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Windows 7 running on Macbook Air
- Thread starter nathans89
- Start date
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How did you get the FN F1 and such keys to work(like FN F3 to mute sound)? Or is that not working?
Wait, Windows 7 is out??? 
I didn't know that.
I love how everything in Windows is a crappy copy of OS X, i.e. Windows live search, the new icons, etc.
EDIT: I'm pretty sure Windows 7 is just going to be a "fixed" Vista.
Microsoft, "Hey, our latest OS is a piece of crap and a ram hog. Lets create a version that works, has some stolen features from OS X, and a couple of crappy features and widgets we pulled out from our ass, and viola! We have Windows 7! Just give us 5 more years and we will have Windows X, although it won't run well and we will probably have a very low amount of popularity and market share."
I didn't know that.
I love how everything in Windows is a crappy copy of OS X, i.e. Windows live search, the new icons, etc.
EDIT: I'm pretty sure Windows 7 is just going to be a "fixed" Vista.
Microsoft, "Hey, our latest OS is a piece of crap and a ram hog. Lets create a version that works, has some stolen features from OS X, and a couple of crappy features and widgets we pulled out from our ass, and viola! We have Windows 7! Just give us 5 more years and we will have Windows X, although it won't run well and we will probably have a very low amount of popularity and market share."
Wait, Windows 7 is out???
I didn't know that.
I love how everything in Windows is a crappy copy of OS X, i.e. Windows live search, the new icons, etc.
EDIT: I'm pretty sure Windows 7 is just going to be a "fixed" Vista.
Microsoft, "Hey, our latest OS is a piece of crap and a ram hog. Lets create a version that works, has some stolen features from OS X, and a couple of crappy features and widgets we pulled out from our ass, and viola! We have Windows 7! Just give us 5 more years and we will have Windows X, although it won't run well and we will probably have a very low amount of popularity and market share."
The ramblings of a fanboy
Windows 7 will be good, comparable to Leopard, I'm hoping Snow Leopard will be able to wipe the floor with 7 though in terms of performance.
The ramblings of a fanboy
Windows 7 will be good, comparable to Leopard, I'm hoping Snow Leopard will be able to wipe the floor with 7 though in terms of performance.
Snow Leopard most likely will.
Hopefully Windows 7 is released when ready and not too soon.
Vista was way ahead of it's time and was way too much of a ram hog and had a bunch of errors.
I've experienced this first hand.
I got a gateway laptop last Christmas.
It has a 1GB of ram and it runs like crap. I wasn't the one who bought it so I would've gotten more ram if it was me.
My mom has a Gateway too that is just a few models below, it has 512MB of ram and less than half the processor and runs like a charm.
The difference?
She has XP and I have Vista.
I'm not going to deny that I'm an Apple fanboy, but I unfortunately don't own a Mac.
One of the many reasons I dislike Windows, I have been having to put up with the terrible performance.
well, we all will never know which is better until both come out and we all can test it out.
personally im leaning towards windows 7, xp was great, but vista was a failure (not really but you know..) and i really hope microsoft gets their act together and start giving us some useful things. as for apple's snow leopard i have no doubts that it will be great.
personally im leaning towards windows 7, xp was great, but vista was a failure (not really but you know..) and i really hope microsoft gets their act together and start giving us some useful things. as for apple's snow leopard i have no doubts that it will be great.
Not really No.. failure yes
I horrible bloated monster. What were they thinking? I think they were myopic with security and made it like a prison.
the function keys work as they would in xp or vista, even though its a very early build of windows 7 it is running far better than even leopard seems to on the air, i know that will ignite the fanboys rage but its true, leopard on the air is equivalent to vista. Also the comments of vista using up all the ram, a clean install (of vista ultimate with the HD video background) will run up around 650MB once settled thats with 2GB of ram, assuming 'active' and 'wired' mean the same as used then leopard on the air isn't far off with around 550MB, and unlike microsoft who make the OS for computers to run apple are selling the whole system and so with the air being crippled and barely managing its native OS is disgraceful. If you don't believe me try using the first gen air then use an imac, the difference is incredible!
