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Yea it will BakedBeans, but that shouldn't really be a problem. The hardware Apple is using on their Macbook's and Intel iMac is pretty much standard stuff that Windows computers use. USB ports etc. will all be recognized and installed during Windows setup. The video card is a standard ATi and may only just require an updated graphic driver which is available for the x1600. Windows XP may not have drivers for the sound card or network card for some hardware; however if Apple is using standard hardware that everyone else is using, then it won't be an issue finding drivers for those either.
 
BakedBeans said:
wont windows need drivers for like - everything?

all the usb ports and video card and - everything?

I could be wrong, but I think that the normal Windows drivers are probably close enough to be functional.
 
semaja2 said:
what about the firmware, like macs use special firmware on the gpu which would mean special drivers wouldnt it

Maybe, but I don't know enough about the new architecture to say for sure, and I am not sure if anyone else here does either.
 
thurrott

Look at this post regarding OS X liscencing on standard PC's from the Thurrott supersite... :

"On the flipside, Apple won't allow customers to install Intel-based versions of Mac OS X on standard PCs."

If they did, Microsoft's monopoly on x86 OS'es would be gone, just like that.

PatriotB6007

Yup, and when finally Jobs deceides to make this move Microsoft would have already fully transitioned to the x64 platform and probaly by then will be preparing x128 or whatever the next-gen platform will be.

Jason Cox - January 12, 2006


-"probaly" what is x64? 64bit? Is that relevant??? :p
 
ReanimationLP said:
So, yeah, I unhid all the OS files on my XP box. And guess what I found ;)

Theres a folder on the HD called Boot.

Inside of that is a folder called EFI.

Inside of that is all the Windows XP boot files encoded to boot on a EFI based machine.

Someone try a SP2 Pro disc on their Mac and lemme know what happens!

EDIT : Added a picture to show that I'm not crazy.


Was this from a gateway by chance or was it a custom build computer? I heard they were experimenting with EFI.
 
ArnehWB said:
In theory it should work just fine. EFI booting has been a part of Vista for quite a while now. Though I doubt there's many Intel iMac owners who also have Vista to test it with. Paul Thurrot has ordered an Intel iMac to test Vista on it http://www.windowsitpro.com/windowspaulthurrott/Article/ArticleID/49045/windowspaulthurrott_49045.html . Let's hope that someone will be able to write some definitive article soon about the matter.



Well since Vista has EFI support, don't we all already know that Vista will work? The only thing I can see not working is Windows XP, possibly. In any case once I get my iMac on Tuesday, if nobody has posted about it yet, I have Vista and XP discs to try it out.
 
I'm running XP x86-64 and there is no EFI folder with everything unhidden. I'm not sure if its not there because it doesn't exist in 64 bit x86 Windows XP or if it didn't install because my motherboard and chipset (nForce 4 SLi) use a BIOS and not EFI. Either way it might be a moot point since Core is a 32 bit CPU.
 
here's a little update from someone posting at MacNN

"I've got an Intel iMac and a copy of build 5270 of Vista, and I haven't figured out a way to boot yet. None of the typical ways of dealing with selecting a boot volume work: holding down C or cmd-shift-option-delete, or selecting a startup disk in system preferences. In addition, holding down the Option key while booting up only brings up volumes formatted with Mac OS X."

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=282078

Looks like it isn't gonna be a put the CD in and install type of deal even for Vista. Is it possible that the EFI implementation in Vista is not complete as of the latest build?
 
DOUGHNUT said:
here's a little update from someone posting at MacNN

"I've got an Intel iMac and a copy of build 5270 of Vista, and I haven't figured out a way to boot yet. None of the typical ways of dealing with selecting a boot volume work: holding down C or cmd-shift-option-delete, or selecting a startup disk in system preferences. In addition, holding down the Option key while booting up only brings up volumes formatted with Mac OS X."

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=282078

Looks like it isn't gonna be a put the CD in and install type of deal even for Vista. Is it possible that the EFI implementation in Vista is not complete as of the latest build?

OK, this may sound strange, but has anyone tried holding down the "D" key while starting up? In the iMac Intel's manual, it states to hold down D while booting from the Hardware Test CD, so maybe it'll work with XP or Vista... (probably not, but we can hope ;) )
 
How does ordinary Mac folk go about getting Vista beta? I presume its only for developers at the moment?

Which means to test it I would have to illegally download it from a torrent site (I of course wont be doing this illegal operation.... but just dont ask how i got a copy when i post results of a trial!)

