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Use of MBP as a windows only machine...

L

lookingatmac

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 30, 2011
8
0
I asked this on another forum but only got one answer, and nobody that has done it replied.

I want to know if anyone can report success in completely wiping the Mac OS off of a Macbook Pro and using only Windows on it. I am worried about drivers for the dvd player and keyboard. I want to buy a completely decked out MBP 17 inch, and use Windows 7 on it exclusively. I don't ever see myself using Mac OS, so I am wondering if I can just do away with it completely.

If anyone has had success or knows for a fact that this is doable, please let me know :D...

Thanks!
 
lookingatmac said:
I asked this on another forum but only got one answer, and nobody that has done it replied.

I want to know if anyone can report success in completely wiping the Mac OS off of a Macbook Pro and using only Windows on it. I am worried about drivers for the dvd player and keyboard. I want to buy a completely decked out MBP 17 inch, and use Windows 7 on it exclusively. I don't ever see myself using Mac OS, so I am wondering if I can just do away with it completely.

If anyone has had success or knows for a fact that this is doable, please let me know :D...

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Buy a PC laptop for 1/3rd of the price and none of the hassle.
 
You want to buy a ~$3000 17" MBP and not even use OS:X?

I have no idea why you would not buy a windows based laptop.
 
Thanks for the replies. :eek:

I just happen to like the styling, light weight, and longer battery life of the MBP. Please don't try to tell me that you believe the $3000 is all for OS-X:rolleyes:!

I am torn between a Lenovo Thinkpad w1520, and the MBP. They both cost around the same amount, with the Lenovo having a 4 year guarantee instead of the 3 year Apple guarantee. The advantage of the MBP I see is that it is larger, and I like the look a little more, and the Thinkpad only comes with the matte screen. I prefer a 17 inch over the 15 inch, but it is not a complete deal breaker.

Any PC I would buy would not be 1/3 the price. I am a research engineer, and I use my computers for computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis of stress and thermal interactions, as well as 3D modelling and design...... I need some good hardware.

So, I am not interested in whether or not somebody else would do this: I would do this - if it is possible. (I also don't believe I am the first person to ever think of the idea...)

Thanks again!
 
You can do it but EFI updates can only happen through OS X. Just install Windows using boot camp and select it whenever you boot. OS X doesn't take up much space.
 
lookingatmac said:
I asked this on another forum but only got one answer, and nobody that has done it replied.

I want to know if anyone can report success in completely wiping the Mac OS off of a Macbook Pro and using only Windows on it. I am worried about drivers for the dvd player and keyboard. I want to buy a completely decked out MBP 17 inch, and use Windows 7 on it exclusively. I don't ever see myself using Mac OS, so I am wondering if I can just do away with it completely.

If anyone has had success or knows for a fact that this is doable, please let me know :D...

Thanks!
Click to expand...
You're overpaying, and it's very stupid to do, as macs don't have a bios and you need OS X for firmware updates and the like.

How about buying a nice lenovo instead? You'll get more for your money and it runs windows from the getgo.


Oh and by the way, the battery life on macbook pros are advertised for OS X, you should at least halve that, OS X has optimized power settings under the hood that are tailored to the macbook pro, whereas windows doesn't. I would not expect anymore than 3 hours battery life with a MBP running strictly windows.
 
Thanks acedickson.

Please forgive my ignorance, but what is an EFI update?

As far as Bootcamp, do you know if this is like running Windows on top of OS-X? I mean: say I select to boot into Windows. Under the covers is OS-X still running underneath? I am not so much worried about space, I know OS-X doesn't have a large footprint against 8 GB RAM, as speed. If every system instruction has to go through Windows, then OS-X before being run on the hardware, this could be a speed drain that would turn the advantage of the i7 into nothing much at all.

If OS-X is not running underneath, I guess that answers my original question! That the machine will work entirely on Windows only.

Thanks again.
 
lookingatmac said:
Thanks acedickson.

Please forgive my ignorance, but what is an EFI update?

As far as Bootcamp, do you know if this is like running Windows on top of OS-X? I mean: say I select to boot into Windows. Under the covers is OS-X still running underneath? I am not so much worried about space, I know OS-X doesn't have a large footprint against 8 GB RAM, as speed. If every system instruction has to go through Windows, then OS-X before being run on the hardware, this could be a speed drain that would turn the advantage of the i7 into nothing much at all.

If OS-X is not running underneath, I guess that answers my original question! That the machine will work entirely on Windows only.

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Boot camp is just like running windows on a windows machine, OS X is not running, it's not a virtual machine.

Read my other post though, you will not be getting the 7 hour advertised battery life in windows, ever. Forget about it, OS X is tailored around the hardware apple uses, so the power settings are just about perfect for it to achieve maximum battery life.

In windows, which is meant to run on just about anything, the optimisation for the power settings sucks, you shouldn't expect much more than 3 hours out of a single battery charge.

Like I said earlier, you would be overpaying for a computer which would not work as well as a PC for what you're trying to do.
 
ive heard of people doing it and running into problems with the efi, ie hanging on boot,better to just partition the smallest possible amount to osx in windows,afterall,you may need it to update stuff,it can be done,but apparently it hangs for ages on bootup,if i remember rightly.
 
Oh and by the way, the battery life on macbook pros are advertised for OS X, you should at least halve that, OS X has optimized power settings under the hood that are tailored to the macbook pro, whereas windows doesn't. I would not expect anymore than 3 hours battery life with a MBP running strictly windows.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that info! That does make a difference if true. I don't have any point of reference on if OS-X is really that power conscious or not, vs. Windows. I would like to see some real test results on that one! I know that the Lenovoe ThinkPad W520 has a battery life a advertised at 8+ hours, so apparently a Windows machine can do it too.... Now as to whether or not the two are comparable otherwise, I don't make any claim...

