Windows 7 on an MBP (Summer 2007)

I decided to take the plunge and install Windows 7 on my MBP (Summer 2007 Edition) and so far things are rocking quite nicely. Here's my take on what I discovered so far.

Boot Camp Install of Windows 7
The Boot Camp Assistant gladly will install Windows 7 from a DVD, with no questions asked. When the system rebooted, it found the DVD without a problem and Windows 7 (Build 6801) installed smoothly.

Boot Camp Drivers
When the installation finished, my first task was to install the Boot Camp drivers from the Leopard DVD. Unfortunately the setup told me that it was only available on XP and Vista. Not Windows 7. Fear not, for there is a workaround.

Using Windows Explorer, you can navigate to the drivers folder and install the drivers from there. It is a manual process, requiring you to install them one by one, but it's a one time deal so its no biggie.

A Note On The Apple Keyboard Drivers...
The one thing that bugs me big time is that the keyboard drivers do not work completely. I wasn't able to use the special keys for dimming the screen, or controlling the volume. I'll have to research this a bit to find some sort of alternative.

Final Thoughts
So far everything else is working very well. I haven't yet tested iSight, but will soon. To top it all off, Windows 7 certainly does use less memory and is much more zippy. Plus, it doesn't annoy with all the security warnings, and you can toggle how overprotective you want it to be.

 

You can mimick most of the things Windows 7 does today on Vista. Vista comes with a really bad set of default configuration that causes majority of the problems for users.

I can easily lower the memory usage of Vista by disabling or configuring how SuperFetch works. They've improved SuperFetch on Windows 7 to intelligently precache apps instead of just blindly cache every app I've launched like in Vista today.

If you find a good guide on configuring Vista today, it is just as snappy to use as Windows 7 without the new GUI enchancements.

I have installed Windows 7 on my MBP.

 

Thats nice to hear. At least Microsoft is making some MUCH needed improvements. And lucky for us, we get the best of both worlds.

 

have you tried benchmarking it?with something like 3dmark?

 

I just ran the Windows Experience Index and got the following results:

Processor: 5.1
Memory: 4.8
Graphics: 5.4
Gaming Graphics: 4.9
Primary Hard Disk: 3.0

Base Score: 3.0

I let Windows auto-install the chipset drivers, which is probably why the HD score is so low. Under Vista I remember it being much higher, probably at 4.5 or higher I think. Still, the boot up time is quite good and to me it's faster than Vista's boot up time.

 

will you run 3d mark?

P.S. sorry for being annoying

 

Lol, yes I'd like to know it too please...

 

Try installing bootcamp 2.1 i did that and everything works fine except for the mic which i can't seem to get to work and the reason the hard drive index is lower than than it was in vista is because the new index is out of 7.9 and i believe vista was 5.9 (might be wrong haven't used vista in a while)

edit: for bootcamp update 2.1 use 32bit vista and i'm dling 3dmark as we speak so benchmark should be up soon and i'm using a macbook pro i bought back during may 2008

edit2:so the score is 4448 using 3dmark 2006. i'm going to install xp later on tonight and i'll post the score

edit3:the odd thing is that my score in xp is 4091

 

Thanks for the tip ramzyfire! Forgot compeletely about that update. The thing is, if I couldn't even install the original Boot Camp drivers, wouldn't this fail as well?

As soon as I get the Boot Camp 2.1 drivers in I'll get to 3DMark benching. Apologies for the wait.

 

My unibody 2.53Ghz gets a score of 2300 in 3damrk 06 for shader 3.0. I can't run shader 2.0 or cpu test because I get the black screen as I'm running without OSX or boot camp installed and I can't use smc fan control to cool the GPU. I have basically the same score in boot camp running vista 64 bit using the same beta nvidia notebook drivers.

 

you dont HAVE to run 3dmark, but please do NOT run or post your WEI. because no one knows what it means, and no one cares.

 

i dont get why you apple users still use windows...

heck even use windows betas...

 

Several reasons:

1. Windows is used in my work place
2. There are some apps not available in Mac OSX
3. Many good games are Windows-only
4. Windows is a good operating system just like OSX, both need some TLC to get them the way you want them.
5. Get the best of both worlds.
6. As a hobby
7. Because I can
8. Need I say more?

 

The same reasons PC users use OSX86

 

Exactly, because some people want the best of both worlds.

 

heh,no problem my friend,I am not in rush

 

For some strange reason I'm having a terrible time getting the Boot Camp 2.1 drivers to install. Anytime I try to run it it just silently closes. Any ideas?

Couple notes: running the 6801 build on the 2007 summer edition of the MBP.

 

I ran the free version of 3DMark 2006 and got a measly score of 2408. I couldn't install the Boot Camp drivers properly so that's a major reason why the score is abysmal.

 

what video drivers did you use?

 

I used the drivers on the Leopard DVD. Probably should use the drivers from NVidia's website... I'll get those in later and try again.