I would have to burn it to a disk wouldnt i? then put it on a partition? not that i would do that type of thing

anyone that could tell me how to do it - for educational purposes - feel free to pm me about how bad it is to steel things (ill forward it on to microsoft - they know a thing or two about it)

;)
 
No the Vista beta is not only for developers. It's not like Apple's program where you need to pay to get access to more stuff. Microsoft's beta's have always been free and if you've been in other betas for them before, notably other OS betas, you're more than likely to get an invite to the Vista beta.

Nevertheless come Beta 2, which should be in the next few months or so, it'll be a public beta where anyone can download it from Microsoft's site and try it.

mrplow, who was going to try Vista on an Intel iMac could well be a beta tester, its not impossible, as I'm in the beta program as well.
 
Am I being simple... can't you just run cmd and cd c:\ all the way back to the c: and then do a simple dir to see if the boot folder is there?

edit: it not on my SP2 XP
 
I have the December CTP of Vista installed as well.

Guess those are Vista files then.

:(

Maybe you can use the Vista boot files to boot into XP though.

And here I thought I was on to something too. :(
 
BakedBeans said:
wont windows need drivers for like - everything?

all the usb ports and video card and - everything?


Well for video cards all you need to do is load this:

Catalyst Drivers

For USB ports it will be detected with a generic driver but in the event it doesn you load this:

Intel Chipset software

Hard drives? It will just be detected and will use a generic driver from the Intel Chipset software.

Audio? That could be tricky but doable. Remember that just about every part is from a third party provider. Apple doesn't, even with G4 PowerBooks, make 90% of the components in their hardware. And I have no doubt that whatever audio hardware they are using there has an XP driver out there somewhere.

WIFI? Prob an Intel radio which means you just go to www.intel.com and download the driver.
 
http://appleintelfaq.com/imac/system_profiler.html

according to the system profiler of the iMac, the audio chip is Intel, so that's easy to solve. The problem is did Apple use specialized firmware for the Radeon card? Also, what driver will work with the Airport Extreme? The Airport Extreme will be pretty important for MacBook Pro, so that must be figured out.
 
DOUGHNUT said:
http://appleintelfaq.com/imac/system_profiler.html

according to the system profiler of the iMac, the audio chip is Intel, so that's easy to solve. The problem is did Apple use specialized firmware for the Radeon card? Also, what driver will work with the Airport Extreme? The Airport Extreme will be pretty important for MacBook Pro, so that must be figured out.

Chances are its an Intel chip. Intel made a big hoo ha about their centrino technology which involved a specific processor, motherboard AND a specific wireless chip. I don't know about Bluetooth though, I'm not sure if Intel have any bluetooth chips out there yet.

I can't believe nobody's tried to install Vista yet! Isn't there *someone* out there with an Intel iMac and a copy of Vista Beta?!!
 
Spanky Deluxe said:
Chances are its an Intel chip. Intel made a big hoo ha about their centrino technology which involved a specific processor, motherboard AND a specific wireless chip. I don't know about Bluetooth though, I'm not sure if Intel have any bluetooth chips out there yet.

I can't believe nobody's tried to install Vista yet! Isn't there *someone* out there with an Intel iMac and a copy of Vista Beta?!!

Nobody that gives a crap. Remember that most Macheads (A affectionate term.) don't give a crap about Windows. The only ones that do are pretty much those who still have apps that they need to keep around. Also Vista isn't going to repartition the system for you. So you would have to kill the hard drive's partition that has OS X on it which most aren't willing to do. At this point installing Windows is a geek’s challenge.
 
SiliconAddict said:
Nobody that gives a crap.

Well I for one give a crap. If they can definately dual boot with Vista then one of my housemates will order an iMac this week and if the future PowerMac replacements can boot Vista then I'll completely switch from Windows to Mac. I can't do that until then. Right now I really want to know so that my housemate can decide to get an iMac. He needs a new PC but still needs to use Windows occasionally for 3D applications and smaller apps that haven't been ported to OS X. He's willing to switch and learn OS X for 90% of his user time though.
 
howesey said:
Tut tut. You are not allowed to sell WMC, like you are not allowed to sell Windows XP-64. They are all OEM and must be sold with a computer.

They must sold with HARDWARE. So you can buy a $1.00 power cable and WMCE. We did it all the time in a hardware class I took.
 
Stecchino said:
They must sold with HARDWARE. So you can buy a $1.00 power cable and WMCE. We did it all the time in a hardware class I took.

Yeah, you can get media edition anywhere.

I think the testing that needs to be done, considering that this partition thing isnt working, is to JUST get windows on one of these things, THEN worry about running both OS's, which is what we all want to do. This way, we help isolate what the issue is, rather than EFI, hardware, dual boot all being variables.

Worst case scenario, pop in that mac restore DVD...

..and if I had my MBP, I would be trying this right now!
 
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