Apple: Official Boot Camp Support for Windows 7 Coming Later This Year


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Apple: Official Boot Camp Support for Windows 7 Coming Later This Year

With the release of Windows 7 today, Apple has posted a new support article announcing that official support for running Windows 7 on Macs using Apple's Boot Camp solution will be coming later this year.

Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp.

The document also notes that a number of early Intel-based Macintosh computers will not support Windows 7 running in Boot Camp.

Note: The following models will not be supported for use with Windows 7 using Boot Camp.

- iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)

- iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)

- iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)

- iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)

- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)

- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)

- MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)

- MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)

- Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)

While Boot Camp currently officially supports only Windows XP and Vista, many users have had success installing and running Windows 7 already, but official support from Apple should streamline the process and provide consumers with resources to assist them with setup and use.

Many users also prefer to run Windows virtually rather than turning to the Boot Camp dual-boot solution. Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac already includes support for 32-bit Windows 7, and VMware Fusion 3, scheduled to launch next week, will offer full 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 support for virtualization under Mac OS X.

souricon.gif News source: Mac Rumors

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You'da thunk Apple would have this ready.

So wait... if your computer is listed under "not supported", does that mean you'll have to go buy a new iMac or MBP in order to run Windows 7? That's pretty weak.

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You'da thunk Apple would have this ready.

So wait... if your computer is listed under "not supported", does that mean you'll have to go buy a new iMac or MBP in order to run Windows 7? That's pretty weak.

Knowing Apple that means they'll screw up the installer/driver so it won't install on "unsupported devices", although it would work perfectly (as it does on my MacBookPro1,1 with Windows 7 32bit and Snow Leopard's Bootcamp).

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I completely disagree. It just means they aren't going to get new Windows 7 specific drivers for those machines and it probably has to do with some of the hardware used in those machines.

Why would Apple rush Win 7 support when MS doesn't nothing of the sort for their own Apple software?

As other's have stated, Windows 7 loads just find as it is using "Vista" as your choice when running bootcamp.

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My Mac Pro runs Windows 7 just fine. It is the 1st gen model and I find that Apple is trying to push users to upgrade to newer models by not supporting Windows 7 on very capable machines...They should be ashamed of them selves. I won't be byuing an Apple product again...

The Mac Pro is a computer that should last for 5 years, it is a fast machine and its cost really justifies that. On Windows 7 I get a Processor Index of 7.2

Why doesnt Apple support the first gen Mac Pro?

Shame on them

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My Mac Pro runs Windows 7 just fine. It is the 1st gen model and I find that Apple is trying to push users to upgrade to newer models by not supporting Windows 7 on very capable machines...They should be ashamed of them selves. I won't be byuing an Apple product again...

The Mac Pro is a computer that should last for 5 years, it is a fast machine and its cost really justifies that. On Windows 7 I get a Processor Index of 7.2

Why doesnt Apple support the first gen Mac Pro?

Shame on them

I think that just means that Apple won't assure 100.000000% compatibility. Perhaps some chipset driver or something is not sure to work fully with Windows 7. Rather than trying to go back and test and possibly rewrite lots of old drivers for possibly minimal improvement, they just chose to not officially support it.

It sounds like you are already running Windows 7 just fine, Apple isn't going to disable it or take it away from you, so what's the problem?

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Perhaps some chipset driver or something is not sure to work fully with Windows 7. Rather than trying to go back and test and possibly rewrite lots of old drivers for possibly minimal improvement, they just chose to not officially support it.

No, it's just them being lazy. If the drivers work on Vista, they work on 7. Any changes that need to be made are minimal. Apple are pricks about it.

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I think that just means that Apple won't assure 100.000000% compatibility. Perhaps some chipset driver or something is not sure to work fully with Windows 7. Rather than trying to go back and test and possibly rewrite lots of old drivers for possibly minimal improvement, they just chose to not officially support it.

It sounds like you are already running Windows 7 just fine, Apple isn't going to disable it or take it away from you, so what's the problem?

The problem is that most people will just read what Apple suggests and go buy a new Mac Pro in order to have Windows 7 support...Only people that are technically adequate wont have any issues with it...

Windows 7 runs fine on the Mac Pro but one thing: Power Management..Stand by and hibernation do not work and crash the system...I don't really need them as my Mac Pro is always online, but it would be nice to see Apple fixing that...but of course they wont...they are too busy making iphones...

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Be thankful they let you run windows at all in my opinion. You bought your Mac Pro knowing its for OS X and expect them to support another operating system with it.

Just sayin'

If there was no Bootcamp and if Vista wasnt supported I wouldnt expect that! But it should be really easy to implement this support...

