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Pros and Cons of using Windows 7 on MBP?

B

BluAffiliate

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 16, 2010
376
65
I currently own a 13.3 inch MBP from 2008 and I am awaiting the new design coming Q1 2012 to buy a 15 inch MBP. However, I really need to use Windows 7 as a second install this time around because there are a ton of features I currently use my windows 7 PC for but I would like to put it all on one machine.

I've also heard that installing Windows 7 with bootcamp is really buggy and has a ton of issues.

Anyone have a rundown?
 
As long as you install all drivers and updates, running Windows on your Mac should not be much, if any, different from running it on a regular PC.
 
I've heard it said many times "my MBP is the best windows laptop I've ever used".

Personally i think thinkpads are the best windows laptop. They don't run OS X too well though. Since I prefer OS X, I have a mac.
 
Pros: It's Windows

Cons: It's Windows

What I mean by this is that it is really no different than using Windows on any other machine (unless you are running through parallels etc, whole new bag of hardware requirements to run smoothly). You have to have proper virus/spyware/on and on protection, but you can also get all the windows software that isn't available to OS X. As for bugginess, I have had Win 7 64-bit on my machine almost since it's release and have noticed minor issues, none of which because I was on a MBP.
 
I started off running Win7 in bootcamp, worked great but I switched to Paralles so I wouldn't have to reboot when I needed Win7.

It will work fine either way.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
It sucks. Apple's never been able to write a decent windows driver for their keyboard, touchpad, or power management. Seriously, Windows heats up my MBP like nothing else, and battery life is about 1/2 of what it is in OS X.
Click to expand...

See this is why I am hestitant on going with the windows on mac solution.
 
Pretty much the only con I'd have is I wouldn't bother running Windows while on battery, it pretty much sucks compared to OS X power management. Other than that, it runs great.
 
Trackpad and heat issues aside, Windows on a MacBook (Pro) is no different. With a Late-2008 MacBook Pro, I could get 1.5-2 hours tops on battery. With the newer and higher capacity batteries, you should get at least get 4 hours and none less than 2 hours of battery life in Windows which is pretty good IMO.
 
BluAffiliate said:
I currently own a 13.3 inch MBP from 2008 and I am awaiting the new design coming Q1 2012 to buy a 15 inch MBP. However, I really need to use Windows 7 as a second install this time around because there are a ton of features I currently use my windows 7 PC for but I would like to put it all on one machine.

I've also heard that installing Windows 7 with bootcamp is really buggy and has a ton of issues.

Anyone have a rundown?
Click to expand...

Whoever told you this is full of *****. My windows 7 x64 enterprise edition runs flawlessly on my early 2008 MBP.
 
Resqu2 said:
I started off running Win7 in bootcamp, worked great but I switched to Paralles so I wouldn't have to reboot when I needed Win7.

It will work fine either way.
Click to expand...

I had Win7 on my MBA installed in Bootcamp and accessed it through VMWare Fusion. After my Air was stolen last month I got a MBP the next day. When I tried to load the Time Machine image from the Air Bootcamp didn't make it.

On reinstall a VMWare tech advised me to install straight into Fusion. Last weekend I had to reinstall my OS because an Apple update some how caused some corruption, Fusion, Win7 and all of my Windows apps came with the Time Machine image. After reinstalling the OS it only took about 30 minutes to have my MBP back to the same state as before reinstall. I couldn't do this when I was using Bootcamp.

Just something I learned. Either way it's a nice setup.
 
I am a Mac person. At first I hesitated to upgrade from Vista 64-bit to Windows 7 64-bit Professional. After I did it on my MBP 2010 17", I like it a lot. No issue during installation at all. The only complain is the trackpad issue as other members mentioned. Just get an external mouse and you will be fine.
 
oh dont worry at all :)

easy installment, even easier than on a native PC, all you do is install the bootcamp and throw in your Mac OSX disc, its THAT easy.

i've never had any problems with windows 7 on my 2010 MBP, maybe the biggest problem was that i only chosed 32GB, but thats just because i'm stupid.

throw it on and do what you gotta do ;-)
 
About the trackpad; I was surprised at how well it works. It's very good on my 2011 i7 13" MBP with only 4GB RAM and Intel SSD. At least as good as on the Mac side. Am I missing something? What kind of problems are others having?

The heat from Win7: again not a problem here. I use Autosketch (old CAD program), Visual Studio, SQL Server, Access, IE and more on the Win7 VM, and at the same time I've got iTunes, Mac Excel and Adobe Reader going on the Mac side. I never hear the fan come on. Maybe I'm missing something?

One thing I can say is only allocate 1GB of RAM to Win7. I was skeptical at first when an old pro told me to do this. But it works great.
 
I went the VMware route and found for my needs to be a better solution. I get to use OSX and win7 at the same time.

Running win7 natively won't be a problem either as others stated, just use the bootcamp drivers and don't expect the same battery life/cooling and you'll be ok.
 
duggram said:
About the trackpad; I was surprised at how well it works. It's very good on my 2011 i7 13" MBP with only 4GB RAM and Intel SSD. At least as good as on the Mac side. Am I missing something? What kind of problems are others having?

The heat from Win7: again not a problem here. I use Autosketch (old CAD program), Visual Studio, SQL Server, Access, IE and more on the Win7 VM, and at the same time I've got iTunes, Mac Excel and Adobe Reader going on the Mac side. I never hear the fan come on. Maybe I'm missing something?

One thing I can say is only allocate 1GB of RAM to Win7. I was skeptical at first when an old pro told me to do this. But it works great.
Click to expand...

The trackpad is fine within a virtualised environment. When you use Apple's shoddy bootcamp drivers though to boot into Windows outside of OSX, that trackpad becomes practically useless. I've never felt comfortable using vmware on a laptop even a high spec one.

The trackpad issues are the number one reason my next laptop will be a Dell XPS 15z for Windows use. I would much prefer to use my MacBook Pro for both, but I'm fed up with Apple's half-assed efforts with bootcamp.
 
I don't know what trackpad issues some of the earlier posters are talking about.
I can 2 finger scroll, 2 finger tap to activate secondary menu (right click), tap to click.

Seems to work fine for me. I'm not expecting all the fancy 3/4 finger gestures. There might be 3rd party software that enables that on Windows, not sure.

To me, Apple hardware is the best hardware to run bootcamp-Windows!
The only reason I run windows, is because of a software that's Win-only, and require quite a bit of ram. Will try if VM on Lion works well for that.
 
aurichie said:
I've never felt comfortable using vmware on a laptop even a high spec one.
Click to expand...

What makes you uncomfortable? The only thing that makes me uncomfortable about it is that fact that I have no excuses for not getting my Windows based work done.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
It sucks. Apple's never been able to write a decent windows driver for their keyboard, touchpad, or power management. Seriously, Windows heats up my MBP like nothing else, and battery life is about 1/2 of what it is in OS X.
Click to expand...

BluAffiliate said:
See this is why I am hestitant on going with the windows on mac solution.
Click to expand...

Windows laptop trackpads suck in general. Running Windows in bootcamp is no different than using a Windows laptop.

The Apple support article linked below is related to keyboard mapping under bootcamp. It may help resolve any issues that you experience.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1167

The following quote to some degree explains the battery life issue experienced while running Windows in bootcamp.

awer25 said:
Half the battery life of OSX is the same as any windows laptop with that hardware. If you get 3.5hrs in Windows, that's normal.
Click to expand...
 
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