enable this behaviour"
and then next time the same nag. Every time I click my mouse a popup attacks me.
At this point this is not a testing issue, this is a design malfunction. It's the technological equivalent of a nipple slip and I can't stop looking!
@ The Cypher
Windows 7 is built over Windows Vista after all; it has improvements in some field (such as user interface, usability, memory management, ecc...) but the base of the operating systems hasn't changed as much as in the passage from Windows XP to Windows Vista.
Obviously, I agree with you, the phrase used in the dialog to send feedback it's not straight forward; however, I don't mind because it won't be a part of the final release of the operating system.
i have a MacBook Pro (the 1st generation) and im running Windows 7 beta 1 as well and Ive been experiencing constant blue screens/memory dumps. probably 1 a day. im pritty upset cause i love this OS.
Try controlling the error code which is reported on the BSOD, it is often useful to discover the cause of the BSOD.
I am having a hard time. I got windows 7 installed on my Macbook. But when I put in my leopard dvd for the boot camp drivers it said it cannot run unless it is on windows xp or vista. I haven't found any help anywhere yet.
@ Ryan Hayden
That's strange. Which version of Mac OS X DVD did you use? Mine is 10.5.0.
That part of the process worked just fine.. installing the drivers off the DVD was easy as pie, and the translucent windows work like a charm.
It's no joke that Windows runs better on macs than any other hardware!
One problem I did have was the startup disk control panel not recognizing the windows volume.. so booting into windows I must hold down the option key at startup.
Apart from that it went off without a hitch! Sorry to hear about your DVD problems.. I have no ide what's causing it..
@ The Cypher
"It's no joke that Windows runs better on macs than any other hardware!"
I don't agree with you. :D Fan management isn't that good on Mac and, in my opinion, this is due to the lack of ACPI on Mac (which is implemented within the BIOS on PC).
Windows runs way better on my desktop PC than on my Mac. ;)
help! how can I do this if i dont have my leopard disc?
You can install Windows 7 without Mac OS X DVD since Windows 7 doesn't need Boot Camp drivers to work.
However, if you don't install Boot Camp drivers you won't be able to use the sound card, bluetooth, two-finger scrolling, Ctrl-click (click with mouse right button) and to increase and reduce LCD backlight.
I know there is the possibility to download Boot Camp driver from the Internet (using BitTorrent or similar way) but I have never tried such a thing.
yeah i actually just dl'ed those drivers... i hope they work. the file is summed up in a folder called Boot Camp 2.0 Drivers... are those proper for my (i think) 2nd gen black macbook? are they universal drivers for all macbook models or something?
Apple offers a single package which contains drivers for all its PCs (iMac, MacMini, MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro) so I think the package you've downloaded is OK!
PS: we have the same MacBook. :D
some things aren't meant to be. i was all ready to get started and when I entered boot camp to partition it said some files could not be moved and i'd have to format bla bla. I've never formatted, it is something i fear. Furthermore, I dont have my leopard DVD! What should I do? Can I reinstall the OS without the DVD? I have superduper to clone my drive to an external USB WD HD, but how will I reinstall the OS itself? does it actually clone the OS? ah I don't know what im doing! any useful guides? most important thing to remember is that i dont have my Leopard DVD. (btw i tried repairing permissions and whatnot, even iDefrag can't defrag my machine for some reason)
Unfortunately I only know two solution to the error you got; the first one is to defrag your disk with iDefrag (it seems it doesn't work) and the second one is to format your disk and completely reinstall Leopard and this is impossible or very difficult without Leopard DVD. In my opinion format your Mac in order to try Windows 7 isn't a good idea cause I don't think you'll use Windows 7 that much (remember it's just a Beta release).
how do i go about finding out the error code on the BSOD/Memory dump? then i guess i would just punch that into google and see what it says??? is it possible thats its a RAM issue? cause im sure alot of people are using a macbook pro with win7 and are running it smooth...
btw, ive since formatted and installed 7022, and i am still getting the BSOD with barely any drivers installed. I thought it was possibly one of the bootcamp drivers that was causeing the memory dumps but im not sure it is that. so I guess its safe for me to go ahead and install all the bootcamp software then?
i would really love to get this OS working good cause i love it, but im scared cause i was writing a paper for university and it went BSOD while i was in Onenote, and I lost like 500 words, i was ready to throw my MBP against the wall at school. so yea if you guys could help me out with this that would be sweet, ive bookmarked your site i check it pritty regulalarly
To disable the automatic restart after a BSOD you need to go to Control Panel, System and Security, System, Advance system settings (on the right side) and then click Settings in the Startup and Recovery frame. Here you have to uncheck the combobox Automatically restart (see the picture below).
http://tinyurl.com/b3eln4
The problem can be the main memory, every other hardware piece or software but this isn’t related to the fact that you have a MacBook and not MacBook Pro cause I’ve MacBook just like you and Windows 7 runs smoothly.
In my opinion I don’t have to use a Beta operating system (although is indeed stable in most situation) to work, it’s not a clever idea. System failure can accure even on finished operating system, with unfinished ones there is an even greater probability to get a system failure.
well if they had onenote for osx id use it
If you need OneNote, that means Windows, you should use a "stable" release such as Windows Vista or Windows XP.
Windows 7 should be used by tester for testing purpose only.
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