Anyway, I am replacing my Mac Pro at the end of 2010 and I will see which PC Workstations (from Dell or HP) would do the job for me

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Windows 7 runs fine on the Mac Pro but one thing: Power Management..Stand by and hibernation do not work and crash the system

Well there you go. Doesn't sound like 100% compatibility to me.

Would you expect Dell or HP or Sony or Alienware or whoever to go back and release new drivers so many years later?

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Be thankful they let you run windows at all in my opinion. You bought your Mac Pro knowing its for OS X and expect them to support another operating system with it.

Just sayin'

Thankful? why? Doesn't Apple advertise about Boot camp?

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Well there you go. Doesn't sound like 100% compatibility to me.

Would you expect Dell or HP or Sony or Alienware or whoever to go back and release new drivers so many years later?

No, but if I had a normal PC I would have much less problems finding drivers that do the job, even if HP, Dell and everybody else stopped supporting it...

When I bought the Mac Pro I was using Mac OS X and didnt think much of Windows. Of course I bought it because it was an Intel machine that could run windows...

Windows 7 is so much better than Mac OS X that I dont even bother installing Mac OS X any more...

my Mac Pro runs Windows 7 very fast and stable, so I dont see a reason now to buy a new computer. I will do that in 14-16 months and when I do that I am getting a pure pc...with BIOS and no EFI...

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The problem is that most people will just read what Apple suggests and go buy a new Mac Pro in order to have Windows 7 support...Only people that are technically adequate wont have any issues with it...

I hope no one actually buys a Mac in order to run Windows 7 on it. They should buy a Mac to run OS X.

The majority of users who need Windows for a specific app will do just fine to run it through virtualization.

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Be thankful they let you run windows at all in my opinion. You bought your Mac Pro knowing its for OS X and expect them to support another operating system with it.

Just sayin'

but but but! Apple is a "hardware" company! they shouldn't care what OS you run on it...

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but but but! Apple is a "hardware" company! they shouldn't care what OS you run on it...

Apple is not only a hardware company, it is also a software company.

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No, but if I had a normal PC I would have much less problems finding drivers that do the job, even if HP, Dell and everybody else stopped supporting it...

my Mac Pro runs Windows 7 very fast and stable, so I dont see a reason now to buy a new computer. I will do that in 14-16 months and when I do that I am getting a pure pc...with BIOS and no EFI...

You might be able to, but possibly not. Remember all those people trying to get Vista compatible drivers for their intel graphics chips? The PC industry really came through for them on that one...

Also, what does BIOS vs EFI have to do with the hardware vendor (quite possible not Apple in this case, it might be a chipset driver from Intel or NVidia for example)?

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but but but! Apple is a "hardware" company! they shouldn't care what OS you run on it...

I don't think it would be a stretch to say that people buy Macs for the entire package. They don't buy them just for OS X and they don't buy them just for the hardware its the synergy that people purchase. And Apple play on that synergy anytime their CEO is in-front of a camera so its not surprising that they would not go out of their way to make Windows on Mac a piece of cake. They put all their efforts in making OS X run sweet as a nut on a Mac.

And when I was saying about be thankful Apple even let you run Windows on it. I say that because when the first Intel Macs were released Apple did not allow it, we as a user-base are lucky that they did so. I'm not saying we should kiss their feet for it just we should recognise that they did allow it when there was no obligation to do so.

Frankly I'm surprised they even gave us a heads up about forthcoming Windows 7 support. I really didn't think they cared even that much.

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Apple is not only a hardware company, it is also a software company.

I know, but everyone always loves to pull the Apple is a hardware company excuse on why OSX is so cheap and stuff... just seemed fitting

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I know, but everyone always loves to pull the Apple is a hardware company excuse on why OSX is so cheap and stuff... just seemed fitting

Do you mean why OS X costs usually $120 vs. $300+ for a full version of windows? That is purely MS trying to milk every dollar from their OS. Apple charges a reasonable price for their OS upgrades because they want the majority of Mac owners to upgrade.

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I know, but everyone always loves to pull the Apple is a hardware company excuse on why OSX is so cheap and stuff... just seemed fitting

Well, Apple is mainly a hardware company. People are dreaming if they think some of the money they paid on hardware didn't go towards OS X.

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Be thankful they let you run windows at all in my opinion. You bought your Mac Pro knowing its for OS X and expect them to support another operating system with it.

Just sayin'

Where do we start with this one?

First of all, Apple touts the ability to run Windows among the top reasons to "switch". It's nothing to be thankful for, it's something Apple and Microsoft worked on together to improve Mac sales.

Secondly, Apple has said from day 1 that (aside from drivers) they will not be supporting Windows. No one is expecting anything besides fully-functioning drivers for Windows 7.

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