Basicly vista was fine, i used it all the way from the red screen of death and had far fewer problems over the period of using it up to now compared to when i bought my MBA and imac. Apple have a much easier job in catering for a few core system configurations which they dictate and cannot get it right on a premium product, whereas Microsoft have to cater for hundreds if not thousands. from what I could tell most of vistas problems were driver related and therefore the manufacturing companies fault when things went wrong.
Also the comment on security... ever noticed how leopard asks when you open a program from the net, when installing etc. the same as what vista did and yet vista gets the complaints... funny that...
I'm neither a Mac nor Windows fanboy, I'll use whatever suits my needs, working at uni and playing games at home...
Basicly vista was fine, i used it all the way from the red screen of death and had far fewer problems over the period of using it up to now compared to when i bought my MBA and imac. Apple have a much easier job in catering for a few core system configurations which they dictate and cannot get it right on a premium product, whereas Microsoft have to cater for hundreds if not thousands. from what I could tell most of vistas problems were driver related and therefore the manufacturing companies fault when things went wrong.
Also the comment on security... ever noticed how leopard asks when you open a program from the net, when installing etc. the same as what vista did and yet vista gets the complaints... funny that...
I'm neither a Mac nor Windows fanboy, I'll use whatever suits my needs, working at uni and playing games at home...
So how did you get the Function key working fully? I can only get it working with the delete button and nothing else, unlike XP and Vista where it was working as intended. Any way you can like give me the drivers you used? And I can agree with that last comment.
Looking sharp!
Having just jumped back into the Windows world(installed Vista on my Mac, and XP on my netbook) I'm very interested in Windows 7. Hopefully it will pick up some slack Vista left(well really if it spec requirements stay the same, it should be ok since hardware has moved forward greatly, my only concern are netbooks, but MS looks to be on top of that)
I'm hoping to pick up a netbook with Windows 7 and a mutli-touch screen, if Apple has yet to launch a Mac netbook
Having just jumped back into the Windows world(installed Vista on my Mac, and XP on my netbook) I'm very interested in Windows 7. Hopefully it will pick up some slack Vista left(well really if it spec requirements stay the same, it should be ok since hardware has moved forward greatly, my only concern are netbooks, but MS looks to be on top of that)
I'm hoping to pick up a netbook with Windows 7 and a mutli-touch screen, if Apple has yet to launch a Mac netbook
Any sane person would interpret that as "a lot."
Edit: I think Windows 7 looks promising. As long as the performance is all right, the look is working out pretty well. Looking forward to Snow Leopard, though, so we'll see what each OS brings.
I also installed windows 7 on the macbook air, mainly for kicks though.
But, at least on the 64-bit version, bootcamp drivers don't really install like they would on xp/vista (I managed to get sound to work with some compatibility settings) but for example keyboard backlighting does not work.
While I agree that it at least is more stable / improved over vista, windows 7 being faster than leopard? Fix your leopard I'd say.
Also, while it has some nice touches here and there, it still takes on the wrong side of hiding stuff from the user. For example in leopard, say you hate garageband, if you never used it, no additional files were created, just drag it to the trash and you're done. However windows 7 wants over 10 GB of disk space, minimum, and you can't delete either windows media center, or most other things, because they're plucked somewhere deep into the system, all spread out. (and no "disable windows features" does not really allow to remove much)
But, at least on the 64-bit version, bootcamp drivers don't really install like they would on xp/vista (I managed to get sound to work with some compatibility settings) but for example keyboard backlighting does not work.
While I agree that it at least is more stable / improved over vista, windows 7 being faster than leopard? Fix your leopard I'd say.
