It’s no secret that I love Apple laptops but I much prefer Vista over OS X. I’ve upgraded to a MacBook Pro and wanted to see if I could get Windows Vista to install on my old 13″ MacBook without using BootCamp.
The following method worked for me using a Windows Vista DVD with Service Pack 1. I did a fresh install of OS X 10.4 Tiger before doing this. (Sorry the pictures are wonky – I’m not great at shooting screen shots with my camera.)
Your mileage may vary. Proceed at your own risk:
Insert Mac OS X Install Disc (this part should work with OS X 10.4 Tiger or OS X 10.5 Leopard discs).
Reboot. Hold down C key during reboot.
Do not start the install. From the Utilities menu, select Disk Utility.
Select your hard drive from the list and then click the Partition tab / button.
Click the Options button and select “Master Boot Record” as the partition scheme. Click OK.
From the Volume Scheme drop down list, select 1 Partition. Select MS-DOS (FAT) for the format (not that this matters since you will reformat it using NTFS during the Vista install).
Click Apply.
Reboot. Hold down the Alt/Option key turning reboot.
When the graphical boot menu appears, hit the eject button. Take out the OS X Install Disc and put in your Vista with SP1 install disc.
If a Windows DVD icon does not appear, reboot and hold down Alt/Option during reboot.
When the Windows DVD icon appears in the graphical boot menu, hit Enter to select it.
Proceed through the Vista install.
When you come to screen titled “Where do you want to install Windows,” select Disk 0.
There will be a message saying that you cannot install to that disk because it is not formatted using NTFS.
Click the Drive Options link. Click the Format link. Click OK in the confirmation dialog.
Now select Disk 0 and click Next.
The Vista installation should proceed as normal.
Once Windows is installed and loaded, insert an OS X 10.5 Leopard disc and install the Windows drivers from Apple. If you do not have access to an OS X 10.5 Leopard disc, your mileage may vary in getting all the hardware to work. (Note: I used the Leopard disc from my MacBook Pro to install the drivers for on the old MacBook. Worked like a charm.)
If this works for you, please leave me a comment here. If it didn’t work, please leave a comment describing what happened.
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THIS???!!!!
Vista is the single most buggy piece software I have ever used.
Sorry, but this feels like buying an Audi, and putting in a Yugo engine.
UBUNTU ALL THE WAY!
lol vista works with all you want. mac os x xx.x.x doenst. muahahaha
Hey. I’m installing it for the sake of it and just seeing what it is like. Might keep it on for a week or two then going back to OS X.
The original reason for reinstalling the testing other options was because OS X has been screwing up for me for the past couple of months after I had sent it in for repairs four (4) times.
I am fed up with the on going list of problems that I have had with my MacBook Pro. As I have said, I’ve sent it in four times and they have said that it was ‘fixed’ but each time, the problem stayed and a new problem came up every time!!!
Recently it’s been that the CD drive hasn’t been able to read about half the CDs – so what did they do? Changed the CD drive. They didn’t think to check that the metal around the case had been bent down? I had to MANUALLY push it back up so now I have this ugly screwed metal thing where the CDs come in and out and I’m now afraid that they’ll scratch on it.
Once the new MBP designs are out, I’m asking to get a whole replacement because I’ve lost money from it being in getting repaired.
I’ll also complain to APC’s watchdog about it and see what they can do for me.
@Sebastien, I have similar problems with my 13″ MacBook reading CDs. Unfortunately the warranty period is over.
Good luck dealing with Apple. I’ve heard their service can be poor. Fortunately for me there is a local repair shop here contracted to do Apple repairs and they’re pretty good. They also do Toshiba warranty service and treated me well every time I took in my 2.5 year old tablet PC that was still under warranty.
I’ve done this with my MacBook Pro – not a trace of OS X left on the hard drive. Only issue, though, is that booting is very slow, I think due to the EFI’s BIOS emulation… Does anyone know a way to fix this delay? Before the Windows splash screen (green loading bar) it sits with a black screen and blinking ‘_’ cursor for 50 seconds every time it boots.
If there’s no solution, it would be helpful to know if this happens with all Macs running Vista, and not just mine.
Thanks.
Did the same for my Mac Air (solid state HD version). Same long boot times. Interestingly – I also did the same with Windows 2008 server (Standard Edition). It worked with no boot delays (go figure – it’s the same kernel). Anyway, all the Leopard drivers worked for 2008 except the Bluetooth drivers – so I reverted back to Vista. Too bad a lot of the bugs in Vista (like the flakey file copy bug) went away in Server 2008. If you do this (Vista or any other OS) and completely remove OSX, remember that you wont be able to do any Apple Firmware updates. To get around this, I installed OSX on a 16 GB USB thumb drive. When I need OSX, I just boot to OSX from that. Slow but functional.
Didn’t know you could boot OS X off a thumb drive. Very cool.
@JimM: Vista SP1 is supposed to improve the file copy problems. Personally I use TeraCopy: http://www.codesector.com/teracopy.php. Not sure how much is perception, but file copying feels a lot faster and the time estimates seem much more accurate.
