Installing Windows 7 on the Macbook Air 11.6 through USB

[isosunrise]

The Vaio X is only lighter when you don't add in the extended battery. Also I don't need 15 hours of battery life. 5-6 is enough for me. I also don't need 3G because I'm a student and I always have WiFi Internet access. Plus the Vaio X can't do any light gaming when I want to and costs a whopping $300 more. The TimelineX 1830T is heavier and thicker and doesn't have a SSD (adding in one would cost $100 if I bought one and installed it myself). Also no good. The 11.6" MBA is more of a just right machine for me.

Anyways just posted to say I finally got the MBA last night and I used it for the first time at school today and so far I'm loving it. Now I just need to install Windows 7 so I can get off the OpenOffice crap.

Haha, you guys are funny rationalizing why the macbook air is right for you. Vaio X, the thinnest, lighest and one of the sexiest laptops. You point out to the fact that the macbook air 11.6 being the better choice because it has a better cpu and gpu, despite it being thicker and heavier. Oddly though, you seem to cannot use the same argument to bump to the next series of Alienware M11x or TimelineX 1830T, both with better cpu and one with better gpu, despite being thicker and heavier.

That note, I am interested in a Macbook Air 11.6 with dual boot to Windows 7 too. Are all the drivers working? What is the battery life like?

 

[KPOM]

Haha, you guys are funny rationalizing why the macbook air is right for you. Vaio X, the thinnest, lighest and one of the sexiest laptops. You point out to the fact that the macbook air 11.6 being the better choice because it has a better cpu and gpu, despite it being thicker and heavier. Oddly though, you seem to cannot use the same argument to bump to the next series of Alienware M11x or TimelineX 1830T, both with better cpu and one with better gpu, despite being thicker and heavier.

That note, I am interested in a Macbook Air 11.6 with dual boot to Windows 7 too. Are all the drivers working? What is the battery life like?

It's a matter of crossing a threshold. The M11x weighs almost as much as a 13" MacBook Pro.

The Vaio X is nice but uses an Atom processor and is limited to 2GB RAM. The Vaio Z13 is nicer but also more expensive than an Air. The Acers are closer, though.

 

[KPOM]

If you are interested in performance, take a look at Acer 1830T-3721 which outperforms MBA in many categories according to PC Magazine. And it's cheaper than MBA.

Could Acer develop a more confusing naming system for its notebook line if it tried? I like their products, but it isn't always easy to shop around for them since so many products have similar names and numbers. There are so many variants with the 1830 name.

 

[WardC]

How do you install Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS 6.2 on a MacBook Air? I want to run Solitaire and some older games...it would be nice just to play around with older versions of Windows such as 3.1 or Windows 95

Also, how would you install BeOS on a MacBook Air?

 

[Dragynfyre]

Alright just got back from my first day with running Windows 7 and battery life is still good. I got about 4 hours with the balanced power plan which is not quite as good as OSX but I bet if I were to switch to the power saver plan which uses aero I could get more out of it.

 

[Dragynfyre]

Haha, you guys are funny rationalizing why the macbook air is right for you. Vaio X, the thinnest, lighest and one of the sexiest laptops. You point out to the fact that the macbook air 11.6 being the better choice because it has a better cpu and gpu, despite it being thicker and heavier. Oddly though, you seem to cannot use the same argument to bump to the next series of Alienware M11x or TimelineX 1830T, both with better cpu and one with better gpu, despite being thicker and heavier.

That note, I am interested in a Macbook Air 11.6 with dual boot to Windows 7 too. Are all the drivers working? What is the battery life like?

Lets see. The Vaio X is about 0.1lbs lighter than the MBA 11.6 with the extended battery (regular battery is just pitiful). It's also only 0.13" thinner than the MBA IIRC. Compare that to the m11x which is over 2lbs. heavier and over twice as thick. How is that even a similar comparison? Drivers are working great and battery life is great as well.

 

[WildNZ]

Alright just got back from my first day with running Windows 7 and battery life is still good. I got about 4 hours with the balanced power plan which is not quite as good as OSX but I bet if I were to switch to the power saver plan which uses aero I could get more out of it.

Finally some useful feedback in this thread Dragynfyre is this a complete fresh Win7 install or is this with Bootcamp drivers? Does the MBA feel warm at all like the GPU is running full time in windows or fans not working etc - all these problems I've read about previous Win7 installs on earlier MBP's.

I too want to buy an MBA and put Win7 on it, but only if the battery life is not bad and only if there are no crazy quirks like fans running all the time/not at all etc. Any more feedback from you on your experiences here would be appreciated as it may well effect my buying decision!

Thanks a lot. Anyone else with battery experiences on the new MBA please share!

 

[JasonR]

Alright just got back from my first day with running Windows 7 and battery life is still good. I got about 4 hours with the balanced power plan which is not quite as good as OSX but I bet if I were to switch to the power saver plan which uses aero I could get more out of it.

How'd you install Win 7?

