Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Boot Camp on MBP - Questions

R

raymondu999

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 11, 2008
1,009
1
The day I have dreaded has finally arrived. There's something that I need to be able to do, but I have to step back into the world of Windows. Hence, I'll be utilizing my MBP for Boot Camp. I have several questions though. I've heard from several of my friends that even if we had an MBP and an identically specced rig, with the same stuff installed, and the same OS and same proc/everything, the MBP would run slightly slower. Is this true? Please back up with benchmarks if available... I haven't been able to find anything for this yet.

Next, do we lose our extra tidbits? Like how do we right-click in boot camp? Can we do the normal two-finger tap? Or do we have to put two fingers on the pad and click? Can we two-finger scroll? I've also heard somewhere that the eject button doesn't work. Is that true?

Now, for Penryn users, does our multitouch work in Boot Camp?

Thanks for everything guys.
 
raymondu999 said:
The day I have dreaded has finally arrived. There's something that I need to be able to do, but I have to step back into the world of Windows. Hence, I'll be utilizing my MBP for Boot Camp. I have several questions though. I've heard from several of my friends that even if we had an MBP and an identically specced rig, with the same stuff installed, and the same OS and same proc/everything, the MBP would run slightly slower. Is this true? Please back up with benchmarks if available... I haven't been able to find anything for this yet.
Click to expand...
Not sure what you mean, are you asking if booting into XP on the MBP would be slower than a similar system (say a Dell?) then the answer is no. If you are asking about running an XP Bootcamp image in Fusion comparing to a similar system booting XP (Dell, again?) the answer is yes, it would be slower due to the virtualization.

Are you doing something that is really intensive that this becomes an issue?


raymondu999 said:
Next, do we lose our extra tidbits? Like how do we right-click in boot camp? Can we do the normal two-finger tap? Or do we have to put two fingers on the pad and click?
Click to expand...
Once you have installed the MBP drivers off the OSX DVD, you will be able to two finger tap for right clicking in Windows.

raymondu999 said:
Can we two-finger scroll?
Click to expand...
Yes, you can (once you've installed the drivers).

raymondu999 said:
I've also heard somewhere that the eject button doesn't work. Is that true?
Click to expand...
I've been able to eject a CD/DVD from XP in both Bootcamp and Fusion.

raymondu999 said:
Now, for Penryn users, does our multitouch work in Boot Camp?
Click to expand...

Can't help you with this, I don't have a Penryn.
 
@HastaLaVista, thanks for the detailed answers. About the speed, it's just a fetish of mine. I love raw computing power, even if I don't need it :D

@fr4c, could you check? If you have the time, that is. Thanks.

Btw, do you guys recommend me getting Vista (SP0/SP1) or XP? I heard that Vista is not that good (sorry.. haven't had anything to do with windows for the past several years), but I'm worried that if I use XP, the XP End-of-Life (my cousin told me about that) is gonna leave me behind on a great deal, forcing me to then upgrade my bootcamp to Vista.
 
raymondu999 said:
@HastaLaVista, thanks for the detailed answers. About the speed, it's just a fetish of mine. I love raw computing power, even if I don't need it :D

@fr4c, could you check? If you have the time, that is. Thanks.

Btw, do you guys recommend me getting Vista (SP0/SP1) or XP? I heard that Vista is not that good (sorry.. haven't had anything to do with windows for the past several years), but I'm worried that if I use XP, the XP End-of-Life (my cousin told me about that) is gonna leave me behind on a great deal, forcing me to then upgrade my bootcamp to Vista.
Click to expand...


I would suggest getting XP on your MBP- Lots of less hassle, and it would run faster than Vista on the machine. Moreover, you won't have a lot of issues with the BootCamp drivers.
 
raymondu999 said:
@fr4c, could you check? If you have the time, that is. Thanks.

Btw, do you guys recommend me getting Vista (SP0/SP1) or XP? I heard that Vista is not that good (sorry.. haven't had anything to do with windows for the past several years), but I'm worried that if I use XP, the XP End-of-Life (my cousin told me about that) is gonna leave me behind on a great deal, forcing me to then upgrade my bootcamp to Vista.
Click to expand...

My multitouch does not work.

And I would use XP. I wouldn't worry about the end of life; no one can force you to upgrade; you just won't be able to get support from Microsoft.
 
Isn't Vista meant to be the latest and greatest? Or am I missing something here?
 
raymondu999 said:
Isn't Vista meant to be the latest and greatest? Or am I missing something here?
Click to expand...

Latest yes, greatest sometimes. For somethings like security and looks yes it is great, but when it comes down to performance, XP is still better.
 
Yea, and after googling and youtubing, looks like it copies a hell of a lot from Mac OS X too. So I guess most people's final word would be to go XP? The thing is, I need my Bootcamp windows to run some apps that will be used to access several network things, such as files on the network server, and mostly networked stuff (not ABOUT networking, but to do networked stuff... catch my drift?) So what would you guys recommend for that? Should I go Vista or XP>
 
Using XP on my Bootcamp MBP, runs noticeably quicker than any PC XP machine I have ever worked on personally (have used faster Vista Desktops, but they were top spec graphics workstations, and even then this isn't far off in general use).

From what I've read all of the improvements relating to networking in Vista have now been added to XP in SP3, so in terms of abilities there isn't much difference. Installing Bonjour for Windows makes a noticeable improvement to the ease with which I can connect to other computers on my home network, XP was always a dog even at finding shared folders quickly.

Multi-touch in XP is limited to right click and two finger scroll as far as I can see, but the speed of the two finger scroll is far too fast compared to OSX, its bearable but not the flawless joy I find it on the Mac side.

The only real issues I have had with Windows on my Mac has been with VMware and software licences messing up, as long as I stick to bootcamp its been the most flawless Windows PC I've ever used; I would go so far as to recommending a Bootcamped MBP to a switcher who wasn't even interested in OSX.
 
I moved back and forth between Parallels and VMWare Fusion to find the most comfortable virtualizer, which is hard to do, since they don't play nice together, and found VMWare to be more stable. There are things I prefer about each, but either way, though they can create virtual machines from scratch, I've found the best method for me has been running boot camp, so I have the option of driving a real Windows box out of the MBP when absolutely necessary, and then using that bootcamp partition as my boot drive for VMware's virtual machine. Best of both worlds. In Unity mode, Xp apps and windows behave like Mac apps, and there is no Windows desktop. The windows apps drop in and out of the dock. It's about as inoffensive a windows experience as possible on a mac!
 
right. So I'm getting that i should get XP sp3, and if needs be, use VMware so I can run off my bootcamp partition as a VM. Got it. Thanks for all your replies people. So besides looks, is there even still reason to get vista over sp3?
 
The only multi touch features you get are scrolling and the right click
 
As we normally would, I suspect... by tapping two fingers at once. Or by putting two fingers on the pad and clicking. Or pressing ctrl + click.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back