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Are bootcamp drivers really needed with Win 7?

M

MaskedCarrot

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 25, 2009
463
269
Northern VA
Hey guys, long time reader here, but haven't really had a need to post much.

I just bought Windows 7 to replace my Vista partition on my '09 iMac. I installed the 32 bit, but changed my mind and going to reinstall the 64 bit tonight.

But when I had the 32 bit version installed, I noticed that Win 7 has almost all the drivers already installed OOTB. I also noticed that when you install the bootcamp drivers, it installed everything on there, even drivers for older MACs which you don't need.

But anyway, I was planning on only installing what I need manually, which really is only a few things. The nVidia chipset and video drivers I will get from nVidia's site, being as they are newer. On the bootcamp DVD, I only really need to manually install a few things such as the keyboard and iSight drivers.

Everything else works just great OOTB for Win7. So I gather there is really no need to install the full Bootcamp DVD?

Also, what driver on the bootcamp DVD do I need to install to be able to see my OSX partition from within Win7? And as far as the Realtek sound drivers, do I need to install the one on the DVD and just update it from the website, or can I just install the one straight from Realtek's site?

Thanks for the help.
 
Fuchal

Fuchal

macrumors 68030
Sep 30, 2003
2,607
1,086
I installed 64-bit Win 7 on my 13" MBP and just installed the driver package from the Snow Leoapard disc and then upgraded the drivers as necessary (like nvidia drivers from nvidia.com). Everything worked great and it had no problem installing on 64-bit Win 7.
 
ayeying

ayeying

macrumors 601
Dec 5, 2007
4,547
13
Yay Area, CA
Boot Camp drivers are more than just GPU, Sound card and the motherboard infs. They also include brightness, isight, bluetooth and many others. It is easier to install boot camp drivers then install updated drivers then doing it manually one by one.
 
M

MaskedCarrot

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 25, 2009
463
269
Northern VA
Well the issue I have with installing everything is that the Bootcamp DVD installs drivers which I don't even need. I don't want to have every driver for every Intel iMac installed on my machine. I only want what I need just for my machine.

How hard would it be for Apple to do a quick system check and only install the drivers needed for that model MAC.
 
CylonGlitch

CylonGlitch

macrumors 68030
Jul 7, 2009
2,956
268
Nashville
MaskedCarrot said:
Well the issue I have with installing everything is that the Bootcamp DVD installs drivers which I don't even need. I don't want to have every driver for every Intel iMac installed on my machine. I only want what I need just for my machine.

How hard would it be for Apple to do a quick system check and only install the drivers needed for that model MAC.
Click to expand...

Yes the drivers are copied over to the system but the drivers are not operating unless you have the hardware installed. This is the way that Windows works, it reads the information from the hardware devices and determines what drivers it needs. Then it loads only the corresponding drivers. Having the drivers on the hard drive doesn't do much to the system. Sure you can clear them out, but since most of the drivers are quite small, you're not going to be saving all that much space.

You do know that Windows keeps many drivers local as well; many more then what are on the bootcamp disk. Again, cleaning them out could save you a few megabytes, but I find it isn't worth the effort.
 
M

MacFanJeff

macrumors regular
Jan 28, 2008
220
3
IL, USA
CylonGlitch said:
Yes the drivers are copied over to the system but the drivers are not operating unless you have the hardware installed. This is the way that Windows works, it reads the information from the hardware devices and determines what drivers it needs. Then it loads only the corresponding drivers. Having the drivers on the hard drive doesn't do much to the system. Sure you can clear them out, but since most of the drivers are quite small, you're not going to be saving all that much space.

You do know that Windows keeps many drivers local as well; many more then what are on the bootcamp disk. Again, cleaning them out could save you a few megabytes, but I find it isn't worth the effort.
Click to expand...

I would agree with those comments. Install ALL Boot Camp drivers then update anything needed in Windows 7. The amount of space is so small no one should worry about it.

Also, I have heard reports that it MAY present a problem downloading new graphics drivers for the video card in your Mac. The reason some are saying is because you must remember that the MOBO and video card in a Mac like a Mac Pro contain specific custom versions that allow it to run on a Mac. The drivers on their web site are NOT certified to run on a Mac and must come from Apple and be supplied by the video card maker if they update them. Otherwise due to the custom firmware and such there could be issues that arise.
 
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