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Windows Only iMac

L

layziegtp

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 26, 2009
115
0
I've given it my best shot since November 2009, but I just can't handle OSX anymore. It's not a bad OS, by any means, but it's not my cup of tea. And I just plain like Windows 7.

So, I know all about boot camp, and plan to use it if I can't find an alternative, but I would really like to have a Windows only iMac. I've done hours of googling, and come up with very little information on this subject (lots of questions, very few answer).

So I'd like to know, here and now, is a Windows only Mac a reality? And if so, how can I go about it?
 
layziegtp said:
I've given it my best shot since November 2009, but I just can't handle OSX anymore. It's not a bad OS, by any means, but it's not my cup of tea. And I just plain like Windows 7.

So, I know all about boot camp, and plan to use it if I can't find an alternative, but I would really like to have a Windows only iMac. I've done hours of googling, and come up with very little information on this subject (lots of questions, very few answer).

So I'd like to know, here and now, is a Windows only Mac a reality? And if so, how can I go about it?
Click to expand...

seems like a reasonable course of action. After all, windows 7 is much better.
 

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Just out of interests is there a way to leave it all behind, including Boot Camp and have the entire hard drive run with Windows.

I, too, use Windows 7 99% of the time but always wondered if Boot Camp has some overhead that could be avoided with only Windows.:confused:

I partition with about 50gb for MAC and the rest for Windows just for the updates. Likely the updates are good enough reason to stick a small MAC partition.

I sure love the Apple hardware.
 
njean777 said:
why not just sell the imac, and get a cheap pc ?
Click to expand...

+1

You can probably get a PC for half the amount you will get for for the sale and pocket the rest.

I mean, based on what you are saying, there is no reason you should own a Mac. Sell it to someone who will use and enjoy it.
 
Stealthipad said:
Just out of interests is there a way to leave it all behind, including Boot Camp and have the entire hard drive run with Windows.

I, too, use Windows 7 99% of the time but always wondered if Boot Camp has some overhead that could be avoided with only Windows.:confused:

I partition with about 50gb for MAC and the rest for Windows just for the updates. Likely the updates are good enough reason to stick a small MAC partition.

I sure love the Apple hardware.
Click to expand...
No overhead having a small osx partition.
 
you can not only install windows , windows needs bootcamp because windows is looking for a bios that isnt there and needs to be told what a soundcard is and what a monitor is where it can find a processor and ram among other things by bootcamp

cant understand the point of that anyway why someone would buy a mac and install windows on it ...that..that was the whole point for me switching to mac
after using microsoft operating systems since MS-DOS up to windows vista
...ok i have windows xp installed on one of my mac's using virtual pc but in the last year i only used it twice for about 5 minutes ...just to upgrade it to sp3 :rolleyes:
 
flopticalcube said:
You can do it but a small OSX partition (it need only be 20GB) would be wise to do firmware upgrades. You can set the startup disk to be Windows all the time.
Click to expand...
This is what I would do. Remove all the unnecessary applications from OS X so that you can have the partition be as small as possible and use it only for essential system-wide updates, such as EFI and SuperDrive updates.
 
To those that question why I would want to run Windows on a Mac - I love this computer to death. There is no PC out there quite like the 27" iMac. It is without a doubt the finest piece of hardware I've ever used, and I give Apple a lot of credit for that.

OSX just isn't what I want or like. I've tried to get used to it, and I've used it for quite a long time now, but OSX and I just don't play well together. I love some of the apps, and absolutely hate others.

Thanks to everyone who replied. I will keep OSX on a small partition for firmware upgrades, and use Boot Camp to install Win7.
 
I agree that it comes down to choice (and no i am not wathcing to much of the Matric :) ) How ever I have found that a lot of people dont like OSX for one reason and that is they dont understand the whole package and whats on offer. When you educate yourself in everything it can do it smashes Windows (IMO) and those that I have educated on OSX that hated it, even after 12 months of use now love it. I am not saying you dont understand it im just saying that it plays nice if you look at the whole thing. I ran Windows 7 because i was doing Alpha and Beta testing for them on it and think it is a great job they have done but still not enough for me to switch back in a million years.

Just my thoughts :)
 
I'm going to go with the others and say you should just sell the imac and build a much better, and cheaper desktop pc.
 
layziegtp said:
So I'd like to know, here and now, is a Windows only Mac a reality? And if so, how can I go about it?
Click to expand...

