Boot Camp: Installing and setting up

[ohla313]

Don't activate windows on the temp drive that you are testing on.

Save the activation for when you have your real setup. You can go 31 days with increasing nagging levels after a windows install.

Doesn't the installer make you enter a product key/serial number before continuing? What kind of nagging levels do you mean?

 

[ohla313]

I do have a DVD of Windows 7 I got awhile ago, not sure if I can use this without a product key..Can someone advise??

 

[johnhurley]

I do have a DVD of Windows 7 I got awhile ago, not sure if I can use this without a product key..Can someone advise??

Geez dude ... if someone tells you to skip the activation and ignore the nagging levels about the activation then do it please.

 

[ohla313]

The install went great. Windows 7 is all set! Thanks

 

[ohla313]

I was able to finally get my Windows 7 download ready from my school. Should I get Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Professional with Service Pack 1? What's the difference?

I also need to get Visio and Visual Studio 2010..

Visio is just one form but for VS 2010 there are:

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Remote Debugger
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Visualization & Modeling Feature Pack
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer Everywhere 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate

Which do I get?

 

[johnhurley]

I was able to finally get my Windows 7 download ready from my school. Should I get Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Professional with Service Pack 1? What's the difference?

One already has some of the available maintenance applied into the base ( sp 1 ). Both of them will need a bunch of other maintenance ( updates ) to get anything close to a secure system.

Make sure you have up to date antivirus software ( I use Norton Internet Security ).

 

[ohla313]

One already has some of the available maintenance applied into the base ( sp 1 ). Both of them will need a bunch of other maintenance ( updates ) to get anything close to a secure system.

Make sure you have up to date antivirus software ( I use Norton Internet Security ).

So should I bother going with SP1? I read that most of the updates can be received in Windows Update though. SP1 is more like extra features?

EDIT: seems like Visual Studio is only available in 32-bit. Does this mean I won't be able to run it on Windows 7 64-bit?

 

[ohla313]

Also how would I go about making a bootable install disc of the file? Should I download the Windows 7 file through Mac or Windows? What do I use to burn the file? and the other programs?

 

[chuck3d]

I have an interest in this on several levels.

• Bootcamp takes advantage of all 4 cores, VM & Parallels do not (unless I missed details on any new updates).
• 3d or CAD software -- even some of the adobe products -- multi-processes and Bootcamp is at an advantage.
• Apple itself, at least 4-5 months ago, said you can't install Windows with an external DVD. (I had gutted my 2011 MBP with an ssd and internal hd -- it was painful going backward, unbolting/rebolting).
• It would be awesome to have a plug-n-play external with Windows on there, so putting Bootcamp there implicitly to run Windows is brilliant even though USB 2 might be a small bottleneck, maybe not.
• Last, we'd love to hear the steps you took on installation, although it sounds like you installed Windows from a) an internal DVD onto b) an internal HD, or do I have that wrong? It sounds like your internal then comes an external. Or am I twisting in too many replies at this point?

You should have used SP1 as your first choice. Much less time-consuming. When you say "bootable disc of the file" it's now hard to follow the thread because we have discussed so many variables. It means you'll have to be very literal from here on.

 

[ohla313]

At the beginning of this post I had my heart set on running Windows via VM and using Parallels. After giving it some thought and going to my IT classes, I realized Boot Camp would be a better option. Running a VM and having two OS's on at the same time is not needed for me as I will be using one OS at a time anyways.

So after I set my heart to Boot Camp, I had a Windows 7 disc laying around so I decided to install it via Boot Camp as a test. It went well but I am going to be getting a new hard drive soon so am saving my MSDN downloads for that. There are many options for the programs to get so I wanted to know which to get.

The programs I need to get are Windows 7 Professional, Visio, and Visual Studio 2010.

Windows 7 has 64-bit Professional or with SP1, not sure which one to get.

Visio is in 32/64bit so I'll get 64-bit

VB 2010 has Premium, Ultimate, and Professional.

So which do I go with? Which will give me the most and best features?

 

[chuck3d]

I think it's a slam-dunk. Make a commitment to 64 bit. Better memory management, better support for years ahead (dont look back when building / installing). Better benchmarking by 10-15% over 32 bit. Funny but I was benchmarking for kicks this morning. About 15% better than 32 bit.

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To get my head around what you have done, tell me if this is correct:

• Installed Bootcamp with Lion while the disk was an internal.
• Installed Windows 7.
• Pulled the HD to use as an external boot.
• Boot to external under Lion FIRST? and then reboot from USB into Windows ... or ?

 

[ohla313]

I think it's a slam-dunk. Make a commitment to 64 bit. Better memory management, better support for years ahead (dont look back when building / installing). Better benchmarking by 10-15% over 32 bit. Funny but I was benchmarking for kicks this morning. About 15% better than 32 bit.

----------

To get my head around what you have done, tell me if this is correct:

• Installed Bootcamp with Lion while the disk was an internal.
• Installed Windows 7.
• Pulled the HD to use as an external boot.
• Boot to external under Lion FIRST? and then reboot from USB into Windows ... or ?

No I kept everything internal. I had Lion on my internal and then installed Windows 7 via Boot Camp.

 

[johnhurley]

So should I bother going with SP1? I read that most of the updates can be received in Windows Update though. SP1 is more like extra features?

EDIT: seems like Visual Studio is only available in 32-bit. Does this mean I won't be able to run it on Windows 7 64-bit?

As far as I know all the 32 bit apps work just fine under a 64 bit operating system. It just means that they cannot address as much memory and the 64 bit os gives them a different version of reality which they can live in.