Thanks.
 
lookingatmac said:
Thanks for that info! That does make a difference if true. I don't have any point of reference on if OS-X is really that power conscious or not, vs. Windows. I would like to see some real test results on that one! I know that the Lenovoe ThinkPad W520 has a battery life a advertised at 8+ hours, so apparently a Windows machine can do it too.... Now as to whether or not the two are comparable otherwise, I don't make any claim...

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Oh trust me, it is. My old 2008 macbook pro still goes for 3.5 hours on OS X, whereas in windows 7 64-bit I'm lucky if I can squeeze two hours out of it.
 
O.k.,

Thanks to all who replied. I appreciate your input. I will probably end up going with the Lenovo if it will be too difficult to make a MBP work like I want it to, and for my needs.

Cheers!
 
You wouldnt have any problem doing what you want to, as long as you keep OS X installed (only so that you can do firmware updates and things like that). You can install windows under bootcamp with the bootcamp assistant in OS X, just make the OS X partition as small as possible and leave the rest for your windows installation. You can then choose to have the MBP automatically boot into windows, you wont even know that OS X is there. Its really not that hard :D. The one thing to keep in mind is that the battery life will not be amazing, but should still be better then most windows based laptops out there (personal experience tells me this).

PS. I understand why you would want a macbook pro, even as just a windows machine, they are great, love mine! got 4 OS's on mine lol.
 
lookingatmac said:
O.k.,

Thanks to all who replied. I appreciate your input. I will probably end up going with the Lenovo if it will be too difficult to make a MBP work like I want it to, and for my needs.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

EFI is equivalent to BIOS.

Boot Camp isn't like running a virtual machine. It's like installing the OSes side by side.
 
My friend did this and it saddens me to this day!

I understand the concept of not wanting to change from windows, but, and please hear me out.... My recommendation would be, install windows 7 via bootcamp and then you can trial the two systems on the MBP so that YOU can see the differences in performance, features of the OS etc. I made the leap back in 2003 and although I do have a partition with Win7 on it, it is, to be honest, a waste of 100 gigs of space.

Essentially - yes you can install and just use Win7 on your MBP, although as people comment you will not see the battery life performance of OSX on it (however I should image that the apple battery is fairly competitive to any windows machine [but I think this, not know this]).
 
Every new thing has a learning curve and OSX from Windows was and will be a big one for most.

I wanted to chuck my new MacBook Pro at the wall so many times just after i got it (new 2011 model) as it was the first time experiencing OSX -

(What is up with no being able to cut files? Oh and not being able to access sub menus within menus!?>??????? I can't delete a bookmark in Firefox unless I go into CMD+B menu! ARRGGGGG)

In time you put up with the flaws and learn the pro's. OSX is a really intuitive OS and in time mate you'll get used to it.

For example, I did not understand OSX's Maximize button and thought it was stupid beyond belief but after a couple of days I hate maximizing windows to fill the screen. I don't know why but.... Yeah...
 
lookingatmac said:
I want to know if anyone can report success in completely wiping the Mac OS off of a Macbook Pro and using only Windows on it.
Click to expand...

It might be impossible to completely remove OS X. But you could certainly make it so that it was all but unnoticeable that you had it on your machine.

I switched to Mac's with the original aim of doing just this. But I gave OS X a try and eventually came to love it. In fact many years on I've found myself trying to remove all my previous ties to windows.

My advice to you: if your still keen on Apple Hardware then give OS X a try (you will always be able to run windows through bootcamp). However if your not willing to try it, then buy a windows-based laptop instead.

Adam
 
You will lose 90% of the functions of your trackpad which is an invincible feature of Macbooks.
 
Not to mention the not working turbo boost function for the new Sandy-Bridge processors? You are really crippling the MBP if you run it exclusively on Windows.

As for the OS:X: Please, give it a try! My 73 old grandma has an iMac and she absolutely loves it after switching from WinXP! Sure, she called me up a couple of times at the beginning but now she is a Pro!
 
lookingatmac said:
Thanks for the replies. :eek:

I just happen to like the styling, light weight, and longer battery life of the MBP. Please don't try to tell me that you believe the $3000 is all for OS-X:rolleyes:!
Click to expand...
But doesn't the battery life suck in windows on a MBP? (at least compared to on OS X)
 
lookingatmac said:
Thanks for that info! That does make a difference if true. I don't have any point of reference on if OS-X is really that power conscious or not, vs. Windows. I would like to see some real test results on that one! I know that the Lenovoe ThinkPad W520 has a battery life a advertised at 8+ hours, so apparently a Windows machine can do it too.... Now as to whether or not the two are comparable otherwise, I don't make any claim...

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Maybe so, but you Lenovoe doesn't have the hardware (CPU, GPU) that the MBP has. Power reduces battery life UNLESS you build things into the OS like Apple seems to have done.

You're comparing "Apples to Oranges" and may just be approaching this thing the wrong way.

I've never used OsX for any period of time (Windows only to date) and for the life of me I can't figure out why you WOULDN'T want to try something else.

These days, hardware and software are more closely developed to maximize user experience....if you use an Apple product.

Windows is hurt in that regard by working with 10x the hardware vendors and things like Optimization for hardware/software synergy is just not there.

Last point on the Hardware/Software piece....given you can Bootcamp Mac (but can't really do OSX on a Dell/Leveno/HP, you could have MORE options for software on a Mac.


Apple Software/Apps Logic, Final Cut Pro, GarageBand...etc...etc are largely embraced as being exceptional offerings that you can't use on a Windows PC.
 
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