Windows 7 RC on a Mac Tips and Tricks
I’ve been running Windows 7 RC successfully on my MacBook Pro for about a week now. If you are thinking of giving 7 a try via Boot Camp it’s really not that hard to do. Unless you are already running a version of Windows and don’t want to overwrite it, the process is quite strait forward (See Apple Help: Boot Camp Install). Use a minimum of 20GB for your Boot Camp partition (more if you want to install a lot of apps or games).
For Boot Camp 2.1 (should be included on your Leopard disc) the LIMO patch is the only out of the ordinary thing you’ll need to get your Apple Hardware drivers running after install (read the included instructions). MacBook and Pro users will also want to install the Multi-Touch Trackpad update.
You should also check for graphics driver updates from NVIDIA or ATI depending on your model of Mac (after installing the Boot Camp drivers).
As always don’t forget to get a Windows anti-virus. I suggest Avast Home FREE. Note: Make sure you turn off any anti-virus software while installing drivers.
If you already have XP or Vista running on a partition and don’t want to mess that up, you will need some extra software to create a new partition for Windows 7. (See my previous post about using iPartition). I have a 500GB hard drive so I created a 32GB partition for Windows 7 leaving 200GB for XP and all my games (about 232GB for Mac OS X). I can now pick either XP or 7 when I boot into Windows. I found that I don’t need to re-install games or most programs to run them, I can simply run them from my XP partition “D:\Program Files” (I use Steam for most of my games). Game saves and settings however will most likely not be loaded from your XP partition.
Once you have Windows 7 up and running you may want to synchronize/backup files and settings between your previously installed version of Windows. I suggest using DropBox (register with this link for extra 250MB).
I’m using DropBox to sync my game saves and desktop wallpaper quite successfully. (See Sync files that exist outside the “My Dropbox” and download the suggested Link Shell Extension for both your installs of Windows). You can link all of your important settings and game saves inside XP or Vista to your DropBox.
Most settings and saves will be in C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\Local Settings (or “Application Data”) also C:\Documents and Settings\User Name\My Documents
BACKUP SETTINGS FILES BEFORE LINKING TO DROPBOX TO PREVENT DATA LOSS.
I suggest re-creating the file structure inside your DropBox (use new folders with the same names) so you can easily find where to link your settings files when you boot into Windows 7. Finding all your game save locations may be the hard part. I suggest a quick check on Google for any hard to find settings. You may also need to turn on hidden files/folders inside Windows Explorer to get to all your settings. You may also need to get properties on your folders and un-check “Read Only” to allow the creation of a link to a settings file/folder inside your Dropbox.
Good luck! If you have any questions or helpful tips of your own please post them in the comments.
MacBook Pro Boot Camp Tip: Play games on external displays
UPDATE: Windows 7 just works with external displays. No need for tweaks or hacks.
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Last night I stayed up late tinkering with my late 2008 15” MacBook Pro’s Windows XP install again in hopes of getting my games to run on my 40” 1080p Samsung TV, for reasons that should be obvious. I managed to successfully accomplish what I had set out to do, and it’s quite easy.
This is also a way to get the latest Windows Nvidia driver updates for your Mac (Boot Camp drivers are very old).
First you should uninstall your old Nvidia display driver from the add/remove control panel, (also a good idea to disable antivirus before doing this). DO NOT UN-INSTALL ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE NVIDIA DISPLAY DRIVER ONLY; if you do remove the other Nvidia drivers too you will have to reinstall the Boot Camp drivers from your Mac OS X install disc and start this process over. You will likely need to reboot after uninstalling.
Download the latest Nvidia drivers for your OS and run the EXE. Do not run the installer just yet even if it pops-up. The EXE by default puts the driver in the C:\NVIDIA\ folder where you can get to it later.
Now to enable the option to make your external display the primary display you need a modified INF file to for the driver installer. You can generate this file on the following link: laptopvideo2go.com/enhancer
Pick the correct driver version number (for the driver you just downloaded) then scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Enable” Primary for Dual Display. Download the INF file.
