Windows 7 on old MacBook (no BootCamp)

[Giorgosh]

I'm trying to make sure of an old MacBook (white one with Intel Core 2 Duo, 2G RAM) and installed Windows 7 without bootcamp (booted from DVD, installed as if i am on PC)
Problems i face are:
1. Seems to be performing slow. If i re-format and install windows via bootcamp, will it run faster?
2. Cannot find any drivers for Graphics card, mouse etc since all suggestions i see guide me through BootCamp. Is there any chance I find those drivers?

 

[maflynn]

Its going to be slow, because you're running a fairly new version of windows on such an old machine. You didn't say how much ram you have, and that will also impact window's performance as well. Bootcamp only does two things, allows you to partition the drive for windows, and provide drivers.

Drivers will be an issue, as apple may have long dropped supporting your mac for bootcamp. I have no idea if this is the case, but I suspect it is. You're going to have a rough time searching for compatible drivers.

 

[balamw]

2GB on an older box sounds like it will be slow regardless. The drivers will help, but only a bit.

What is your intended use for the machine?

B

 

[Giorgosh]

Just basic office use, nothing really special, thats why i installed win 7. I thought they would run faster than XP. Will try to look for drivers now

 

[doynton]

I'm running Windows 10 on a 2,16 Ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro with 3GB RAM (I maxed it out ). It's pretty slow also but certainly usable for Office and a bit of browsing.

Wiping and re-installing through bootcamp will make no difference - don't bother. Bootcamp assistant is only a wizard to help partitioning really.

What you do want though are the bootcamp drivers. This is a separate thing. The drivers I'm using are the bootcamp 3.2 (they are good for 7 and 8 also) and they work pretty well. They will not make things faster either though...

This is 3.2 update https://support.apple.com/kb/DL979?locale=en_US it is an upgrade to 3.0 which is on the snowleopard disk or you can google "bootcamp 3 drivers download".

You don't have to re-install anything - just run the installers from within windows when you have tracked them down.

 

[cjmillsnun]

Win 7 should be fine on that configuration. 2GB was the norm at Win 7's release. It will run on a netbook with 1GB.

As has been previously stated you want the drivers from Boot Camp. I'm guessing you have installed only the drivers that were on the Windows DVD and they will not be optimum especially for the graphics card.

If you have a 2009 Macbook, then you will have nVidia graphics and getting the right drivers is essential, but even if you have an earlier Macbook getting the correct Intel Drivers will make a huge difference.

 

[Giorgosh]

Thanks everybody for the support. Installed drivers ok! My only issue is that whatever mouse i use, there is no support for right click! is there some solution to that?

 

[chabig]

Thanks everybody for the support. Installed drivers ok! My only issue is that whatever mouse i use, there is no support for right click! is there some solution to that?

Since you've up and running Windows, that is a Windows problem. Dig through the Mouse Control Panel settings and see what you can find.