Apple's Boot Camp will not support Windows 7 on some 2006 Macs
In a memo to retail partners, Apple has announced that it will deliver support for Windows 7 in Mac OS X Snow Leopard's Boot Camp utility by the end of the year via a software update, but exclude support for some Macs sold in 2006.
Boot Camp is a two-step utility designed to setup Intel Mac computers to dual-boot both Mac OS X or Windows. The first component, which runs under Mac OS X, partitions the user's hard drive in place to prepare the system for an installation of Windows. After that step completes, the user is directed to install Windows from an authentic DVD copy provided by the user (Apple does not license or sell copies of Windows).
After Windows installs itself, Boot Camp provides a secondary package of drivers that the user must install from within Windows. These drivers provide native support for Mac-specific hardware under Windows, such as a backlit keyboard, built-in iSight camera, trackpad, Bluetooth, graphics, networking, audio, and so on. Snow Leopard's Boot Camp 3.0 also installs read-only HFS+ support for viewing Mac volumes under Windows.
According to the announcement, a series of Mac models "will not be supported for use with Windows 7 using Boot Camp," specifically:
Â*Â*Â?Â*iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)
The reason for not officially supporting these models is not stated. Because of how Boot Camp works, the only reason specific Mac models would not be supported is because compatible drivers are not available. This would not prevent Windows 7 from being installed on these machines, but could result in certain devices not working as expected while running Windows.
Third party drivers for the unsupported devices (if they exist) could solve any issues, and Windows 7 may offer to install drivers for devices it recognizes but does not have built in support for; it may even identify and download the drivers automatically.
Of the unsupported machines in the supplied list, the Early 2006 iMacs and MacBook Pro models have 32-bit Core Duo CPUs, but the other models specified all use 64-bit Core 2 Duos or Xeon processors, and no other 32-bit Macs (MacBooks, mini) are excluded. Apple also makes no comments about providing support for the 64-bit edition of Windows 7 only, so the support issue does not appear to have anything to do with these models' CPU or firmware.
The only other common thread between these machines is that they all originally shipped with either no or disabled support for 802.11n wireless networking. However, late 2006 MacBooks also shipped with disabled support for 802.11n, and no Mac minis supported 802.11n until 2009, so this does not appear to be a factor either.
Apple is expected to clarify the issue when it releases the Windows 7 driver update for Boot Camp users.
Boot Camp is a two-step utility designed to setup Intel Mac computers to dual-boot both Mac OS X or Windows. The first component, which runs under Mac OS X, partitions the user's hard drive in place to prepare the system for an installation of Windows. After that step completes, the user is directed to install Windows from an authentic DVD copy provided by the user (Apple does not license or sell copies of Windows).
After Windows installs itself, Boot Camp provides a secondary package of drivers that the user must install from within Windows. These drivers provide native support for Mac-specific hardware under Windows, such as a backlit keyboard, built-in iSight camera, trackpad, Bluetooth, graphics, networking, audio, and so on. Snow Leopard's Boot Camp 3.0 also installs read-only HFS+ support for viewing Mac volumes under Windows.
According to the announcement, a series of Mac models "will not be supported for use with Windows 7 using Boot Camp," specifically:
Â*Â*Â?Â*iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
Â*Â*Â?Â*Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)
The reason for not officially supporting these models is not stated. Because of how Boot Camp works, the only reason specific Mac models would not be supported is because compatible drivers are not available. This would not prevent Windows 7 from being installed on these machines, but could result in certain devices not working as expected while running Windows.
Third party drivers for the unsupported devices (if they exist) could solve any issues, and Windows 7 may offer to install drivers for devices it recognizes but does not have built in support for; it may even identify and download the drivers automatically.
Of the unsupported machines in the supplied list, the Early 2006 iMacs and MacBook Pro models have 32-bit Core Duo CPUs, but the other models specified all use 64-bit Core 2 Duos or Xeon processors, and no other 32-bit Macs (MacBooks, mini) are excluded. Apple also makes no comments about providing support for the 64-bit edition of Windows 7 only, so the support issue does not appear to have anything to do with these models' CPU or firmware.
The only other common thread between these machines is that they all originally shipped with either no or disabled support for 802.11n wireless networking. However, late 2006 MacBooks also shipped with disabled support for 802.11n, and no Mac minis supported 802.11n until 2009, so this does not appear to be a factor either.
Apple is expected to clarify the issue when it releases the Windows 7 driver update for Boot Camp users.
Comments
they will burn their computers
it will be the end of apple
I'm actually kind of pissed, I was looking forward to testing out Windows 7, as I do like to run games on Windoze, and I did hold off on installing Vista.
I'm actually kind of pissed, I was looking forward to testing out Windows 7, as I do like to run games on Windoze, and I did hold off on installing Vista.
Just because Apple doesn't officially support it doesn't mean it won't work.
I believe my MBP falls under this problem (Bought it in November '06).
I'm actually kind of pissed, I was looking forward to testing out Windows 7, as I do like to run games on Windoze, and I did hold off on installing Vista.
It will work. I think the trouble may lie in the graphic drivers for those units. The GMA950 used wasn't specific to Apple but the nVidia/ATI's were.
**?*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)
The only other common thread between these machines ...
The common thread is so obvious, they were all released in 2006.
Even if they had Applecare, they are out of warranty.
