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Apple Stops Supporting Windows 7 in Boot Camp on New MacBook Pro, MacBook Air Models

JCrz said:
I don't think anyone uses Bootcamp with a legal copy of Windows. #Bootcampgate
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Reality check: there actually are people who don't like to steal software.

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opeter said:
Actually Windows 10 is free for all.
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Not entirely true

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old-wiz said:
Hmm... When I last looked, one of the computerized medical technology machines was still running Windows 95. Sheesh..
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Are you serious? 95 ? :eek:
Windows 95 basically is MSDOS with a GUI

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RockSpider said:
It's something computer users use.
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I definitely am a computer user, and I don't use it.

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RockSpider said:
No, the software 90% of the world still uses to make the world go round.
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Did you say to make the world go ground ? :D
 
macintologist said:
What's so bad about Windows 8? At least it actually support retina.
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Lack of any sense of direction. If Modern apps are so good, why aren't Notepad, Paint, Office, Windows Live Essentials, etc Modern apps? Why are you forced to use full screen? Why aren't PC Settings and Control Panel one app?

All of that looks set to change with Windows 10 though :)
 
Upgrading

A Question.

So, if you have Win 7 Disks & product Keys, and you upgrade to 10 this year, but then buy a new Mac to replace your old one & wish to install Win 10 on the new machine in Bootcamp, how do you do the free upgrade, seeing as how you cannot first install Win 7 on the new machine? At the moment, far as I see, the only way would be to get Win 8.

Any thoughts on this?
 
JCrz said:
I don't think anyone uses Bootcamp with a legal copy of Windows. #Bootcampgate
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Maybe just the people you know?

I used to think I would never buy a retail OS since they come free with a new PC (simpleton view I know) but it's thanks to boot camp that I bougt both copies of windows XP, windows 7 and windows 8!
 
bushman4 said:
Updating to Windows 10 probably going to be a headache
whats Apples logic in forcing people to use Windows 8. 8.1 or 10
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That they don't need to write drivers for 4 operating systems that aren't even their own?
 
brianvictor7 said:
Honestly, it was a battle to install Win 7 every time. Will never bother with Bootcamp again if I can help it.
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I agree with that. And I'm even starting to change my opinion on this whole thing. I've been arguing for years that buying a Mac meant that I could enjoy a PC for games at the same time, hence the acceptable price premium.

But with the latest outrageous price increase in Europe (more than € 200 across the line), I think next time I buy hardware, I'll go for:
1. a brand new PC for games,
2. an old refurbished Mac for browsing, mail and personal stuff,
3. for the rest, I'll try to get used to the Windows world, hoping Win 10 will be OK.

After more than 3 decades using exclusively Macs, I'm fed up seeing the Cook team steadily increasing prices and reducing flexibility, only for the purpose of piling up huge amounts of cash.
 
Confused

(Sorry for not having read the entire thread for lack of time)

I'm confused now: Imagine the following set-up: late 2012 MPB (with optical drive) on Mountain Lion, with Win 7 in Boot Camp.

What will happen after the upgrade to Yosemite? Will this machine lose the ability to run Win 7 in Boot Camp? Or is this new loss of feature (which Apple is pushing through annoyingly often these days) tied to the actual, physical "birthday" of the hardware only, and therefore I dont need to worry?

BTW: I think the timing of Apple for this issue is very disrespectful. They could've waited one more year so that customer have the time to upgrade from Win 7 to 10 first.
 
macpeach55 said:
A Question.

So, if you have Win 7 Disks & product Keys, and you upgrade to 10 this year, but then buy a new Mac to replace your old one & wish to install Win 10 on the new machine in Bootcamp, how do you do the free upgrade, seeing as how you cannot first install Win 7 on the new machine? At the moment, far as I see, the only way would be to get Win 8.

Any thoughts on this?
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You should be able to download an ISO for Windows 10 and burn it to disk. So when you get your new Mac you should have the new Win 10 disk and key and install that way, that's the way I understand it.
 
greytmom said:
I'm running a legal copy of Windows 7 on my MBP, with Parallels. It's running like crap though. I used to run it in Boot Camp on my older Mac, and it worked much better. Really wishing that the few things I do in Windows would be supported on Mac so I can ditch it altogether. Mainly my Access databases... anyone know of any Mac alternatives?
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It would depend what you're doing with them. For free databases, SQL-based solutions seem to dominate. If your accesses are simple and you're a programmer, SQLite would probably do the trick, but there are quite a few
Mac-based SQL clients (I can't recommend anything specific, since I never use databases myself!). I expect the main issues would be converting any complex reports or queries.

