This is for those of you that are running Windows 7/8.1/10 on your MBA. What are the drawbacks you have encountered (i.e. no backspace key, etc.). As a long time Windows user considering using BootCamp to install Windows 10, I'd like to know what I'm giving up by running Windows on Mac hardware.
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Drawbacks Running Windows on MBA
- Thread starter Whalensdad
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Primarily, you would be giving up battery life and some advanced trackpad gestures.
What is the battery hit for running Windows 10? How bad is the trackpad performance? Is it still worth doing given these 2 limitations?
Windows 10 is pretty efficient, but you will not see OS X battery life numbers. For example, I get 6 or so hours in my MacBook Pro (Classic, Mid-2012, ~80% battery capacity) in OS X 10.9+ but only get 3-3.5 hours under Windows 7. I never tried Windows 10 on any Mac for an extended period of time.
Your experience will be different than mine because you have the Air and I have a 2014 MBP with the nVidia GPU. When using Windows, only the the nVidia graphics are used so battery life takes a big hit. I get around 6 hours on OSX and only 3-3.5 in Windows.
Your Air should do much better though. You should get 6 hours with Windows.
And yes, I still feel it is worth running Windows on your Mac.
It is not bad by any means but lacks some of the advanced gestures and precision that you get under OS X.
Well I did it and I'm loving it. Windows is running great. Trackpad running Trackpad++ is nearly as smooth as under OSX. I haven't tested the battery life yet, but watched 2 episodes of BSG while on battery and the bar barely moved. The only 2 issues I see are: I need 2 keys to delete (Fn-Delete) and the trackpad is a little too sensitive.
