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Boot Camp: Apple’s refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only

By | February 26, 2011, 10:16pm PST

Summary: According to an Apple support note released Friday, the new MacBook Pro models and the recently refreshed MacBook Air won’t support Windows XP and Windows Vista.

According to an Apple support note released Friday, the new MacBook Pro models and the recently refreshed MacBook Air won’t support Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Note: Windows XP and Vista drivers are not supplied for these computers and are not supported.

The site says Book Camp will support 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, or Windows 7 Ultimate. If you”re running Window XP or Vista on an older Mac and are moving up to one the new notebooks, then you will have to put a Windows upgrade into your budget.

Window 7 running on Boot Camp requires:

-An optical drive (MacBook Air computers require an external optical disc drive to install Windows 7).
-A blank CD or USB storage device to contain the Windows Drivers created by the Boot Camp Assistant.
-For 32-bit versions of Windows, at least 16 GB of free space.
-For 64-bit versions of Windows, at least 20 GB of free space.
-Boot Camp Assistant, which is pre-installed in /Applications/Utilities/
-An authentic, 32-bit or 64-bit Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate disc.

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Topics

Apple MacBook, Apple Inc., Apple MacBook Pro, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows 7, Operating Systems, Software, David Morgenstern

David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years.

Disclosure

David Morgenstern

Freelance journalist/blogger David Morgenstern has nothing to disclose.

Biography

David Morgenstern

David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years. In the recent past, he founded Ziff-Davis' Storage Supersite, served as news editor for Ziff Davis Internet and held several executive editorial positions at eWEEK. In the 1990s, David was editor of Ziff Davis' award-winning MacWEEK news publication as well as its successor title, eMediaWEEKly, which focused on multiplatform professional content creation. His byline can be found online and in print publications including CreativePro.com, Peachpit Press' Mac Bible and Popular Photography.

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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
termopane Updated - 18th Oct
@nix_hed It is a long discussion, but why would you run WIndows thru MAC ?
Termopan Bucuresti
View in thread
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done over
Walker007 26th Feb 2011
Easy to say, but with all updates, MAC is still trying to keep up with free PC software and new programs from the internet. Ma said watch the spoon! more...
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Actually...
nix_hed 28th Feb 2011
@Walker007 I'd say with the fact that Mac hardware has been enjoying integrated dual-band wireless N hardware, Bluetooth, and now Thunderbolt (Light Peak) technology, the PC makers have been playing catch-up to Apple for a while. Oh, and there's the whole OS thing as well, but I won't go into why Linux, Mac OS, and BSD are better than Windows in the overall picture...
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
termopane Updated - 18th Oct
@nix_hed It is a long discussion, but why would you run WIndows thru MAC ?
Termopan Bucuresti
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Good news for Microsoft. No?
bmovie2 26th Feb 2011
This is probably the best news Microsoft has had in a long time. Is this also going to be a requirement with Parallels or Fusion?
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Doubtfull...
wright_is 28th Feb 2011
@bmovie2 More likely, that Apple aren't wasting development resources on products which are no longer supported (XP) or not really used (Vista).

The same is true for some Windows hardware appearing in the channel, there are no longer XP drivers for some kit.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
patbot 28th Feb 2011
@bmovie2

No of course.
Parallels and Fusion use virtualization. That means that you can install Windows all the way to Win 9X if you wish or you can install Linux for that matter.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
nix_hed 28th Feb 2011
@patbot But remember that there will always be a back door for installing unsupported stuff on Mac hardware...
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
snideb 2nd Mar 2011
@bmovie2

As a Fusion user, this won't affect me, should I move up to this new hardware platform...
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
empirestatebuddy 27th Feb 2011
I wonder what percentage of Mac owners actually run a copy of Windows on their Macs. I imagine it's probably higher in the enterprise.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
mswift@... 28th Feb 2011
@empirestatebuddy
I sell a vertical small business app running SQL Server. I'd guess that about 25% of my customers run Win7 on MAC, mostly the owners own laptop. The proles get white box PCs.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
perronne 28th Feb 2011
@empirestatebuddy

Actually, I run Windows XP on my MacBook though my major OS is Snow Leopard. It is for old Windows software that doesn't exist for Mac and which will probably not run on Windows Vista or Windows 7. It does, however, run on Windows 3.x and on XP it has some problems with the long file names ...
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
MacSeleka 27th Feb 2011
I wonder whether the Office programs run on a Mac are immune to PC viruses.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
tk_77 27th Feb 2011
@MacSeleka

If you mean running the native Office apps for OSX (latest version 2011), then ... sorta.

