First introduced in 2006, shortly after Apple transitioned the Mac to Intel-based chips, Apple’s Boot Camp multi-boot utility is the secret sauce that has allowed the Mac to be the best-selling PC on Earth.
The proposition Boot Camp offers to would-be Mac buyers is simple. If they buy a Mac, they can run any OS they want: OS X, Windows, or Linux. But if they buy any other laptop, they can never run OS X.
With the release of the latest MacBook Pros, though, Boot Camp just got a little less flexible. Apple has dropped support for Windows 7 from the 2015 MacBook Pro.
As noted on the official Boot Camp support page, the early 2015 MacBook Pro is only compatible with Windows 8 64-bit, and not any flavor of Windows 7. This is the first time Boot Camp has not supported Windows 7 since the compatibility was first introduced years ago.
For Windows 7 loyalists, that’s a bit of a shame. With its boundary-straddling Metro interface, Windows 8 is a lot less familiar an operating system than its predecessor, for good or ill. To many, Windows 7 represents the last “real” Windows version.
Of course, from Apple’s perspective, dropping Windows 7 support from Boot Camp might make sense. It’s possible that the latest MacBook Pro contains hardware for which there is no Windows 7-compatible drivers. It may, in other words, be out of Apple’s hands.
Are you a Windows 7 loyalist? Don’t worry. If you have a 2015 MacBook Pro, you can always run Windows 7 through virtualizing software like Parallels. And with the new MacBook Pros, you know you’ll have the horsepower to run it without a hitch.
Source: Boot Camp
Via: MacPlus
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
16 responses to “Boot Camp just got a little worse for the 2015 MacBook Pro”
I can’t tell if that’s good or bad. Either Apple is trying to force Mac users to give up on using Windows or they’re helping Microsoft sell newer versions of Windows. I’ll continue to use earlier Windows in VMWare Fusion Desktop which is good enough for me.
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It’s probably Microsoft that’s behind the change and it’s to help Windows users migrate to Windows 10.
Windows 7 doesn’t support HiDPI so it looks weird on a Retina display. Also, Windows 8.1 works just fine. Set it to boot straight to the desktop, get a start menu replacement and you’ll notice no functional difference between 7 and 8.1.
Windows 7 end of mainstream support was January 13, 2015. It’s now in extended support until 2020. Ideally you do not want to run an OS that’s in extended support. Apple is just doing what they should be doing. You need to move on. Microsoft is going to update their OS 10 every year like Apple and will end support for older OS’s after 3 years so get use to upgrading your OS. It’ll be free like OS X as well.
I read a couple of articles where it you want Windows 10, it’s free for the first year, but you have to pay for it in order to keep using it. I simply doubt Microsoft is going to give away a cash cow like Windows as they’ll still charge the PC OEMs money to have it installed on new computers. I doubt Windows 10 is going to be done like OS X. They’ll come out with Windows 11 in about 3 to 4 years.
You have to pay to keep using it? Really? I read that it’s free for the life of the computer after your upgrade. You only need to pay if you’re setting it up on a new computer that doesn’t already have a license.
No no no! People really misunderstand! Free for the first year actually means if you upgrade within the first year, it’s free forever. If you don’t upgrade in the first year, you gotta buy it normally.
It’s all because of the new Broadwell chip. You can’t install Windows 7 over USB, among many other things. You can’t install via DVD either, because USB 2.0 isn’t supported. 10 minutes of research and you would have written a better article.
I thought Broadwell still supported Windows 7 over USB. Wasn’t it the next generation that removed that?
Yea. I screwed that up. It’s skylark that removes it.
what’s the big deal? Just run parallels.I’ve never used Bootcamp as I find it too damn inconvenient.
Exactly. I use both Fusion and Parallels and never bootcamp, like you say it is a waste of time.
Apple Bootcamp support is horrible anyway. Why bother….
“It’s possible that the latest MacBook Pro contains hardware for which there is no Windows 7-compatible drivers. It may, in other words, be out of Apple’s hands.”
What? Like apple doesn’t have software engineers who can write device drivers? That has to be the lamest thing I’ve ever read on this site, and that’s saying something.
“But if they buy any other laptop, they can never run OS X.”
This is false. It is perfectly possible to run OS X on a laptop. Just check out InsanelyMac or TonyMacOS or so many other sites. I myself have a now old Asus 1005HA Netbook with Snow Leopard 10.6.8 running faultlessly on it for many years now. Yes the chip is as weak as a left-handed w@nk but that’s Intel Atom for you LOL