Any idea why Apple says Win7 won't run on my 4 year old MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)?
According to Microsoft, all you need is a 1GHz processor.
According to Microsoft, all you need is a 1GHz processor.
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Windows 7 requirements
- Thread starter timelessbeing
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Well that came out a year before vista came out, so way before windows 7. Especially for a laptop, it's going to run really slow.
That doesn't really mean anything. Snow Leopard was released years after I bought my MBP, and it's running fine.
I've think I've read that some people are running Win7 x64 on 2006 MBPs. I thought our CPU's were still only 32 bit, and the later Core 2 Duo's were 64 bit?
Runs fine on my 17" late 2006 iMac which is very similar hardware-wise to your MBP. Not slow at all. I even run it on my Atom netbook. The late 2006 MBPs, MBs, and iMacs all have 64 bit Core 2 Duo's.
According to my serial number, my MBP was built September, 2006. In "About this Mac" info in MacOS, the model identifier is MacBookPro1,1 and it has a Intel Core Duo (Yonah) processor. According to Intel, this CPU uses a 32-bit instruction set (http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=27237&processor=T2600).
So are these aformentioned people full of it?
For one thing, it won't run well. Even the stock macbook from 2009 doesn't run windows 7 very well, and that has 3 times as many transistors as your core duo chip.
Second, apple doesn't really support computers older than 2 years, so your computer came out 3 years before windows 7. They don't make drivers for old computers. You could probably install windows 7 but you won't have good drivers and it's going to be slow. iMac's might be able to do it because they use similar parts as other pc manufacturers that do provide drivers for new OS's.
Second, apple doesn't really support computers older than 2 years, so your computer came out 3 years before windows 7. They don't make drivers for old computers. You could probably install windows 7 but you won't have good drivers and it's going to be slow. iMac's might be able to do it because they use similar parts as other pc manufacturers that do provide drivers for new OS's.
OK I think I get it now. The Macbook Pro's were upgraded to 64-bit CPU's in October 2006. A mere couple of WEEKS after I bought mine!
I'm still kicking myself for this, years later. Missed out on Wireless-N, DVD-DL, and Firewire 800 among other things, and all for the same price. DOH!
So, at least I can still use Win7-32. I hear that no video driver is provided, and possibly you can download one somewhere? Then would I have a fully-functional video card? Is there anything else I should be aware of?
I'm still kicking myself for this, years later. Missed out on Wireless-N, DVD-DL, and Firewire 800 among other things, and all for the same price. DOH!
So, at least I can still use Win7-32. I hear that no video driver is provided, and possibly you can download one somewhere? Then would I have a fully-functional video card? Is there anything else I should be aware of?
Many people are satisfied with the performance. Some say better than previous Windows. Vista ATI drivers reportedly work in Win7. I think I'm going to try it.
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NOTE: You can try W7 free by downloading an ISO from official sources and install it without a product key.
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NOTE: You can try W7 free by downloading an ISO from official sources and install it without a product key.
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My late 2006 Macbook with 2GB of RAM runs Windows 7 great. So I don't know what you are talking about. I have also seen netbooks running Win 7 and they seem quite snappy. Though how quick a computer feels is all relative to your expectations and uses. Keeping it optimized is also important as most people let the startup items grow beyond what is needed and really slow things down. Disabling automatic updates helps a lot too, just update manually. MS Security Essentials and Windows Defender are also anchors to performance while Avast Antivirus will do the job better and barely effect performance.
From my experience a computer with 1.5GB RAM or greater and meets the CPU requirements will feel just as fast in Win 7 as in XP, while Vista always feels slow.
There is a trick for getting Win 7 x64 drivers on unsupported Macs. A one may work for your 32bit Mac.
right click on command prompt and select run as administrator then enter these 3 commands (change the first line with the appropriate letter if your optical drive is mapped with a different letter than D: )
cd /d D:
cd \Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple
BootCamp32.msi
This command originally ended with BootCamp64.msi I have not checked the disk but I assume either a BootCamp.msi or more likely a BootCamp32.msi exists in the same directory.
The stock video drivers provided by MS will work just fine. That's what my iMac is running (Win7 32bit). I don't understand why some people don't think it will run good. Its just as good if not better than XP from a performance point of view.