Office 2008 dropped VBA support, so anyone running that version can't be affected by a macro virus. They also can't write macros that utilize VBA.

VBA returned in Office 2011, so if a macro virus is contained in a document and opened on the Mac, then the Mac will execute it.

Now depending on the extent of what happens depends on the virus itself. I've never looked at any macro viruses in detail to find out how they do some of the OS level misbehavior they do, but I would imagine that anything that extends outside of Office would be more limited on the Mac.

The virus would be able to propagate itself into your templates and thus any document you create/open. If the macro virus tries to access a Windows API in order to do "something", then that operation would fail on the mac (seeing as how it doesn't have any Windows API's).

Of course, Mac's can become "carriers" of macro viruses. As I stated before, the viruses will be able to propagate across templates and any newly created/opened documents, which means if those documents are then opened on a Windows version of Office, then that machine will become infected too. In this case, any Windows specific code will be able to execute and do whatever it was designed to do.

Of course, in theory the macro viruses can also contain Mac specific code (to execute applescript perhaps? again I'm not sure of VBA's capabilities). In this case someone could write a truly "cross platform" virus.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
perronne 28th Feb 2011
@tk_77

Well, VBA viruses do have some problems on a Mac. Just the little difference between Window's use of backslash (\) where MacOS X uses the standard UNIX slash (/) in paths gives problems to the vira ...
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
Cylon Centurion Updated - 27th Feb 2011
Good news for Microsoft. Simply put, it's time to move on from XP. Those in that camp need to get a grasp on reality. Money, or no money, time or no time, the world is moving on, and those that can't - or won't - upgrade are going to be quickly forgotten, and pushed aside, so that the rest of us can move on and push forward.

I WISH THE MOST PAINFUL OF DEATHS TO XP!


Vista on the other hand is still good, why cut support for that?
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
doh123 27th Feb 2011
@Cylon Centurion 0005
because they have to make the drivers... they care very little about Windows an don't want to spend the time to get drivers working for Vista. I'd do the same thing... Win7 is much better than any previous version of Windows... its all I'd ever recommend anyone to use if they need Windows.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
statuskwo5 27th Feb 2011
@doh123 I don't see why Vista was axed since it provides the foundational core for Windows 7. In other words, overwhelming majority of drivers that work with Vista work with Windows 7 and vice versa.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
Cylon Centurion 27th Feb 2011
@statuskwo5

That was exactly my thinking, if it works on Vista, it will hands down work on 7. Interesting though. Eitherway, I agree with @doh123, Windows 7 is enough OS for anyone who needs Windows on their Mac.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
tk_77 Updated - 27th Feb 2011
@statuskwo5

It's entirely possible that Vista will run on the new machines, it just isn't supported. If the driver software for all the hardware of the machine is designed to run on both Vista and Windows 7, then Vista should be installable.

Because Apple provides the ability to install Windows on the machine and driver software for it, to some extent they have to support it. Its much easier for Apple to support a single OS then even two. It also allows them to only test Windows 7 moving forward and not worry about having to test everything with Vista as well. That doesn't mean Vista won't work, however.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
statuskwo5 27th Feb 2011
@Cylon Centurion 0005 XP seems best suited for virtual machines because of its small footprint. However, I agree, XP users should start planning to migrate to a newer OS (and system for that matter). They still have a few years, but come on, 13 years is really a long time to support an OS.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
Cylon Centurion 27th Feb 2011
@statuskwo5

They should already have migrated. I know many have taken advantage of the borrowed time Microsoft gave XP, but like you have said, Windows XP is 11 years old at this point, 13 by the time it's all said and done. That time should have been used to prepare for a new rollout, not spent sitting on their asses. Last minute rollouts are going to cause nothing but headaches.
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You've got a long wait
search & destroy 28th Feb 2011
I WISH THE MOST PAINFUL OF DEATHS TO XP!

2014 as a matter of fact.

