Sunday 15 July 2007

Installing Windows Vista on a MacBook Pro

My current laptop has run out of horsepower. I put some more memory in it last year, but it is now up to it's limit - 512Mb. It is only of the small Sony Viaos (Sony TR1-MP). I guess it is coming up for 3 years old so it is no surprise that it is time to replace it.

I had a look around and really liked the look of the new Apple MacBook Pro. Of course, these are Intel based and it is relatively straightforward according to some colleagues that have done it.


It took me a while to track one down - I was after a 2.4GHz, 15.4" MacBook Pro. Eventually, I found on in the Apple store in Brent Cross shopping centre. It was interesting that everyone else seemed to be sold out except the Apple Store. The price was pretty much the same wherever you bought it.

It is indeed quite straightforward to set the MacBook up to dual boot. You need to download BootCamp from the Apple website (http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/). The software is Beta, but seems to work a treat. I used the latest version of the software - 1.3. The trick is to print out the instructions and follow them (http://images.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/pdf/Boot_Camp_Beta_Setup_Guide_v1.3.pdf). I was installing Vista Ultimate and the installation went without a hitch.

I have got everything working except the I-Sight camera. As part of the Boot Camp process, a set of Apple drivers are copied onto a DVDR and installed after Windows has been installed.

One of the cool things about Vista is being able to review the performance of the computer and its components. I am really impressed with the performance of the Mac Book (I have included the snippit from the performance monitor). It is way out performing my Toshiba M400 laptop that I use for work as well as my home desktop machine.

Pretty impressive for a laptop! And it is dual boot so now I can run Aperture too!