Most database solutions don't actually need a database in fact (they're mostly key-value associations on relatively small sets of data, and even laptops have more than enough memory to process them). You might even find that sorted CSV was enough for your purposes (but make sure you have good backup/recovery procedures)!
 
Stupid

Why does Apple insist on doing great things followed up with stupid things.
While Im on-baord with moving forward, they simply ignore the fact that a lot of people using Macs with Windows are doing so because they NEED to use Windows.
I used to run the entire Mac department for a very large company. We were pushing hard to start making Mac a viable option for our users, filling in the holes that Mac couldn't fill with Windows in BootCamp.
Well, needless to say, most companies are using Windows 7 because they HAVE TO use Windows 7 not because they are too lazy to move to Windows 8(.1).

Hell, my current company is forced to use Internet Explorer 10 because the main software suite we use requires that version and using newer (or Chrome or Firefox) breaks everything.

Stop being so focused on home users and think different, Apple.
 
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Never going to happen. Apple just left enterprise Mac users out in the cold 4 years ago. Ever since Lion it's been a disaster.

We're replacing our old Macs (still running 10.6) with Windows PCs as and when. We're using IE9 for similar reasons.
 
This is lousy. There is no reason to drop Windows 7 support. Microsoft still support it therefore so should Apple. 0/10.

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dannys1 said:
That they don't need to write drivers for 4 operating systems that aren't even their own?
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True. They can't even write decent GPU drivers for OS X so I guess supporting Windows correctly must be a real challenge for them.
 
roadbloc said:
This is lousy. There is no reason to drop Windows 7 support. Microsoft still support it therefore so should Apple. 0/10.
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Two things :
1) Windows 7 is no longer available for general sale
2) Windows 7 SP1 is now in extended support. Mainstream support finished in January.
 
MagicBoy said:
Two things :
1) Windows 7 is no longer available for general sale
2) Windows 7 SP1 is now in extended support. Mainstream support finished in January.
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Doesn't matter. None of that means Windows 7 is out of support and that people no longer use it. As always, Apple are prematurely ditching software support, just as they have always done.
 
SO - I just purchased a 2015 13" rMBP, and I own a legit Windows 7 disk.

Is there ANY way I can use bootcamp and upgrade to Windows 10 for free when it's available, or am I just going to have to buy it outright?
 
You can still install windows 7 but to run bootcamp drivers have to run a script hack to get the exe to install the drivers.

Otherwise you can use older versions of bootcamp but it will look terrible on retina.

Win 8.1 is better anyway on retina support
 
macintologist said:
What's so bad about Windows 8? At least it actually support retina.
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The user interface.
The underlying operating system is reputed to be pretty solid.

Basically, imagine Apple removed the regular desktop and Apps folder from OS X, and forced everybody to use Launchpad and Dashboard instead, then supplied the standard Apps in two versions - a dumbed-down version modelled on iOS and the "real" OS X version - and then made the iOS version the default for all sorts of situations.

Now, instead of us computer-literate Mac users (we all got Macs because we like Unix, right?) imagine this was imposed on corporate PC users who expect to be sent on a week-long training course if the wallpaper changes...

(P.S. does anybody actually use Launchpad or Dashboard?)
 
That's a reasonable analogy. I've had 8.1 forced on me at work (they've got me developing the corporate image for it, anyway that's a whole other discussion!). There's some very solid improvements under the awful UI.

I use Dashboard - I like the weather widget, plus it's Tiger old skool.

Launchpad - Nope. One of those pesky Forstall-isms from the awful Lion. I'll Cmd+Shift+A from Finder or run Spotlight before I even remember it exists.

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roadbloc said:
Doesn't matter. None of that means Windows 7 is out of support and that people no longer use it. As always, Apple are prematurely ditching software support, just as they have always done.
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I was stating facts. That I partially agree with you has no bearing on that.
 
I didn't like that the post took the tone about 7 being six years old, implying it was out of date or something. First off, you're not smart to adopt a new OS the year it comes out if you can avoid it. There are always issues and bugs which need to be ironed out, better to wait and let other people be the guinea pigs if you don't have to. So, most people have only had 7 for far shorter than this six year year span. Secondly, Windows 8 is pretty much universally acknowledged to suck. If given a choice, I would--to this day--buy Win 7 over any version of 8 (and yes I am forced to use 8 at work, I know both that it's not as bad as some make out, but that it still sucks nonetheless). All of which is to say, there has never been a good case to move to Windows 8, and Apple is just making a boneheaded move here.
 
scottsjack said:
For sure. I have an HP ProDesk with a Haswell 3.2GHz i5 quad and 16GB of RAM at work running W7 Pro (all that for the cost of a standard mini).

