Apple Drops Windows 7 Boot Camp Support in New Mac Pro

I was surprised

Just got my new Mac Pro today,
My mistake, I did not know that boot camp no longer supports Windows 7.
I am not pleased, Windows 8 is a nuisance, in my humble opinion, so I installed Parallel Desktop, to run Windows 7.
The performance is not great.(actually it blows)
The total cost of my new Mac Pro was north of $6k, I think I should be allowed to decide if I will run Windows 7.

JFD1972 said:

Just got my new Mac Pro today,
My mistake, I did not know that boot camp no longer supports Windows 7.
I am not pleased, Windows 8 is a nuisance, in my humble opinion, so I installed Parallel Desktop, to run Windows 7.
The performance is not great.(actually it blows)
The total cost of my new Mac Pro was north of $6k, I think I should be allowed to decide if I will run Windows 7.

Click to expand...

Oooh you beauty!

Will you be doing a review video? You've got something decent to edit it on

PS: Try VMWare - I never had any issues with that and yes - Windows 8 is ghastly.

JFD1972 said:

Just got my new Mac Pro today,
My mistake, I did not know that boot camp no longer supports Windows 7.
I am not pleased, Windows 8 is a nuisance, in my humble opinion, so I installed Parallel Desktop, to run Windows 7.
The performance is not great.(actually it blows)
The total cost of my new Mac Pro was north of $6k, I think I should be allowed to decide if I will run Windows 7.

Click to expand...

I’m actually running Parallels right now, and I’ve got VS2010, Oracle (SE), EMS SQL - chugging right long next to my native OSX apps: Safari, Sublime Text 2, Mail, Messages, tons of terminal windows, Anvil, Postgres.

It runs good on my machine, and I’m running what I’d assume is a machine that’s a good bit slower than your nMP (MBP i7 2.3, 16GB RAM, 7.2K HDD, 6750 GPU).

What’s MS apps were you running?

The software I am running is a proprietary lighting design software, it is made for the corporation that I work for.
It doesn't run that bad, in this particular instance I am the big baby that drop his lollipop in the sewer,
The software runs so flawlessly on my Macbook pro using bootcamp, that I would have loved to have seen it really kickass on the new machine that I bought and probably will never take full advantage of.....

Well what's so bad at Win8.1? Works real fine.

Win 8 is Vista part 2 ....

Will I put Windows 8.1 on my new Mac Pro in boot camp? Yeah... looks like it. But I won't like it. It does run everything that runs under Win 7, so it will give you the performance you don't get with a virtual environment like VMWare or Parallels. I just strongly dislike the design, with the Metro UI and the traditional UI it flips between. When you're not actually on a touch-screen computer, the "charm bar" and other slide out windows are just annoying. And all of the custom settings have been moved around so I once again have to remember where Microsoft put them.

I read about the first beta of Windows 9 though, and that sounds more promising. Apparently, with it, Microsoft is fusing the Metro apps or "widgets" so they run seamlessly on the traditional desktop. That's really all they needed to do with 8 to get most of us to accept it, IMO ... but they're too stubborn to admit they were wrong and change the way it works until the next full release.

kingtj said:

I read about the first beta of Windows 9 though, and that sounds more promising. Apparently, with it, Microsoft is fusing the Metro apps or "widgets" so they run seamlessly on the traditional desktop. That's really all they needed to do with 8 to get most of us to accept it, IMO ... but they're too stubborn to admit they were wrong and change the way it works until the next full release.

Click to expand...

Nope, they're changing all that in a future 8.1 release. They've already demoed the new Start menu, which will make Win8 almost functionally identical to 7. The ability to run Metro apps windowed might come in alongside it when it gets released.


...notice the applause when they show it off. I still can't believe people are that hardcore about it.

As for Windows 9, no one knows what it'll be yet. Right now though, Win8 seems to be the rolling beta for it. The screw around with it until everyone's happy release.

Renzatic said:

Nope, they're changing all that in a future 8.1 release. They've already demoed the new Start menu, which will make Win8 almost functionally identical to 7. The ability to run Metro apps windowed might come in alongside it when it gets released.

YouTube: video

...notice the applause when they show it off. I still can't believe people are that hardcore about it.

As for Windows 9, no one knows what it'll be yet. Right now though, Win8 seems to be the rolling beta for it. The screw around with it until everyone's happy release.

