Vista on a MacBook Pro

Leander Kahney ()

Vista on a MacBook Pro

There was some debate a few weeks ago whether Intel Macs would boot Microsoft’s upcoming operating system, Vista, because of conflicting boot-up systems. While the Intel Macs use EFI, a new boot system from Intel, initial versions of Windows Vista will use the old BIOS system.

Well, in the comments to the blog post below, reader RLPM posted a link to a Flickr photoset showing his MacBook Pro booting off a Vista disk image, thanks to Apple’s new Boot Camp software.

RLPM says he didn’t try a full install because he hasn’t backed up his MacBook, and presumably doesn’t want a disk error to wipe everything out.

He writes: “After installing the firmware update and boot camp (didn’t run boot camp assistant), it booted off the most recent Vista. I haven’t had time to backup my system, so I didn’t install vista, but it boots from the latest image!”

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So I guess Apple’s Boot Camp software makes the whole BIOS/EFI firmware issue moot?

5 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Hardware Hacks, Windows on Mac |

  • http://gnuhaus.com/iblog/ Mark Newhouse

    “So I guess Apple’s Boot Camp software makes the whole BIOS/EFI firmware issue moot?”

    From Apple’s Boot Camp page:

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

    EFI and BIOS

    Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.

  • http://www.exgfilms.com Andrew Gingerich

    This from a sidebar on the Boot Camp page:

    EFI and BIOS
    Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.

    Gotta love the passive-aggressive marketing tactics.

  • http://www.vintagemacworld.com/ Phil Beesley

    The installation CD is not booting Vista; it is booting Windows Preinstallation Environment 2.0 (Beta), a cut down version of Vista/Longhorn. The boot manager used by Win PE 2.0 supports both BIOS and EFI booting, although only BIOS booting is officially supported. For more information, search for “Boot Configuration Data Editor Frequently Asked Questions”.

    Given that the Vista installation CD has booted this far, it is a good indication that Vista itself will install. But I wouldn’t fancy running the current betas on a PC using shared graphics.

  • Xineiter

    The bios thing have nothing to do whit bootcamp.
    Intel is so smart that they have implanted both the new and the old bios.
    They have made the memory for bios bigger. The old bios is loadet from low memory and the new from upper memory. And thats how you can install any OS you like on new Intel boards ;-) Clever !!! If the OS ask’s for EFI then it will get it.
    XP / Vista: I need the old bios ! no problemo her it is !

  • http://www.nexttechno.i8.com MOHAMMED

    Can anybody let me know that how I can setup VISA in my Mac Power Book G4 Laptop? Please send me some info about that throue my mail..