W7 works great. I do billing, online technical bulletin searches, and email with about twelve windows open at once. As much as I like Mac OS if I had to do the same work on a Mac I would go crazy. The BS rubber-banding, lack of snap and inability to close an app with a single click to the red box would be a deal breaker.

Also W7 is good for another five years. Our software venders would not even waste the time to write for Apple's three-year software and yearly OS Fashion Show. If you want real business work done use Windows.
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Bold: Hahahaaaha, can't stop laughing, you never heard of a *keyboard shortcut : Command-Q, much easier and faster than moving the mouse pointer to the red box.
Also, there are some (Apple) Apps which close if you close the window.

*keyboard shortcuts , you should really learn keyboard shortcuts, makes life much easier.

OS X: Keyboard shortcuts


Or, install keycue, a nifty little app to show you the shortcuts, not free though.
 
Windows.. the OLD and History..

In my world OLD is GOLD. I used to love the latest, but now I stick with what works more efficiently.

I moved from Win 95 to 2000 when I needed access to more RAM.

Win 2000 was freaking rock solid and I did not want to move to XP and its BLUE BRIGHT, eye hurting colors.

But, I did to get in built WiFi support on my laptop (which Win 2k did not have).
And of course, I made it look like Windows Classic theme.

Did not move from XP SP3 x 32 even after Win 7 came out until I had to for more RAM.

So I went to Win 7 x 64 and applied classic theme on it and install classic shell on it.

I dont need Win 8/10 for the RAM but it seems like the only path to being able to run on NEWER laptops.

I am now hesitating going there, but even if/ when I do, I will be making it look CLASSIC.

Good ole' clean Win 95/ NT/ 2000 look alike. PS: Did I mention Win NT 5 Sp6 was so freaking rock solid stable and fast.

Why will I move to to the NEW:

No matter how far back I go, I have always loved High Resolution screens.. They give more Real Estate for working.

Those who buy 1920 x 1080 13" machines and then cry about things being too small..
... should not buy the high res machines..
... should learn how to scale the DPI etc.

Windows and RETINA:

Its the equivalent of printing using a Dot Matrix > Inkjet > Laserjet.

When Apple makes something, they have to think about only supporting LIMITED types of hardware. So, when iOS has a new app or new OS, the fragmentation of devices is not as huge as that for Android.

So they can/ could easily control scaling up & down..

All older Windows Apps were written using x,y co ordinates from Win 32 API. (Scalar) Newer apps will be more VECTOR / dynamic based..
How & when?

So, once Retina & High Res / 4K/ UHD screens start becoming standard on all laptops/ desktops etc.. and as these problems become more RAMPANT for all 3rd party developers.. They will and MS together will come up with ways of circumventing scaling issues.

You cant build smarter OS/ Apps without having a pool of Retina Hardware of different sizes and resolutions to play with. And event then, some people may like BIGGER text.. and others like me.. will want SMALLER text, so that I can see MORE LINES at at time.

It is EVOLUTION. Simple.
 
BobbyCat said:
I agree with that. And I'm even starting to change my opinion on this whole thing. I've been arguing for years that buying a Mac meant that I could enjoy a PC for games at the same time, hence the acceptable price premium.

But with the latest outrageous price increase in Europe (more than € 200 across the line), I think next time I buy hardware, I'll go for:
1. a brand new PC for games,
2. an old refurbished Mac for browsing, mail and personal stuff,
3. for the rest, I'll try to get used to the Windows world, hoping Win 10 will be OK.

After more than 3 decades using exclusively Macs, I'm fed up seeing the Cook team steadily increasing prices and reducing flexibility, only for the purpose of piling up huge amounts of cash.
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Can't blame you. I still prefer OS X to Win for most tasks, but there are some programs that people need. Perhaps Paralells lets you create a better experience. I have seen some people say that here, but when I used it a year ago I found I didn't use it. And you have to pay to upgrade with each new OS X. Overall, probably best to have two machines.
 
This support drop is crazy. Win7 was released in 2009 but it most likely didn't become mainstream until 2011. Would you drop support for the most widely used OS after 3 years?

Not to mention the Win7 price is no joke, add to that to get Win10 you probably have to install Win7 first then upgrade.

Even 1password, Carbon Copy Cloner, and Microsoft One Note dropped support for Mavericks, and Yosemite is only few months old.
 
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