Also, while it has some nice touches here and there, it still takes on the wrong side of hiding stuff from the user. For example in leopard, say you hate garageband, if you never used it, no additional files were created, just drag it to the trash and you're done. However windows 7 wants over 10 GB of disk space, minimum, and you can't delete either windows media center, or most other things, because they're plucked somewhere deep into the system, all spread out. (and no "disable windows features" does not really allow to remove much)
Windows 7 Is Just Windows Never Stand Up To Mac
At first impression Windows 7 was incredibly quicker than Vista, but still not Leopard speed. however like all windows OSs after a couple of days u begin to understand why u dont like windows, it cannot do two things at one (copy data from Time Capsule, and watch a DVD in windows media player) and i cant understand why, neither can it handle a local network connection and an internet network connection without serious networking knowledge required (Leopard is plug and play). The size of windows 7 has no real bearing as it couldnt notice a significant difference unlike with Leopard and Snow Leopard. can't wait for Snow Leopard as the Alpha is beyond good and it still has a long way to go
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iMac 2.66GHZ (Standard), MacBook Air 1.6GHZ (Standard), 1TB Time Capsule, iPhone 1st Gen 2.2 Unlocked And Stable, iPod Classic 160GB, Snow Leopard Alpha, Windows 700 Beta Build 7000
At first impression Windows 7 was incredibly quicker than Vista, but still not Leopard speed. however like all windows OSs after a couple of days u begin to understand why u dont like windows, it cannot do two things at one (copy data from Time Capsule, and watch a DVD in windows media player) and i cant understand why, neither can it handle a local network connection and an internet network connection without serious networking knowledge required (Leopard is plug and play). The size of windows 7 has no real bearing as it couldnt notice a significant difference unlike with Leopard and Snow Leopard. can't wait for Snow Leopard as the Alpha is beyond good and it still has a long way to go
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iMac 2.66GHZ (Standard), MacBook Air 1.6GHZ (Standard), 1TB Time Capsule, iPhone 1st Gen 2.2 Unlocked And Stable, iPod Classic 160GB, Snow Leopard Alpha, Windows 700 Beta Build 7000
i have it installed on my rev A macbook air. on it right now. so far, so good for me. granted, i'm mainly using it just to try it out.
All you have to do is put in the MBA restore disc with the bootcamp drivers and browse for bootcamp/drivers/apple/bootcamp64.exe. This will install everything ..
UPDATE:
This is the BEST OS to put on your Air for games... Period! It is SO much better than XP and Vista 64, with games like L4D and Orange Box playing @ 1280 x 800!
SECOND UPDATE:
The Air is overheating when playing games. I have not had time to try new drivers, but the Air gets extremely hot and the video goes out.
Windows 7 runs amazingly well on my Air. From my experience it runs even faster than OS X. The only problem I am having is the ****** stuttering that comes from bootcamp. I wish there was a fix for that. I have one of the first Airs with the overheating problem, but Windows 7 has taken care of that problem as well. It runs cooler, faster and the battery life is excellent. I have used Windows 7 for a week now and I don't have anything bad to say so far.
For the first time in months I took out my old Air and have been proudly using it.
For the first time in months I took out my old Air and have been proudly using it.
Man, How is your score on windows 7? My 1st gen macbook air only scores 3.7 for processor which seems little low. May I have your score?
OSX is much easier to customize in this respect but it's possible in Windows as well. There's a technique to make a customized install where you can remove a lot of the junk. Look up vlite and slipstreaming on google if you're interested.
The stuttering is due to two things. The first is the absolute piece of garbage that is Apple's keyboard driver. Search for the limo keyboard driver patch in the windows on mac forums. It solves that problem. The second cause of the stuttering is the other piece of garbage that is the Broadcom wireless driver. That is fixed by force updating to the latest driver. Finding that driver is a pain but search for a thread by timur on the windows on mac forums for the location. You'll also need to google what force updating a driver means. Do these two things and the stuttering goes away.