The last step is to put the INF file into the C:\NVIDIA\your os version\driver version\IS\Display\ folder replacing the existing file. Once this is done just run the installer Setup in the C:\NVIDIA\your os version\driver version\IS\ folder (make sure your antivirus is off) and then reboot when finished.
Your MacBook Pro’s Windows install should now allow you to use an external display as primary and even disable the internal display. I found I had to disable my internal display before the game I tested F.E.A.R. 2 would launch on my TV’s screen. You may need to re-adjust your games’ resolution settings, and also tweak the color gamma through the Nvidia control panel before you play.
Also noteworthy: I found that the Windows XP text rendering looks like pixelated poop on my TV; barely readable… I’m not sure why, but all other graphics seem to be displayed at native resolution perfectly sharp on my TV. I may look further into this text issue.
UPDATE: The above issue was caused by my TV’s sharpness settings being nearly at full and was easily fixed by lowering the sharpness. The TV’s brightness and contrast also should be checked, don’t rely on your computer’s settings.
Boot Camp: How to get the latest NVIDIA drivers for your Mac
I’ve been running Windows XP on my 15” MacBook Pro for the past 2 months now to play PC games. Overall it’s been great fun to be able to play Windows only games, and my late 2008 unibody MacBook Pro is more than capable of playing the latest PC games.
The only issue I’ve run into is that the BootCamp installed graphics drivers are very old and perhaps not ideal for running the latest games… As Mac users this is one of the headaches we don’t normally have to worry about.
I’ve experimented with several drivers including 3rd party drivers before settling on the latest official driver from NVIDIA. The only hitch is that the NVIDIA installer “doesn’t support” Apple hardware, so here’s an easy work around you can use.
UPDATED 04-27-09 Thanks to the comments below from HJ.
Disclaimer: the described steps below worked for me, however I do not take responsibility for any damage done to your computer as a result of following my advice.
First you should uninstall your old Nvidia display driver from the add/remove control panel, (also a good idea to disable antivirus before doing this). DO NOT UN-INSTALL ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE NVIDIA DISPLAY DRIVER ONLY; if you do remove the other Nvidia drivers too you will have to reinstall the Boot Camp drivers from your Mac OS X install disc and start this process over. You will likely need to reboot after uninstalling.
- Check to see what graphics card you have; either in the Mac OS X “System Profiler” application under “Graphics/Displays”. My MacBook Pro has a GeForce 9600M GT (and the power saver 9400M).
- Download the latest NVIDIA driver for your graphics card. (At the time of this post the latest driver for my 9600M GT is 179.48). Note: If the installer auto runs cancel because we aren’t ready to install yet.
- Download the latest NVIDIA PhysX System Software. Note: Don’t install yet.
- To make the NVIDIA driver allow you to install it on your Apple hardware you need a modified INF file. Find the matching driver number on laptopvideo2go.com/enhancer. (Example: my driver 179.48). You are also able to modify driver settings on this page (see my external display post). Once finished this will download a file called NVAC.INF.
- Turn off all Antivirus software you are running after you scan the downloaded files. The antivirus may keep the driver install from correctly installing.
- Install the NVIDIA PhysX System Software. This should be quick and painless.
- Extract the NVIDIA driver you downloaded earlier to a new folder on your desktop or C:\NVIDIA.
- Locate the “Display” folder inside of the extracted NVIDIA driver folder and copy the NVAC.INF file into the ”Display” folder. It will ask you if you want to overwrite the existing file, press Yes.
- Run the Setup in the extracted NVIDIA driver folder. If it asks you if you want to overwrite files during the install press Yes.
- You should be done, restart and test your games.
On a side note you may want to checkout smcFanControl to make sure your Mac doesn’t overheat while running intense games. With this app you set your fans to a faster speed inside Mac OS before booting into Windows.
So I ordered a gaming mouse
I went with the Logitech G5 that I had posted about the other day. It’s the highest rated and well regarded gaming mouse I’ve seen around the web, plus it’s only a little more expensive than the other mice I was looking at.
