Windows 7 Ultimate and MBP questions (Please Help)

[aevelasquez]

I recently got my MacBook Pro with Retina Display and i have a CD of Windows 7 Ultimate which i want to intstall via BootCamp partition, but i was wondering if the wonderful minds of MacRumors Forums could help me answer a few questions first:

What is normal the boot time for Windows 7 Ultimate?

What boot times have been seen on the MacBook Pro with Retina Display? (I have the 2.6/16/512 Model)

Will the presence of 16 Gb of ram as well as a SSD help it boot at optimal speeds?

What can I do to speed up/reduce the boot time?

Does boot time differ across different versions of Windows 7?

- Any and all help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[ivoruest]

I recently got my MacBook Pro with Retina Display and i have a CD of Windows 7 Ultimate which i want to intstall via BootCamp partition, but i was wondering if the wonderful minds of MacRumors Forums could help me answer a few questions first:

What is normal the boot time for Windows 7 Ultimate?

What boot times have been seen on the MacBook Pro with Retina Display? (I have the 2.6/16/512 Model)

Will the presence of 16 Gb of ram as well as a SSD help it boot at optimal speeds?

What can I do to speed up/reduce the boot time?

Does boot time differ across different versions of Windows 7?

- Any and all help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

1.Normal boot time for Windows 7 in laptops should be around 30-90 seconds. Slower than this is possible. Mine boots in about 35-50 seconds with an Momentus XT drive (Hybryd HDD+SSD)

2.The Retina MBP should boot up in about 10-30 seconds depending how many applications you have configured to launch when boot up.

3.Adding more RAM will not help boot up times. If it does, difference is negligible. The SSD will be notorious improvement over HDD boot times.

4.To reduce boot times make sure you don't have programs you don't need configured to launch when booting. Programs such as: Dropbox, Steam, Printers, Antivirus, and others. Of course Antivirus is absolutely encouraged to start up when booting.

5.It is likely Win7 Ultimate will start a bit slower than, for example, Windows 7 Home Premium. This is because Win7 Ultimate has a lot more info to load when booting because its a more robust version and since data has to be loaded from the disk drive. But as I said, having an SSD will improve performance when booting dramatically.

 

[snaky69]

I recently got my MacBook Pro with Retina Display and i have a CD of Windows 7 Ultimate which i want to intstall via BootCamp partition, but i was wondering if the wonderful minds of MacRumors Forums could help me answer a few questions first:

What is normal the boot time for Windows 7 Ultimate?

What boot times have been seen on the MacBook Pro with Retina Display? (I have the 2.6/16/512 Model)

Will the presence of 16 Gb of ram as well as a SSD help it boot at optimal speeds?

What can I do to speed up/reduce the boot time?

Does boot time differ across different versions of Windows 7?

- Any and all help is greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

Anywhere from 15 seconds to a minute

Ram will not help boot times, the SSD will.

Nothing apart from making sure you have the least amount of startup programs running. You can't upgrade your computer so hardware wise you're stuck with whatever speed you get.

Yes, slightly.


If I may ask, why does boot time matter so much? How often do you actually reboot? If you absolutely need windows and do not require gobs of computer power, virtualization might serve you much better with no rebooting at all.

 

[joec1101]

I don't think you will be disappointed with the boot time - I have a 2.7/16/512 and it boots Win7 Ultimate in about 15 seconds or so.

In case you didn't already know, make sure you install the 64 bit version so you can take advantage of the extra RAM.

 

[aevelasquez]

1.Normal boot time for Windows 7 in laptops should be around 30-90 seconds. Slower than this is possible. Mine boots in about 35-50 seconds with an Momentus XT drive (Hybryd HDD+SSD)

2.The Retina MBP should boot up in about 10-30 seconds depending how many applications you have configured to launch when boot up.

3.Adding more RAM will not help boot up times. If it does, difference is negligible. The SSD will be notorious improvement over HDD boot times.

4.To reduce boot times make sure you don't have programs you don't need configured to launch when booting. Programs such as: Dropbox, Steam, Printers, Antivirus, and others. Of course Antivirus is absolutely encouraged to start up when booting.

5.It is likely Win7 Ultimate will start a bit slower than, for example, Windows 7 Home Premium. This is because Win7 Ultimate has a lot more info to load when booting because its a more robust version and since data has to be loaded from the disk drive. But as I said, having an SSD will improve performance when booting dramatically.

Thanks so much man, I appreciate it.


I won't have any boot launch applications, except for the antivirus most likely. The only services I'll have on automatic startup are the only one I'll absolutely need to run Windows 7. Any idea on how big the difference is when "Themes" and "Desktop Window Manager Session" is disabled? (They mainly deal with applying the Windows 7 Themes as opposed to the classic "square" XP theme?

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I don't think you will be disappointed with the boot time - I have a 2.7/16/512 and it boots Win7 Ultimate in about 15 seconds or so.

In case you didn't already know, make sure you install the 64 bit version so you can take advantage of the extra RAM.

Definitely, man. I'll make sure to do that! How much hard drive space did it take up? What size partition did you set up?

 

[dusk007]

If you care about boot speed get the Windows 8 upgrade. It boots a whole lot faster.

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Curious why you're so obsessed over boot times? Do you plan to constantly restart Windows?

 

[ivoruest]

Thanks so much man, I appreciate it.


I won't have any boot launch applications, except for the antivirus most likely. The only services I'll have on automatic startup are the only one I'll absolutely need to run Windows 7. Any idea on how big the difference is when "Themes" and "Desktop Window Manager Session" is disabled? (They mainly deal with applying the Windows 7 Themes as opposed to the classic "square" XP theme?

I really don't think disabling those two will make a noticeable difference. If it does don't expect more than a second or two. Now, if I may ask, why is that you need a very fast boot up time? There may be another solution to what your seeking.

 

[aevelasquez]

I really don't think disabling those two will make a noticeable difference. If it does don't expect more than a second or two. Now, if I may ask, why is that you need a very fast boot up time? There may be another solution to what your seeking.

Really just because I move around a lot and my computer is often turned off, when I do go to use it, I need it to be fully booted ASAP, I have an unflinchingly tight schedule and am often down to the absolute wire on deadlines and the like, both that, as well as the fact that however fast the boot time is really helps me see how the computers performance is, compared to how it was initially or if the boot time is unusually long, I know there is something that's eating up virtual memory or tying the system up.

 

[joec1101]

The partition size really depends on how much space you need for all your data on the Windows side. I set mine at about 96 Gigs and have about 25 still free. I use the Win partition for work, so I have data files on there.

If you don't need/have much data for the Win side, you can probably get by with 32 Gigs or so (maybe even less, I'm not sure). To be on the safe side, you should give yourself a little extra space.