![]() The new Boot Camp includes all the drivers necessary to run both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 smoothly on the Mac hardware. And now observe the total pass Apple gets for doing it. Imagine the mocking Microsoft would get from the Apple fan base if they advertised a 32-bit OS as a 64-bit OS. That's a 32-bit OS, folks, even if it does have certain 64-bit capabilities. It is a hybrid 32-bit/64-bit OS, and it actually boots into a 32-bit kernel by default. I'd like to correct them here.Īs is now a pure 64-bit operating system, expect the application performance to improve over Leopard as you add RAM or use it with a high-end desktop. Sadly, this particular review, while decent, gets a number of facts wrong. This is the closest Boot Camp has to come to facilitating Windows performance that's nearly as good as OS-X, when running on a Mac.I'm going to be writing about the Windows 7/Snow Leopard/Boot Camp experience soon as part of my recently revived Mac-to-Windows Switcher Guide, but I see I'm not the only one noticing the improvements in the latest Boot Camp release. However, even with this shortcoming-which affects only laptop users-this release of Boot Camp makes the Mac a great choice for savvy users who want the best of both worlds. My 2008 15-inch unibody MacBook Pro still has about the same battery life as it did with Boot Camp 3.0, which is just about two-thirds of what I get when running the machine with Mac OS X 10.6. Unfortunately, my biggest wish for this version of Boot Camp didn't come true: battery life improvements. So, you'll need to wait for Apple to release them. Unlike with PCs, where you manually update the drivers of the video card whenever there's a new version from the vendor, drivers for component used in Mac computers are only available from Apple. I've yet to do any formal games testing though. Applications such as 3D games seem to run better as a result. The second improvement is the overall performance of the machine in Windows, thanks to the components now using more recent drivers. It's important to note that this improvement is across the board with all versions of Windows including XP, Vista, and 7, both 32-bit and 64-bit. Still, I wish there was an option to adjust the sensitivity of the device. Now, the trackpad works the same as it does in OS X, and I love how I can just click the pad with two fingers to do a right-click. With Boot Camp 3.0 or earlier, the trackpad was too sensitive-to the point that I couldn't use "Tap to Click" without constantly making accidental clicks. The first change I noticed was that the multitouch trackpad worked much better. It took me just 15 minutes to upgrade Boot Camp to version 3.1. Then, and only then, can you download and install version 3.1 manually or update Boot Camp by running the Apple Software Update utility from within Windows. Boot Camp 3.1 will only install on MacBook Pro that already has Boot Camp 3.0. After reinstalling Windows 7 from scratch, I downloaded Boot Camp 3.1 from Apple's Web site but was able to install only the video driver from it. Secondly, you'll still need Boot Camp 3.0, which is only available on the Snow Leopard DVD. Starting with version 3.0, Boot Camp makes it easy for Windows to access the Mac OS partition.) Boot Camp supports Windows XP, Vista, and 7 on Intel Macs. After that, install Boot Camp in Windows. Run Boot Camp assistant from within OS X, follow the instructions to split the hard drive, then boot from a Windows DVD or CD, and install Windows just like you would on a PC. Note: It's very easy to install Windows on an Intel Mac. You can upgrade to Boot Camp 3.1 by running Apple Software Update in Windows. In reality, apart from having to split the hard drive into two partitions, one for OS X and one for Windows, there's no other reason why you shouldn't have both operating systems on the computer. It seems that Apple only wants you to use Windows on a Mac in a dual-boot setup rather than using it exclusively just as a Windows machine. The only way to do this is by running "Software Update" from within Mac OS X. For Boot Camp 3.1 to work properly on certain Macs, it's necessary to upgrade the firmware of some hardware components. I have used Windows on a MacBook Pro ever since Boot Camp 2.1, and here are my impressions of running Windows 7 64-bit with Boot Camp 3.1.įirst of all, you will still need Mac OS X, at least at first, to install Windows 7. Apple recently released Boot Camp 3.1, a set of software drivers that provides official support for running Windows 7 on a Mac. If you are waiting to install Windows 7 on your MacBook Pro, the wait is over. With Boot Camp 3.1, you now can use the Tap to Click feature of the MacBook Pro's multitouch trackpad.
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