I also ordered a mouse pad because with a laptop you never know what kind of surface you’ll be dealing with. I happened to find a low priced “gaming” mouse pad the SteelSeries QcK Mini. I went with it because it’s thin and flexible for portability, plus it’s supposedly ideal for gaming.
I’ll post a quick review after they arrive.
All the Gaming Mice I am interested in
A fancy well reviewed gaming mouse. It’s got adjustable weight even. It’s slightly ugly and costs the most of the mice I’m looking at. No native Mac OS X drivers so 3rd party shareware drivers would be required if I wanted to use the extra buttons in Mac OS X, however user reviews would suggest it works fine under games in OS X without drivers.
Lacks a few features of the G5 (above) but has the same basic form and function for a bit less money. I also do like the color of this mouse better. This also has no native Mac OS X drivers, but works.
Razer DeathAdder Mac 3G Gaming Mouse
My Previous blog post was about this mouse. I’m a little less interested in it now that I’ve seen reviews of the Logitech saying they work fine on Macs. I was mainly interested because of it’s native Mac OS X drivers.
Razer DeathAdder Mac 3G Gaming Mouse
I think I’ve settled on this mouse for my new found interest in PC games. I like this mouse for a few reasons; (1) It’s a mostly well reviewed gaming mouse (2) It fully supports Mac OS X out of the box without 3rd party drivers (3) It also looks cool.
I was also looking into Logitech gaming mice but their programable buttons aren’t usable under Mac OS X without 3rd party driver software like USB Overdrive X. While I will be using the mouse mostly under Windows for games, it would be nice to have it fully supported for my Mac OS also.
I’ll do a bit more research into the Logitech laser mice before I settle on the Razer.
Ordered VMware Fusion 2
I ordered the disc version from Amazon for quite a bit less than even the direct download version.
The trail had me impressed. It’s a great BootCamp companion. I was even able to play some less taxing Windows 3D games inside of VMware Fusion 2 at reasonable speeds.
MacBook Hard Drive Upgrade = Free PS3 HDD Upgrade & External Drive
I’m thinking about upgrading my MacBook Pro from it’s stock 320 GB hard drive to 500 GB, to make more room for my Windows gaming partition. The pleasant side effect of this upgrade is a free upgrade for my PS3 and a bonus 80GB external drive.
This round of upgrades would cost me around $130 (or less) to buy the 500 GB 2.5” SATA hard drive and a 2.5” SATA external enclosure.
Since the PS3 also uses 2.5” SATA drives; after cloning my Mac’s system onto 500 GB drive (via the external enclosure) I’ll put the Mac’s old 320 GB hard drive into my PS3. As a bonus I’ll make my PS3’s old 80 GB into an external drive with the enclosure.
Note: The only complication will be making a backup of my PS3’s files (because of DRM). I plan to use another external drive formatted to FAT32 to backup my PS3 files before the upgrade. Any other PS3 compatible flash memory will also work.
The Nvidia Driver I'm using for my MacBook Pro's Windows install
UPDATE: I’ve switched drivers since this post, see my new post.
I have a late 2008 MacBook Pro that I’ve BootCamped to play PC games on. The Apple provided BootCamp Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT drivers are quite dated… I had been getting some small graphics glitches so I installed the above linked driver.
The MacBook Pro is actually a great PC gaming laptop, I’ve been able to run any newer PC game at mid-high to high graphics settings without any problems or slowdowns.
I’m thinking about doing a big blog post for Mac users getting started with Windows PC gaming.
My first PC game: Left 4 Dead
I’ve been playing with Boot Camp and VMware Fusion on my MacBook Pro for the past month to run Windows XP. I’ve finally decided that my MacBook Pro makes a great gaming PC so last night I took advantage of Steam’s weekend 50% off sale of Left 4 Dead (the 4 player co-op zombie survival game) with some friends (the podcast group). We’ve only played one match so far but it’s a lot of fun.
Ordered an iMic to get my Plantronics headset working with my MacBook Pro. I don’t know why Apple never amplifies their line-in ports, it’s a pain to get any external mics that work on a Mac.
I need the headset for Skype podcasting.
Testing VMware Fusion 2.0 on my MacBook Pro.