Think you'll live that long? wink
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
Rick_K Updated - 27th Feb 2011
I honestly believe that this will have little, if any, impact on sales. Being that 99% of Mac users do not install any version of Windows on their computers, is this really news? I mean really why buy better hardware to run an inferior OS on it? I use both OSes, so I can actually comment on this. I use Windows because I have to, and OS X because I choose to. Unlike the Nothing But Microsoft fools; that have never tried OS X, or expect it to act just like their Master says it should work. I believe that there are places for more than just Microsoft products. I personally do not want, or need, an iPad, but I can see where some may enjoy it. The same can be said about any device, or OS. As long as there is choice, everyone can find something that suits their needs. grin
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
ConstableOdo 27th Feb 2011
I don't particularly like the idea of Boot Camp requiring Windows 7 because in a way it's helping Microsoft possibly to sell more copies if Windows users that become switchers only have Windows XP. I already have Windows 7 running on my Macs in Parallels Desktop, so it's not the matter of I don't want to pay the money. I just don't want Apple helping Microsoft when it comes to selling Windows licenses, if possible. I'm sure Apple knows what it's doing so I'm not going to get upset about it. Most Mac users can avoid using Windows completely so it's not that big a deal.
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Don't consider it helping Microsoft, consider it slimming down OS X
Michael Alan Goff Updated - 27th Feb 2011
There are already more people using Windows 7 than using all versions of OS X. Less drivers, less space needed, which makes the OS faster.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
Rick_K 27th Feb 2011
@goff256
What are you talking about? Windows 7 take up more drive space than xp, but less than that bloated pig called Vista. But Mac OS X take up less space than Windows 7 (figure on average 4.9 GB for OS X, compared to 14 Gb for Windows 7). Now if you?re saying that having fewer drivers makes the Bootcamp drivers a smaller package to download I can see that. but still why would I want to run Windows on a Mac? I thought the number 1 reason to buy a Mac was to get away from the Windows nightmare.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
Cylon Centurion 27th Feb 2011
@Rick_K if there was no reason to run Windows, then why did Apple include Boot Camp in OSX? wink

Now that XP is going the way of the Dodo (finally) people who need Windows running and judging Microsoft on XP still (shame on them, it's not fair to judge on an hopelessly outdated platform), can see the difference in the platform since 2001.
Windows platform ceased being a "nightmare", the day Windows 7 became available, and consumers and IT professionals alike became more accepting of the changes, and noticed the improved reliability of the platform since XP.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
dvm Updated - 27th Feb 2011
@Rick_K,
"I thought the number 1 reason to buy a Mac was to get away from the Windows nightmare. "

Many people don't agree with you regarding Windows being a nightmare. For example, Vista was critized for being too slow. The interest thing is that Vista was faster on Photoshop tests than Mac OS X.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/10/adobe-cs4-review.ars/5

On the latest Pwn20wn competitions, Mac OS X was hacked within seconds. Last year the only OS that wasn't hacked was Windows 7 with Google Chrome, an applications that uses W7 sandbox protection. Maybe Windows is not that bad after all, don't you think?
Plus there are many excellent applications not available on Windows, like Visio, OneNote and Revit. IMO, both, Mac OS X and Windows 7 are excellent operating systems.
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Rick_K
Michael Alan Goff 27th Feb 2011
"I thought the number 1 reason to buy a Mac was to get away from the Windows nightmare."

No, reasons to buy Macs are as such:

1) So you can brag about how you're sophisticated.
2) Because they sometimes have nice hardware, rather high quality too.
3) So you can produce software for the Mac too.
4) Because you hate Windows.

I'm pretty sure it's in that exact order, too.
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Tally ho, shill!
search & destroy 28th Feb 2011
Windows platform ceased being a "nightmare", the day Windows 7 became available, and consumers and IT professionals alike became more accepting of the changes, and noticed the improved reliability of the platform since XP.

Handlers, give this man a bonus! He truly earned his Ballmer keep for the day!

wink
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So, S&D, can you debate anything he said?
Michael Alan Goff 28th Feb 2011
I doubt it, but you might have some actual information someday.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
Asiafish 28th Feb 2011
Virtual machines can and will continue to do everything they always have. I use a Windows 2000 VM in Parallels for signing military forms (I'm in the reserves) and until the Army moves to something newer, I have no reason to update.

For games (Boot Camp), only the latest and greatest will do, so dropping support for older platforms is of little concern unless you want to play older games, which usually work fine in a VM.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
HackerJ Updated - 28th Feb 2011
Oh, NO! Now the owners of the fruity-themed toy-maker's reassuringly expensive PC clone will have to use something like the FREE and OPEN SOURCE Virtual Box! Shirley they can spend some $$$ on something to make up for having to use this FREE product to do what they want?
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It won't worry me; I don't use Windows now
Laraine Anne Barker 28th Feb 2011
and don't envisage doing so in the future.
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RE: Boot Camp: Apple's refreshed MacBook Pro and Air models Windows 7 only
stefan.hamilton75 17th Sep
Well anyways, they would still rely on free computer softwares and online programs and updates.


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