 

[J400uk]

Just thought I'd drop in to say I've got Windows 7 on my MacBook Air (standard config 11") and it works really well. Performance is very nice and quick (probably due to the SSD) and the battery life is 4 - 5 hours so perfectly acceptable.

 

[Dragynfyre]

Finally some useful feedback in this thread Dragynfyre is this a complete fresh Win7 install or is this with Bootcamp drivers? Does the MBA feel warm at all like the GPU is running full time in windows or fans not working etc - all these problems I've read about previous Win7 installs on earlier MBP's.

I too want to buy an MBA and put Win7 on it, but only if the battery life is not bad and only if there are no crazy quirks like fans running all the time/not at all etc. Any more feedback from you on your experiences here would be appreciated as it may well effect my buying decision!

Thanks a lot. Anyone else with battery experiences on the new MBA please share!

No fan is completely silent just like in OSX. Pretty much everything works just as good as it did in OSX except that the battery life is about 30min-45min shorter in the balanced plan. Also it's a Windows 7 install with bootcamp drivers installed. Also the fan does work btw. I was playing some CoD4 earlier and after I exited I could hear the fan running.

 

[Dragynfyre]

How'd you install Win 7?

Check the last page. There is a CNet guide that was posted.

 

[swenak]

No fan is completely silent just like in OSX. Pretty much everything works just as good as it did in OSX except that the battery life is about 30min-45min shorter in the balanced plan. Also it's a Windows 7 install with bootcamp drivers installed. Also the fan does work btw. I was playing some CoD4 earlier and after I exited I could hear the fan running.

And what about warming in standard use (wifi on, www browsing, office, skype, ICQ and so)? Now I have MBP 13 (mid 2009) with Win7 Pro as only one system and in summer is not so comfort :-( What version you have? I plan to buy max version with 1.6Ghz, 4GB RAM and 128GB storade. Thanks.

 

[KandyKane]

Is it possible to install XP on the Air?
I was reading that guide on CNET, and while I'm prepared to buy the Windows 7 for the Air, I don't really want to load it on my super ancient machine and the guide indicates that you need to...

 

[Dragynfyre]

And what about warming in standard use (wifi on, www browsing, office, skype, ICQ and so)? Now I have MBP 13 (mid 2009) with Win7 Pro as only one system and in summer is not so comfort :-( What version you have? I plan to buy max version with 1.6Ghz, 4GB RAM and 128GB storade. Thanks.

In standard use it's completely silent although I don't use Skype. I have the $999 ($1049 CAD) 11.6 so basically the most basic version.

 

[Dragynfyre]

Is it possible to install XP on the Air?
I was reading that guide on CNET, and while I'm prepared to buy the Windows 7 for the Air, I don't really want to load it on my super ancient machine and the guide indicates that you need to...

You don't need to load Windows 7 on your old PC to install it on your MBA. You just need to download the ISO file from a legit source such as here http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/...links-ultimate-professional-and-home-premium/
and use the Microsoft USB tool http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool to burn it onto a USB (4GB space on the USB minimum). Of course you'll your own Windows 7 key to activate it.

 

[yardim]

.net development on mba 13" 4GB

Hi. My dell inspiron 1420 laptop died on me, and I am seeing this as an opportunity to buy me an air. But as a developer who travel a lot, I will need to do some .net development on MBA. I am considering using Fusion and installing Windows 7, 64 bit. I will have to install Visual Studio besides a SQL Server on the Windows 7 VM eventually. I am reading a lot of posts of how good Windows is running on MBAs, but I wasn't able to find a similar situation of mine. Could any one advise me on how would it perform for .Net development on air?

 

[loslosbaby]

VM's Can Eat Batteries

...while Windows may or may not increase battery usage, a VM certainly will.

All VM's are based on a "polling" architecture...they can't tell if the client OS needs resources, so, they just have to run in little slices, quite often. The rate at which they "poll" the client OS is adjustable and this helps, but, its still a problem.

You can see "spikes" on a program like Activity Monitor or MenuMeters on the CPU usage.

This problem includes Parallels, and VMWare and others.

G.

 

[dgdosen]

hmmm - did you all need to install rEFit? I used the MS tool to transfer the ISO to a thumb drive, but Mac OS doesn't recognize it as installation media in the bootcamp assistant...

Anyone have advice? I'd prefer not to install rEFit.

 

[Night Spring]

hmmm - did you all need to install rEFit? I used the MS tool to transfer the ISO to a thumb drive, but Mac OS doesn't recognize it as installation media in the bootcamp assistant...

Anyone have advice? I'd prefer not to install rEFit.

As far as I know, you do have to install rEFit. Why would you prefer not to?

 

[dgdosen]

As far as I know, you do have to install rEFit. Why would you prefer not to?

Installing rEFit helped make the boot off the usb drive work.

Why did I not want to install rEFit? I didn't think I needed to - but the Apple instructions do reference "an attached DVD drive".

No matter, by loosely following the CNET article and using the USB stick I created with the Windows Tool - I was able to boot the USB drive.

I'm now bootcamping on my 11.6 MBA