Bootcamp compatible for business use?

Hi,

Curious here, I am ready to buy a maxed out macbook pro, but am worried there will still be application compatibility issues in Windows. Is anyone here using exclusively windows booting for business use? Joining domains, using DB software, etc?

Thanks in advance, I can't find a direct answer to this question anywhere.

 

When you boot into Windows, it works exactly like a normal Windows PC from any other company, that is all there is to it.

 

Yes, ocellaris is correct. Basically any application, task or function that works in Windows will work on your Boot Camp - Mac.

 

Does anyone know if bootcamp allow programs to run at the same speed as if the program was running on a comparable windows machine (specs wise)?

 

Yes, applications will run at the same speed in Boot Camp as a PC with the same specs, although if its graphics intensive, such as gaming or architectural software, for now it will not run as well as a PC with the same 8600GT as Apple doesn't have the best graphics drivers for it yet.

 

Hrm...that's not really true though.

I don't think any company has good graphics drivers for their laptops yet, and nvidia certainly isn't releasing any mobile drivers. Even for a PC laptop you'd want to download them yourself from laptopvideo2go.

Just go to www.laptopvideo2go.com and download the latest drivers there - there are a few that are quite decent, and they'll work fine in boot camp.

 

I just wanted to weigh-in my personal experiences with the laptopvideo2go NVIDIA ForceWare drivers. I think I wrote a similar post a while back.

The Apple-supplied ForceWare 101.34 work fine for the most part. You should only update ForceWare Drivers if you experience problems that are directly related to the GPU/Graphic drivers. And if you do decide to update the graphic drivers, follow the bloody laptopvideo2go QuickStart Guide!

I got the Infinite Loop Error ( Comb of Death) with 158.xx drivers. Basically your computer will freeze shortly after booting and a Comb of Death will appear in the upper left region of your display. From that point you'll need to reboot into Safe Mode and manually uninstall the problematic drivers and reinstall ForceWare 101.34 from the Boot Camp Mac Windows Drivers (or other drivers if you choose).

The reason I tried updating in the first place was to resolve some issues with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory. None of the drivers I tried actually resolved the issues with that game. Anyways, I did find that 162.18 drivers work relatively well. For one, there was no Infinite Loop Error . Although some users have complained about the inability to overclock these drivers; this is a non-issue for me.

In the process of testing laptopvideo2go drivers I experienced issues with Windows Sleep/Standby that were not be resolved by merely manually uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling the Boot Camp drivers. After I attempted to install 158.xx drivers, Standby no longer worked. Also, closing the MBP's lid did nothing. So, you may have to reinstall Windows if Sleep/Standby stops working and you want it to work again. However, if you update from the Boot Camp Drivers directly to 162.18, Sleep/Standby should still work.

I have not tried any of the newest drivers (162.50, 163.xx, etc.) so I cannot comment on their functionality. And since the 162.18 drivers didn't really make a significant impact with Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory I've been using the Boot Camp Drivers since and without further incident; these are the drivers I'd recommend for Business purposes, they're the most reliable.

 

That sucks...

I've used the Vista 32-bit drivers 163.11, 163.16, and currently 163.44. All 3 worked fine.

A few things to note about laptopvideo2go drivers

1. Don't install them the day they're released. Often, it'll take them some time to released the modded inf for the driver anyway, but always wait a day or so to check out the comments and feedback on the driver and the modded inf. Sometimes, they mess up slightly in changing the inf file and require a day or so to fix it.

2. I've had luck with both the "have disk" method and the "uninstall/reboot/clean install" method (some people like to add a registry sweep in between there too, but I get lazy).

3. If you are updating boot camp. make sure you uninstall your updated drivers first! The last time I updated boot camp without doing this, boot camp simply uninstalled the driver (thankfully), but then didn't install nvidia drivers at all and reverted to the vga drivers. It wasn't a huge deal to install the drivers after that, but it's just something to watch out for.

 

I use one of my mbp's for business, and i used to use bootcamp (using quickbooks, act, ms suite, etc)

And now i use parallels, and i find it enough for day to day operation.

Just make sure there is enough ram on it (I have only 2gb ram, with a 2.00 dual core 256 v ram) and it works just fine.

 

Anyone use software that has sql server communication? I am slightly worried about some of the proprietary apps. I understand that these programs wouldn't have much of anything to do with driver compatibility issues, just makes me nervous.

Also, what OS works BEST on bootcamp? xp? xp64? vista bus? vista bus 64? I have all of them so if anyone can help me out I'd greatly appreciate it

 

Personally I would stick to XP for now in Boot Camp, and even on any PC. Vista...ugh . I'd wait for SP1.

 

Yes, and more specifically 32-bit Windows XP. Boot Camp does not officially support 64-bit versions of Windows.

 

I had a dual boot with WinXP and Ubuntu Linux. My school requires Novell Client login to be installed to access network drives and proxy. When I installed Novell software it corrupted my MBR, and so I could not boot, until after I re-installed GRUB to MBR using the live CD.

I am not sure if this will be the same in bootcamp installed WinXP--installing Novel Client.

Just a thought.

 

if I could find a computer that even approaches the MBP's form factor, I would be sold.. but I can't find one that also has an wsxga+ or higher res and a great form factor. I may just go w/ a new sz from sony. sigh.

thx all.