MBP i5 17" windows 7

What do you mean by graphics driver? Are you saying it isn't supported in Win 7 64-bit? My buddy has the 15" i7 and the graphics work perfectly in Win 7 64.

I suggest you consider using either a VMware or Parallels to run Win 7. I use VMware to run Win 7 (and Office 2010, plus some statistical and PM applications). If you give the virtual machine enough RAM (and also preferably a fast HD), you may not even notice that you're actually not running a native Win machine. My machine is older than yours and it runs Win 7 flawlessly.

You may find that they keyboard doesn't work 100% either. On my MBP, the brightness keys never seem to "just work".

Bingbonghoho said:

I want to clean install windows 7 after formatting disk. This doesn't sound like a great idea, but I need this for couple of engineering softwares to work. I don't want to spend my nights in computer cluster or at friends pc...

I have heard, I will encounter following issues:
- battery will drain faster
- graphics driver for x64-bit version
- camera
- iPhone backups and syncs (music, video, cal, contacts and apps)
- I would need a external mouse for right click.

I can live with all of the above problems except graphics card drivers. Can anyone provide feedback or useful links they have refered to installing Windows 7??
Thank you in advance, Ciao.

Click to expand...

You need to install the Boot Camp drivers after you install windows, you know that right? The battery does drain faster, but that is mainly due to the fact it's using the 330m instead of the Intel graphics, (but the graphic drivers are even considered better for Windows vs. their Mac counterparts)

I have right mouse click on my trackpad enabled, and everything (camera, keyboard.. the works) runs fine, and has for months for me (and I boot into Windows a lot for my games).

You might want to be clearer with your questions. This: iPhone backups and syncs (music, video, cal, contacts and apps) isn't really phrased well. I don't know what your asking..

I think the OP is talking about turning his macbook into a Win7 box ONLY ?

If thats the case dont do it, theres nothing to gain.


Install osx and use bootcamp to create a partition and install win7 on it.

Follow all the instructions and install bootcamp drivers from osx install dvd.

Everything will work properly and you can set clicking in the bootcamp control panel.

To get the most recent drivers navigate to the nvidia website and install them. They even have a tool to auto detect your video hardware.

If you dont use bootcamp drivers then your eject button and other keyboard actions will not work.


If im wrong on my assumption, Use bootcamp and youll be very happy.

1. Battery will drain faster in windows because you're using powerful engineering software.

2. 64 bit drives work but have been hit or miss for some people. Use windows 7 32 bit edition, all works well, except for the trackpad drivers which apple intentionally cripples.

3. Camera works fine in skype/msn. Of course it's a webcam, so don't expect much.

4. Iphone backups work fine, but you'll need to choose to do it on the windows side or mac side, not both. Photos can be downloaded without syncing.

5. Right clicks works on the trackpad, but anyways you'll need an external mouse to get things done for your software.

Use the 32 bit version, I recommend windows 7 pro which also comes with xp mode.

Bingbonghoho said:

I want to clean install windows 7 after formatting disk. This doesn't sound like a great idea, but I need this for couple of engineering softwares to work. I don't want to spend my nights in computer cluster or at friends pc...

I have heard, I will encounter following issues:
- battery will drain faster
- graphics driver for x64-bit version
- camera
- iPhone backups and syncs (music, video, cal, contacts and apps)
- I would need a external mouse for right click.

I can live with all of the above problems except graphics card drivers. Can anyone provide feedback or useful links they have refered to installing Windows 7??

Thank you in advance, Ciao.

Click to expand...

vistadude said:

Use the 32 bit version, I recommend windows 7 pro which also comes with xp mode.

Click to expand...

There is no reason to use 32-bit Windows 7 on a new machine. 64-bit works beautifully.