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Tried any other versions of Windows?

millypede

millypede

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 18, 2004
265
43
UK
Has any one tried Win2k or Windows Media Centre yet?

Im curious to see how far we can get with it, as I hate WinXP with vengeance.
 
Are you talking about windows 2k and media center using boot camp?

If you do get it installed, which I doubt you can because the program will stop you, the drivers will all be for windows XP, so nothing would work.

Ideally you would be able to switch between operating systems like fast user switching, That would be ideal for technial support!
 
Apple's site states this will only work with XP Home or Pro w/ SP2. Don't let that stop you from trying, but I highly doubt you'll have any success. :cool:
 
Well I will have a go just curious to see if any one else is having a go.
 
~Shard~ said:
Apple's site states this will only work with XP Home or Pro w/ SP2. Don't let that stop you from trying, but I highly doubt you'll have any success. :cool:
Click to expand...

Windows Media Centre isn't all that different from Pro, so it should work.
 
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303572

"Why can't an upgrade version of Windows XP or a full version of Windows XP that does not include Service Pack 2 (SP2) be used for installation?

You would be required to insert your original Windows CD during installation, however there is no way to eject the first disc until after Windows installation is complete and the drivers from the Macintosh Driver CD created by Boot Camp Assistant Beta are installed. Important: Boot Camp Beta is designed to support only Windows XP Home Edition and Professional with SP2. The required Macintosh-specific drivers provided by Apple are only intended for these releases."
 
cwedl said:
Are you talking about windows 2k and media center using boot camp?

If you do get it installed, which I doubt you can because the program will stop you, the drivers will all be for windows XP, so nothing would work.
Click to expand...
MCE is just XP with some media centre bits thrown on top (with the CD install, if you use just the 1st disk, you get standard XP)
 
greatdevourer said:
MCE is just XP with some media centre bits thrown on top (with the CD install, if you use just the 1st disk, you get standard XP)
Click to expand...

With the first disk, you get Windows XP Pro.
 
Win2k

Windows 2000 can use 95% of all Windows XP drivers (or more) since they us the WDM (Windows Driver Model). There is a fairly good chance Win2000 would work with BootCamp if XP will. Anyone tried it?
 
AnthonyKinyon said:
Windows 2000 can use 95% of all Windows XP drivers (or more) since they us the WDM (Windows Driver Model). There is a fairly good chance Win2000 would work with BootCamp if XP will. Anyone tried it?
Click to expand...

Well as I dont have a Intel machine at home, im going to play with it in the morning and see what happens, If I managed to trash a iMac 20", I have another 6 in the showroom:p
 
I have windows XP pro but with out the SP2! I bought it when they first released xp.
what can I do? do I have to buy a new copy or can I some how boot it and then install sp2.

thanks in advance
 
Airforce said:
XP/XP pro/Media center all use the same drivers.
Click to expand...

Wrong. Windows XP Media Center Edition uses a different graphics driver, one approved by Microsoft for use specifically with MCE. Otherwise, the drivers are the same. I would assume it has something to do with "enhancements" when using S-Video out on your graphics card that Microsoft claims they made.

ATI used to force you to download MCE-specific drivers, however with the last few Catalyst releases they included the MCE-specific drivers in with the rest. I'm not sure what NVidia does.

If you use the plain XP driver, the Media Center application will prompt you that you are running incompatible drivers or simply freeze.
 
joshuawaire said:
Wrong. Windows XP Media Center Edition uses a different graphics driver, one approved by Microsoft for use specifically with MCE. Otherwise, the drivers are the same. I would assume it has something to do with "enhancements" when using S-Video out on your graphics card that Microsoft claims they made.

ATI used to force you to download MCE-specific drivers, however with the last few Catalyst releases they included the MCE-specific drivers in with the rest. I'm not sure what NVidia does.

If you use the plain XP driver, the Media Center application will prompt you that you are running incompatible drivers or simply freeze.
Click to expand...

Nvidia must include the driver in the same package as they do the regular XP drivers, because I'm using the same one from my last install.
 
I can confirm that Windows XP with Service Pack 1a installed successfully on my iMac.

Update: However, Service Pack 2 refuses to install (from CD or .exe file) because there is not enough free space, or so it says. Turns out, you must have a required amount of free space on your first partition (which is the partition created by Boot Camp). It looks like I'm going to have to slipstream my SP1a CD.
 
By the way, the reason you can't install using Windows installation discs that have multiple installs (corporate, 5-1, etc) is because there is no USB keyboard support until the Windows setup is intiated. Therefore, you can't select a menu option on boot.
 
I think I figured out a way to get an Upgrade CD to work.

Take your upgrade CD, copy it to your hard disk, take a old copy of Windows CD (95,98,ME,2K) and copy it to your hard disk as well. Make a bootable DVD containing the Windows XP data, and in that DVD create a folder called "WINDOWS-OLD" that contains a copy of the old Windows data. This way when the installer starts looking for a previous installation of Windows, it should find it on the DVD, no need to switch discs.

http://www.helpwithwindows.com/WindowsXP/winxp-sp2-bootcd.html <-- Good overview on extracting a Windows XP CD, and the Boot Image.

Alternatively, you could have Boot Camp partition the drive, format it somehow, make a folder called "WINDOWS-OLD", copy the old Windows CD over to that, then start the Windows XP install CD.

I don't have the hardware to try this, but the concept seems sound. (I've done it before on normal PC based systems.)

-timb
 
timb said:
I think I figured out a way to get an Upgrade CD to work.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I posted something similar in another thread.

I used to have a Custom 98SE install CD on which I had copied the MS Office CABS to so I could install both from one disc. Get rid of all the extras and it fit just fine.

I was thinking that all you should need on the CD is the i386 folder from the XP Upgrade CD and the WIN9x folder from the 9x install CD.

There was also an old trick from the Win 9x days where you needed to create a few empty files on the partition you wanted to "upgrade" to and it would be atisfied that you had a valid version of Windows installed. I was thinking of taking that a step further and actually copying over a WINNT folder from a working system before attempting the install.

However, if 2K will install (without drivers) that should do the trick too.

EDIT: Another good link for info on creating custom XP install discs. http://www.nu2.nu/bootcd/wxp/

B
 
lad1509 said:
thank you, but i dont have a PC, how am i going to extract SP2 on a MAC?
thank you agian
Click to expand...

I have the same issue here. I don't have a PC either and I haven't seen instructions on how to slipstream SP2 using a Mac. I have an original (circa 2001) full version of Windows XP Professional on CD and have already downloaded the full XP SP2 update from Microsoft.

I'm going to try burning a DVD using Toast with the copied contents from my XP Pro CD and with the full SP2 update on there in a separate folder as well. I guess I'll just see if that works...
 
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