Follow the Bootcamp instructions. There is one point where the instructions explain how you carefully avoid overwriting your MacOS X partition and install Windows on a second partition instead. At that point you do exactly what the instructions tell you not to do and install Windows on the MacOS X partition.

MacHamster68 said:
cant understand the point of that anyway why someone would buy a mac and install windows on it ...that..that was the whole point for me switching to mac
Click to expand...

If I wanted to use Windows and nothing else (which I don't, I'd rather catch the measles), then the iMac 27" or a MacPro is a mighty fine machine to run Windows on. Not exactly cheap, but very fine machines.
 
The iMac is a pretty awesome piece of hardware, and if you really need to run Windows instead of OS X, it's no big deal. Just be glad your computer gives you the option of running anything you like :)
 
MacHamster68 said:
you can not only install windows , windows needs bootcamp because windows is looking for a bios that isnt there and needs to be told what a soundcard is and what a monitor is where it can find a processor and ram among other things by bootcamp
Click to expand...

No, you are perfectly capable of running Windows without ever having a Mac OS X partition. The BIOS compatibility module exists in the EFI ROM and is not tied to the OS at all.
 
JoshBoy said:
I agree that it comes down to choice (and no i am not wathcing to much of the Matric :) ) How ever I have found that a lot of people dont like OSX for one reason and that is they dont understand the whole package and whats on offer. When you educate yourself in everything it can do it smashes Windows (IMO) and those that I have educated on OSX that hated it, even after 12 months of use now love it. I am not saying you dont understand it im just saying that it plays nice if you look at the whole thing. I ran Windows 7 because i was doing Alpha and Beta testing for them on it and think it is a great job they have done but still not enough for me to switch back in a million years.

Just my thoughts :)
Click to expand...

This is SPOT ON!!! The whole experience of a Mac is the hardware and Mac OS X. You can't just use Windows on a Macintosh and get the feel of a physical Windows machine. The keyboard alone is not even the same, the drivers are never optimized for Windows. To each his own.

layziegtp said:
To those that question why I would want to run Windows on a Mac - I love this computer to death. There is no PC out there quite like the 27" iMac. It is without a doubt the finest piece of hardware I've ever used, and I give Apple a lot of credit for that.

OSX just isn't what I want or like. I've tried to get used to it, and I've used it for quite a long time now, but OSX and I just don't play well together. I love some of the apps, and absolutely hate others.

Thanks to everyone who replied. I will keep OSX on a small partition for firmware upgrades, and use Boot Camp to install Win7.
Click to expand...

I have a problem with your argument. On a daily basis this forum (for whatever reason I'll never get since this is a Mac forum) tries it's best to sway people away from Macs by stating that you can get so much more on a physical Windows machine than you can get on a Mac for sometimes $1000 less. More ports, Blu-ray, HDMI, more ram, better CPUs, yet from time to time I will see a post like yours saying "There's nothing out there like Apple's hardware"
Try to be honest with yourself, R U really trying to keep the iMac so you can have a pretty Windows 7 machine? It will never be the same as a true physical PC especially since it requires OS X to get firmware updates. It's just a waste, but again, to each his own, but don't kid yourself into thinking that a Bootcamped Windows 7 iMac is the same as any other physical PC, cause it's not. You're spending more money to have a pretty W7 machine.

If you have to have an AIO, take a look at Sony and Dell or even HP's Touchsmart. Otherwise you can get a good quality 27" Dell and sky's the limit on a desktop Core i7 PC.
 
My one buddy who's into PCs and very few Macs told me last week that he loves using Windows 7 on the iMac 27" better then using W7 on his 24" PC. He loves the stability of the Apple H/W over traditional PC H/W. But, he likes W7 better then Mac OS. If it works for him, then why not? Especially since he configures/supports his own systems...

For me, I like the iMac 27" screen but not too keen on their small keyboards or their slim design mice. When I buy a iMac 27" (before this Christmas) for myself, I'll probably buy a different (3rd party) large size keyboard and larger size mouse for it. Luckily, I have favorite H/W choices as well...

For me (for your situation), I'd probably leave Bootcamp and small Mac OSx partition "as is". And run Win 7 on the rest of the drive. If for some reason, I run out of disk space, I'd do more research into alternatives. But while under Apple Care, I'd leave the boot camp and OSX configured "as is" (or at is minimum partition size).

Good luck...

.
 
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