Click to expand...

THAT is one sexy UI.

it brings back un-interrupted desktop interaction while still maintaining some level of "tiles".

See, Microsoft isn't afraid to admit "oops". Instead of telling clients "you're doing it wrong"

LordVic said:

See, Microsoft isn't afraid to admit "oops". Instead of telling clients "you're doing it wrong"

Click to expand...

Sure, but what's obviously wrong is denying many Windows 8 users (I refuse to use the term "buyer" when it comes to Windows since only rarely do users actually make the conscious choice to buy Windows. They just pay a license for it when buying most non-Mac computers) this upgrade just because they don't have the "right" version of Win8.

LordVic said:

THAT is one sexy UI.

Click to expand...

It's getting there.

The one thing I'm hoping for the most is that Win9 simplifies some of the things that have been needing simplified for years now (like the control panel), make it at least as battery efficient as OSX, and make the install footprint considerably smaller. Since they're still going down the One OS For All Devices route, just with a different UI for each platform type, these are the things MS needs to address to make it really click.

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Cubytus said:

Sure, but what's obviously wrong is denying many Windows 8 users this upgrade just because they don't have the "right" version of Win8.

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Wuh? Anyone who has Windows 8 gets access to all these point updates free of charge. The only thing MS has blocked is that some people with older CPUs that don't support certain features on the chip can't upgrade to 8.1.

Cubytus said:

Sure, but what's obviously wrong is denying many Windows 8 users (I refuse to use the term "buyer" when it comes to Windows since only rarely do users actually make the conscious choice to buy Windows. They just pay a license for it when buying most non-Mac computers) this upgrade just because they don't have the "right" version of Win8.

Click to expand...

can you clarify what you're saying? Because this all makes no sense at all.

Renzatic said:

Nope, they're changing all that in a future 8.1 release. They've already demoed the new Start menu, which will make Win8 almost functionally identical to 7. The ability to run Metro apps windowed might come in alongside it when it gets released.

YouTube: video

...notice the applause when they show it off. I still can't believe people are that hardcore about it.

As for Windows 9, no one knows what it'll be yet. Right now though, Win8 seems to be the rolling beta for it. The screw around with it until everyone's happy release.

Click to expand...

Nice share, that is very cool... However windows 8.1 is already out and all they did was add a start button that presses the windows key on your keyboard for you. So is this 9?

As for win7 support, are people forgetting that win7 doesn't even have usb3 drivers? It doesn't have support for TB chips, or anything else for that matter. Win8, however has great support for it all--although I still don't understand why, even with drivers, you have to reboot to see or disconnect TB devices.

I think apple doesn't want to invest hundreds of thousands on developers trying to write custom drivers for an os that was replaced (still used, but that's microsoft's problem, not apple).

That's like people being pissed that the new Mac Pro doesn't support windows xp. Outside business machines, show me one consumer machine that allows you to even run win 7 without insane driver hacks? Granted that Mac Pro isn't for consumers , but then I will make the new argument, outside of gaming why would you need windows os? Custom equipment? Then why would you buy the most expensive mac possible to run custom-windows only equipment.

EDIT: looks like it's just an 8.1 updated. Can't wait!! Fix the horrible DPI support and we are gold!

aloshka said:

Nice share, that is very cool... However windows 8.1 is already out and all they did was add a start button that presses the windows key on your keyboard for you. So is this 9?

As for win7 support, are people forgetting that win7 doesn't even have usb3 drivers? It doesn't have support for TB chips, or anything else for that matter. Win8, however has great support for it all--although I still don't understand why, even with drivers, you have to reboot to see or disconnect TB devices.

I think apple doesn't want to invest hundreds of thousands on developers trying to write custom drivers for an os that was replaced (still used, but that's microsoft's problem, not apple).

That's like people being pissed that the new Mac Pro doesn't support windows xp. Outside business machines, show me one consumer machine that allows you to even run win 7 without insane driver hacks? Granted that Mac Pro isn't for consumers , but then I will make the new argument, outside of gaming why would you need windows os? Custom equipment? Then why would you buy the most expensive mac possible to run custom-windows only equipment.

Click to expand...

just install the drivers yourself and instant support

alent1234 said:

just install the drivers yourself and instant support

Click to expand...