The common thread is so obvious, they were all released in 2006.
Duh.
The common thread is so obvious, they were all released in 2006.
Seems like Apple is discontinuing support for any machines that are older than 3 years... right after AppleCare ends. Either could a move to cut support costs, since those users aren't paying for support anymore and they have to update the drivers, or they simply decided that Windows 7 performance was mediocre on these machines. Makes me wonder how the general PC market that still has Core Duos with 2GB of RAM will also cope with Windows 7's performance. Ah well, I have one of those machines, it runs great with Snow Leopard and I virtualize XP and that runs great, so I don't care
Then again, it could a carrot to lure us laggards that won't upgrade their machines every few years to actually do the upgrade that we wanted, but always seemed to put off
Oh wait, I forgot there could be another reason. ATI and nVidia just won't update 3-year-old graphics chip drivers (for graphic cards they discontinued 2 years ago) for Windows 7.
MacPro: nVidia 7300, 8800 GT's. Quadra FX4500 and ATI X1900 XT
iMac's: ATI X1600. nVidia 7300 & 7600 GT.
Commonality? X1600, X1900 & nVidia 7300, 7600, 8800 GT's and the Quadra FX4500.
Mid-2006 iMac had GMA950 - NOT ON THE LIST.
I believe my MBP falls under this problem (Bought it in November '06).
I'm actually kind of pissed, I was looking forward to testing out Windows 7, as I do like to run games on Windoze, and I did hold off on installing Vista.
windows 7 seems to support everything. i'm running it on 2 5 year old computers with no problems
Seems like Apple is discontinuing support for any machines that are older than 3 years... right after AppleCare ends. Either could a move to cut support costs, since those users aren't paying for support anymore and they have to update the drivers, or they simply decided that Windows 7 performance was mediocre on these machines. Makes me wonder how the general PC market that still has Core Duos with 2GB of RAM will also cope with Windows 7's performance. Ah well, I have one of those machines, it runs great with Snow Leopard and I virtualize XP and that runs great, so I don't care
Then again, it could a carrot to lure us laggards that won't upgrade their machines every few years to actually do the upgrade that we wanted, but always seemed to put off
Just did a Win7 HP upgrade today on a TK-58 based (1.9ghz x 2) nVidia Geforce Go 6100 system... Meh. Vista was actually faster but I had it tweaked. Video performance was no different. Startup, was slower but again I had Vista Tweaked. I'll play with 7 tweaking later.
Clean install upgrade: 2 paritions. Took 4.5hrs total to upgrade and I still don't have all the applications installed. Too tired to mess with it anymore. Some apps just won't install so I may need to spend yet another $100 to upgrade Win7 HP to Ult to get XP compatibility mode. Some apps need the updates installed to run, but I don't have the CD to install them this way and the company they belong too wants $40 to send out a new disc.
HP=Home Premium.
Seems like Apple is discontinuing support for any machines that are older than 3 years... right after AppleCare ends. Either could a move to cut support costs, since those users aren't paying for support anymore and they have to update the drivers, or they simply decided that Windows 7 performance was mediocre on these machines. Makes me wonder how the general PC market that still has Core Duos with 2GB of RAM will also cope with Windows 7's performance. Ah well, I have one of those machines, it runs great with Snow Leopard and I virtualize XP and that runs great, so I don't care
Then again, it could a carrot to lure us laggards that won't upgrade their machines every few years to actually do the upgrade that we wanted, but always seemed to put off
Oh wait, I forgot there could be another reason. ATI and nVidia just won't update 3-year-old graphics chip drivers (for graphic cards they discontinued 2 years ago) for Windows 7.
old vista drivers will work with no problems in most cases. i have an ancient ATI x1950 that hasn't been sold for years and it's using the old WDDM 1 driver under Windows 7.
I believe my MBP falls under this problem (Bought it in November '06).
I'm actually kind of pissed, I was looking forward to testing out Windows 7, as I do like to run games on Windoze, and I did hold off on installing Vista.
Same- here - I was thinking about getting it for my iMac. I have a Rolly which only runs on Windows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTxdKi77G20
Same- here - I was thinking about getting it for my iMac. I have a Rolly which only runs on Windows. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTxdKi77G20
That is what VMWare is for. Especially if all you are going to do is test out Win 7.
I believe my MBP falls under this problem (Bought it in November '06).
I'm actually kind of pissed, I was looking forward to testing out Windows 7, as I do like to run games on Windoze, and I did hold off on installing Vista.
Make sure your current system, XP or whatever has the latest OpenGL/DirectX drivers and you'll be fine.
I'm surprised they won't have it built into tomorrow's 10.6.2 update. Oh well, maybe when they do get it incorporated it will have the four finger swipe, pinch, and et al.
steve jobs better get right on this, otherwise chaos will ensue, he'll go out of business, his company will fail, users will throw their macs away, and switch to pc and use the windows 7 for ever until eternity
Thankfully I'm fresh out of razor blades and sleeping pills!
Ah, but I have a gas stove...
I don't think I'll ever recover.
Thankfully I'm fresh out of razor blades and sleeping pills!
Ah, but I have a gas stove...
i can barely type...i'm sobbing so hard right now, i might wet my keyboard with my tears and ruin the backlight...
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to appleinsider: this deserves a full post? really? who gives a fuck, come on