How well does Windows XP work on a MacBook Pro?

[Max on Macs]

Hi guys,

I am seriously considering putting Windows XP in Boot Camp on my MacBook Pro. There are four things I want to be able to do

1) Play games, especially at LAN parties with my mates who all use Windows
2) Use Windows Live Messenger 8 so I can get webcam and other important features that Messenger:mac lacks
3) Get proper working support for Windows Server 2003 AD so I can make full use of my school's network
4) Use my MacBook Pro with a Windows-only USB video device

How well does Windows XP run on a MacBook Pro in real world situations? Does it run as well as it would do on, say, the Sony Vaio machines with equivalent specification? Also if I upgrade my MacBook Pro in the future can I de-activate and re-activate my copy of Windows? I am asking as I don't want to fork out all the money for XP if it isn't going to run well.

Thanks

 

[yellow]

Well, it's a PC, so it runs as well as any comparable (non-apple) PC.
One little buggy thing, the screen saver/auto-monitor power-off doesn't work on the MBPs.

As for #1, it runs BF2, CoD2, Civ4, Battle for MiddleEarth2, and AoE3 pretty freaking well.
As for #2, it's a Windows box, there's no reason this wouldn't work.
As for #3, it's a Windows box, so it works fine bound to an AD domain.
As for #4, it's a Windows box, there's no reason this wouldn't work.

Just get over the fact that it's a Mac. Using BootCamp, it's a FULL Windows install on a x86 architecture.
It just happens to have an Apple on it.

 

[Max on Macs]

Can you make two finger click work under Windows?

 

[FragTek]

Windows XP runs VERY well. In face it runs better in many cases that it does on true PC laptops as far as speed and stability go. I have been enjoying many many hours of glitch free gaming on my MBP since I've picked it up.

It reall does game extremely well for such a small slender laptop, amazing! One grip I have about the current set of drivers is with the audio, I wish there were some way to kill the onboard speakers when my optical cable is plugged in. Other than that I can't complain, it's awesome!!!

Can you make two finger click work under Windows?

No, unfortunately not. I use a mouse whenever I'm in windows however because I strictly use it for gaming and gaming only.

 

[yellow]

Can you make two finger click work under Windows?

No idea. I doubt it.
I've not used it in OS X either (I hate trackpads unless forced), so I always have a handy multi-button mouse around.

 

[Max on Macs]

Ok so I'm going to buy Windows tomorrow. But I wanted to get it on tonight, so I used my dad's CD and just didn't activate it - will do that when I get the new key tomorrow. Ok major problem is that it doesn't give me the option to boot from MacOS X it just boots from Windows XP as soon as the machine comes on, what have I done wrong? Ite's definitely on the correct partition since it says it's on a 20GB drive and the other partition is 74GB.

Thanks

 

[jaxstate]

You can go into the system pref. and change the start up disk to the OSX partition.

Ok so I'm going to buy Windows tomorrow. But I wanted to get it on tonight, so I used my dad's CD and just didn't activate it - will do that when I get the new key tomorrow. Ok major problem is that it doesn't give me the option to boot from MacOS X it just boots from Windows XP as soon as the machine comes on, what have I done wrong? Ite's definitely on the correct partition since it says it's on a 20GB drive and the other partition is 74GB.

Thanks

FYI i got up to 104 fps in F.E.A.R using the "detect the best setting" option.

 

[Max on Macs]

104 fps is pretty amazing, and I like F.E.A.R

Shame you can't have an option to choose which OS you want when you switch the machine on. I for one will use OS X most of the time but if I go to my mate's house I don't want to have to boot up, change the startup disk, and reboot...

 

[Nuc]

There is a key that you can hold down while your booting up so you can choose which OS you want. Can't remember which key but someone else will chime in...

Nuc

Edit: hold down the Option (Alt Key)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303572
See the first paragraph

 

[FullmetalZ26]

Shame you can't have an option to choose which OS you want when you switch the machine on. I for one will use OS X most of the time but if I go to my mate's house I don't want to have to boot up, change the startup disk, and reboot...

You can not only use the option key at startup (as Nuc mentioned) but if you wish to have it default to one or the other on every startup, you can do so with Startup Disk in System Prefs (on the Mac side) or the Startup Disk control panel that the Boot Camp driver disk adds in Windows XP.

So far as I've heard up to now, the iSight doesn't work yet in XP. I imagine this will be remedied by the time Boot Camp is finalized.

 

[umairjaanu]

Microsoft MSN Messenger works great, but if you install Windows XP on MBP, there is no iSight camera driver for Windows Yet. So you will not be able to use your camera for video chat. You might need to hookup an external camera. But everything else you are conserned about, they work great.

 

[whooleytoo]

One glitch I have - all .wmv video files play with distorted colour palettes.

There's an app you can use called applemouse.exe which will let you use the Ctrl key with click as a right click. (Of course, if you actually need to Ctrl-click a file in Windows, you'll need to exit the applemouse process to do so).