There are no drivers for the new 20gbs TB chips for windows 7?

Don't get me wrong. The Youtube video above makes me excited about win 8. There is A LOT to like about Windows 8 internally, support-wise, IT-wise, etc. However, the worst UI design is my problem. I have dual 30" screens and because of metro (there are some useful apps), there was no easy annoying way of getting it all to work. So my solution? I got a mac. The third party apps are buggy and I do not like them that try to fix the metro "problem".

But with this new update, I might look into going back to windows again, assuming they will also fix the crazy bugginess they call DPI scaling. 4k monitors are starting to pop everywhere and are very useful (I use them more like CRT monitors where you can choose a resolution based on what you need). In OSX the scaling is barely noticeable and things look sharp. In windows, you either get buttons you can't press because software wasn't DPI aware, or you get tiny text when you use MS apps like Remote Desktop that make it unusable.

Since the new MacBook Pro Retinas that came out a couple months ago still support Windows 7 Bootcamp. I believe it must of been something specifically with the hardware that made Apple decided to remove Windows 7 support.

This is very optimistic to me, because as a music producer, a lot of software and plugins I use are no longer be supported on Windows 8 anymore and Windows 7 is my ideal Windows OS and it runs perfectly on my MacBook.

Hopefully Apple keeps Windows 7 available for all the future releases of MacBooks and iMacs.

But it's kind of a bummer for those who have Mac Pros and are forced to use version 8.

They should drop support for windows 8 and not 7

nyy8 said:

i don't think microsoft understands how microsoft works. They make one good os every 5 or 6 years.

2000: Windows 2000 (good)
2000: Windows me
2001: Windows xp (mainstream)
2007: Windows vista (you know you love it)
2009: Windows 7 (mainstream)
2012: Windows 8

let's see use windows 8 or don't use windows at all... Is this some type of plan to make us only use os x?

Little side note, i had the choice between windows 7 or 8 for my mac over the summer. I chose 7.

Wait, just looked. Microsoft is expanding windows 7 support till 2020, why is apple so "out with the old"?

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fify...

WinClone

Question, I am using WinClone to back up my Boot camp .. If and when I would need a NEW mac and they say they wont support Win 7 anymore on ALL new macs .. if I were to restore my Winclone Back up Boot camp would that work on a NEW mac? Or the drivers wont work on the new hardware in the new macs? Thanks...

harleymhs said:

Or the drivers wont work on the new hardware in the new macs? Thanks...

Click to expand...

This

MagicBoy said:

This

Click to expand...

This? What

harleymhs said:

Question, I am using WinClone to back up my Boot camp .. If and when I would need a NEW mac and they say they wont support Win 7 anymore on ALL new macs .. if I were to restore my Winclone Back up Boot camp would that work on a NEW mac? Or the drivers wont work on the new hardware in the new macs? Thanks...

Click to expand...

Drivers will not work, so imagine it like you didn't install bootcamp drivers. It's pretty bad and the install checks that it's not win8 before you can run it.

You can manually force some of the drivers, but not all. With some INF hacking, I'm sure you can get it to work (somewhat), but probably worth just upgrading to 8 and use start8 if you miss the start menu.

Or wait until windows 10. I've been using the preview it's very nice and definitely going to be an easy upgrade from 7 to 10. Remember, a lot of features rock on windows 8 so windows 10 will be a good mix.

harleymhs said:

This? What

Click to expand...

You asked a multi choice question, answer in your quote.

MagicBoy said:

You asked a multi choice question, answer in your quote.

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Sorry.. My main question was if I got a NEW imac Retina in the future, and I restored a copy of my Boot Camp with Winclone, would it all work on the NEW imac, I think the question is NO being all the hardware in the NEW imac is different than the 2012 Imac that winclone made the copy of? and the drivers on my cloned bootcamp will not work on the NEW imac? Correct?

Correct.

It would likely blue-screen when the disk controller is different. Best to backup the Data and restore to a freshly installed copy of Windows.

MagicBoy said:

Correct.

It would likely blue-screen when the disk controller is different. Best to backup the Data and restore to a freshly installed copy of Windows.

Click to expand...

Thats what I thought.. Thanks!!! for your replies.. Damm u Apple... Should of stopped support for Win 8 ..