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Trackpad on Windows

A

aerodoc

macrumors member
Original poster
I am thinking about getting a MBP, but I only want to use Win7. One question might be, what is the point of that?

After looking at several laptop PC's, the trackpads just don't seem very good. This is probably my highest priority in a laptop and the MBP trackpad seems great. But I can't really demo it in windows and have heard it may not be as great there (i.e. misses clicks, not as smooth, that kind of thing). Also, are some of the things like "right click", etc. more of a pain than a standard windows trackpad?

I realize a lot of this might be personal preference, but would like to hear some opinions.
 
Trackpad works all right though I don't know if all the gestures are supported. Everything is great if you have tap to click enabled.

If you want to take it for a semi-spin you can get the Magic Trackpad to see if you like it.
 
mac trackpads suck in Windows. They work awesome in OSX but in Windows is a different story. Get a mouse.
 
I've tried a Dell's and a ThinkPad's trackpad and I have to admit the MBP's completely blow theirs away. The scrolling etc is INCREDIBLY SMOOTH! Plus the Trackpad feels really great!

Right click can be accomplished by clicking with two fingers. You can also set up the right side (or the left side) of the trackpad as a "Right Click Zone" - Clicks made in these areas will be registered as Right Clicks.

If you want to get a MBP just to run W7, don't bother. It's supposed to perform worse under BootCamp. Actually, at least give OS X a try for a week or so. It has a really tiny learning curve.
 
aerodoc said:
I am thinking about getting a MBP, but I only want to use Win7. One question might be, what is the point of that?

After looking at several laptop PC's, the trackpads just don't seem very good. This is probably my highest priority in a laptop and the MBP trackpad seems great. But I can't really demo it in windows and have heard it may not be as great there (i.e. misses clicks, not as smooth, that kind of thing). Also, are some of the things like "right click", etc. more of a pain than a standard windows trackpad?

I realize a lot of this might be personal preference, but would like to hear some opinions.
Click to expand...

i'll admit that the track pad is one of my favorite thing about my macbook pro, but its not worth buying one just for the trackpad and not using osx. i dont know if you have any friends with boot camp, but ive never had any problems. give osx a chance. once i started managing windows with 4 finger swipes, i cant go back.

also, idk if it works, but try out a magic track pad
 
Windows is a must since Excel macros don't work in OSX.

So...a funny thing. I tried on my friend's macbook and when running parallel, the right click worked just fine in Excel, Word, etc.

However, if it was boot directly into windows, the right click would not work in Excel and Word (though it would work in Powerpoint and other apps). Very strange.

I am still considering it though since like I said, the trackpad interface is the #1 priority to me. Everything else is secondary, so try to keep that in mind.
 
aerodoc said:
Windows is a must since Excel macros don't work in OSX.

So...a funny thing. I tried on my friend's macbook and when running parallel, the right click worked just fine in Excel, Word, etc.

However, if it was boot directly into windows, the right click would not work in Excel and Word (though it would work in Powerpoint and other apps). Very strange.

I am still considering it though since like I said, the trackpad interface is the #1 priority to me. Everything else is secondary, so try to keep that in mind.
Click to expand...

Yeah to put it bluntly, Apple invested no time in creating trackpad drivers for windows. The only gesture they support in boot camp is two finger scrolling and even that is a very poor implementation on their part (very jittery and inconsistent, unlike in OSX). However, the scrolling through fusion is beautiful and most of my Windows usage is through fusion (reboot once in a while for games). You are better of getting fusion if you want a usable trackpad in windows.
 
Wouldn't that have a pretty bad affect on performance though? I suppose that may be the trade you have to consider.
 
Well, it depends on what you are doing with Excel. I am developing professional grade software with a lot of VBA programming. From a memory point of view it should be OK, but the processing can be slow. I suppose memory is the bigger issue when running both though?

Besides that, it seemed performance was laggy on my friend's when running both. I suppose not enough to make a final decision, but kind of irritating. Either way, you are going to a take a hit by running in parallel I am pretty sure.
 
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