 

[livecn]

One glitch I have - all .wmv video files play with distorted colour palettes.

There's an app you can use called applemouse.exe which will let you use the Ctrl key with click as a right click. (Of course, if you actually need to Ctrl-click a file in Windows, you'll need to exit the applemouse process to do so).

For correct right-click behavior, I strongly suggest iMouse, which enables you to do right-click by pressing CapsLock+Click (instead of Ctrl+Click). And you will find it much better than Ctrl+Click.

http://livecn.huasing.org/imouse/

 

[Littleodie914]

One thing I've been wondering about is the battery life when running in Windows as opposed to Mac OS X. I just got my Macbook Pro and am running both OS's, via bootcamp. In Tiger, I can get 3:15 with the backlight all the way on, and 4 with the backlight halfway. Note this is with the airport on, browsing websites. When I boot into Windows, with only Internet Explorer open, I usually get about 1:50. This seems a bit low, just to be switching operating systems. Is there any reason the battery life would be dropping so much, or any ways to improve it besides the usual display sleep timer, etc.?

Why does it last so much longer in Mac OS X?

 

[ReanimationLP]

One thing I've been wondering about is the battery life when running in Windows as opposed to Mac OS X. I just got my Macbook Pro and am running both OS's, via bootcamp. In Tiger, I can get 3:15 with the backlight all the way on, and 4 with the backlight halfway. Note this is with the airport on, browsing websites. When I boot into Windows, with only Internet Explorer open, I usually get about 1:50. This seems a bit low, just to be switching operating systems. Is there any reason the battery life would be dropping so much, or any ways to improve it besides the usual display sleep timer, etc.?

Why does it last so much longer in Mac OS X?

Because of two things, one, the MBP is EFI. Second, Windows XP's power management sucks.

 

[bigandyd2007]

Boot Options

There is a key that you can hold down while your booting up so you can choose which OS you want. Can't remember which key but someone else will chime in...

Nuc

Edit: hold down the Option (Alt Key)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303572
See the first paragraph

I have tried pressing the Option (Alt Key) on startup but do not see the option of boot devices as mentioned in the above document or in the Bootcamp instructions. (Yes I actually read them). I can use the boot selector in XP & OS. Is there something missing? Running a MacBooK 13" 512MB Ram 2GHz processor. Can't find any mention of updated firmware for this model only the PowerBook Pro.

Thanks
Andy

 

[Natsus]

I have tried pressing the Option (Alt Key) on startup but do not see the option of boot devices as mentioned in the above document or in the Bootcamp instructions. (Yes I actually read them). I can use the boot selector in XP & OS. Is there something missing? Running a MacBooK 13" 512MB Ram 2GHz processor. Can't find any mention of updated firmware for this model only the PowerBook Pro.

Thanks
Andy

are you just pressing the option (alt) key? or are you actually holding it down? You need to hold down the key until you see the option for dual booting.

 

[iCeQuBe]

I have tried pressing the Option (Alt Key) on startup but do not see the option of boot devices as mentioned in the above document or in the Bootcamp instructions. (Yes I actually read them). I can use the boot selector in XP & OS. Is there something missing? Running a MacBooK 13" 512MB Ram 2GHz processor. Can't find any mention of updated firmware for this model only the PowerBook Pro.

Thanks
Andy

I have heard a couple people complain about not getting a boot screen when pressing option. I am not sure if people are just not holding down the option key (long enough) or if there is something else going on. Try holding it down from the second you hear the startup chime and then let us know if that works.

 

[bigandyd2007]

I have heard a couple people complain about not getting a boot screen when pressing option. I am not sure if people are just not holding down the option key (long enough) or if there is something else going on. Try holding it down from the second you hear the startup chime and then let us know if that works.

It worked thank you

 

[yellow]

I've found that (lately) holding down option isn't working because I'm hitting (and holding) it too early. If you find this is the case, simply let the key go and immediately re-press it. The boot selection screen will then come up just fine.

 

[supremedesigner]

I noticed Max on Macs got banned. What happened?

 

[yellow]

I noticed Max on Macs got banned. What happened?

That's between him/her and the mods.

 

[jaxstate]

I just noticed that. I also wonder what happened.

I noticed Max on Macs got banned. What happened?

 

[supremedesigner]

I just noticed that. I also wonder what happened.

Check out his website: http://web.mac.com/mtappenden/iWeb/My Site/about me.html and he said his favorite website is macrumors.com. How obiviously!

 

[bneff]

Lag.....

I ONLY use windows for gaming, well just Everquest actually. I have a macbook 2.0 and 1 gig of ram. When i first played (wirelessly) it ran flawlessly, however, now it lags like crazy. Sometimes it won't even let me log on. I don't understand, i use cable and i lag even hard wired now. My internet isn't the problem since it happens at my friends too. any suggestions will be appreciated...