I was hoping SP1 would solve the problem for me too but no go. Interesting point: Vista with Boot Camp on a Mac-mini (with or without SP1 didn’t exhibit the file copy issues either locally or across the network (AD Domain). but on my Air – even with SP1 – the OS just hangs with the calculating dialog stuck on the screen. Killing the process in Task Manager doesn’t fix it either. The OS gets wonky at that point. Leads me to think it’s more than just a single issue that MS needs to resolve. There was another patch available for SP1 available last week, but I didn’t see anything in the manifest that would lead me to think it would fix the issue (will try it anyway sometime this week and report back). You are absolutely right about 3rd party replacements not having the problem. In my case I installed XYPlorer (http://www.xyplorer.com/) and file copies and moves are back to being lightening fast. A work-around, but that’s all I need at the moment. It seems the Vista file copy issue (post SP1) isn’t an isolated issue as a number of blog posts state it’s still a problem (gees some people sure do get worked up about an OS). I was at MS in Mississauga two weeks ago and compared notes with a number of developers attending a CRM Dynamics seminar and for some this issue was fixed in SP1, while for others it’s still an issue. Sigh.
Well … Just for the record, last week’s patch Tuesday included a patch for Vista that corrects the dreaded file copy error. The manifest states something to the effect that it “fixes several performance and related issues”. About the only other complaint that I have is that my Bluetooth mighty mouse keeps having to be re-installed whenever the Macbook first boots up in Vista. Not sure if this a common Vista issue or something specific to my MBA.
Yes I too am getting fed up of Leopard. Its really getting to me. People are always saying how Vista is buggy and crap etc, but leopard is not close off. It just does stupid things like, it will be working fine, then suddenly on next boot it wont boot properly and stay at the blue screen for ages, and I have to boot from the leopard install disc and repair the disk, gets annoying after a while.
I think my next computer will be a windows, after using mac for ages, I have come to realise thats its way to expensive for starters, repair costs are way to much and if I want to run OSX then you can on a windows anyway.
But, apart from my long annoyance of OSX, thanks for the guide ^__^ I already knew this but I spose some people didn’t
I have a problem with disc 2 of my Leopard install disc (it has an error about copying an iDVD file -.-) and need to use my laptop whilst they send my new discs AND my Time Machine drive died on me thanks to MacDrive so I am now installing Vista on my MacBook as the primary OS. I’m also downloading the retail Leopard (Yes apple. DOWNLOADING without buying. I own the software already. It’s your fault I can’t use it anyway.) I am ALSO ripping the disc 2 and hoping to burn it to disc again (using my PC).
Thanks for the Master Boot Record tip 😉 Needed that!
I love leopard but can’t use it at the moment 🙁
Installing Vista right now. We’ll see what happens after it installs. I have a Leopard CD which came with the Macbook (13in) which contains all the necessary drivers? Cheers,
Derek and all,
is there a specific technical reason to bypass boot camp? I am setting up a Macbook for my wife and am going to use Boot Camp but I’m not a Mac specialist. Thanks in advance everyone.
@David: People who only own OS X 10.4 (Tiger) disks don’t have BootCamp. Some people also like not having an OS X install taking up disk space. But if you have BootCamp, it’s probably easiest to just use it.
Does this method affect an applecare warranty?
@jordan: That’s a good question. I don’t know. I did this on a MacBook that was out of warranty.
did you install windows using a superdrive? i use an external lg dvd unit and everytime i try this stunt i end up with that goddamnit question mark when i try to boot from the vista dvd (xp, win2008 or whatever i try). is there a way to clean install vista or xp without the superdrive?
@Motoi: I’ve only done this with the integrated drive in a MacBook. I know I saw the question mark at some point in my trials but I don’t remember exactly what I was doing. One thing, though, is that you need an OS that supports EFI (e.g., Vista w/ SP1 or Windows Server 2008).
I had managed to install vista without boot camp on my macbook. there is no longer trace of os x. after weeks with vista i decided to drop back to os x. but it seems i’m not able to restore back with the install disk.
i simply can’t get to the disk utility. it keeps on eject the install disc every time i slot it in.
any suggestion?
Great blog 🙂
One question – I’m looking to install my Vista installation on an external Firewire drive.
Any ideas whether it will work?
Running 10.4.11 😉
Dano
@Dano, I have no idea. Let us know if it works.
Can you dual boot with this setup? i.e. repartition with two 50 GB volumes, fresh install OS X 10.4 on the first 50GB partition then install Vista on the second 50GB partition and then boot to either?
i got ma macbook,which wouldnt boot again,with this blinking question mark folder,the probelm is i dont have the OS X installation disks anymore and i wish to install vista or xp,what can i do,thanks????????????
Well for me I am on my third MacBook Pro! They have the best technical support! If you live by a Apple Store it is a lot better than sending it in! Most of the time I can just get a brand new laptop if I am having a lot of hardware issues and stuff like that! Quit complaining!
I just switched my daughter’s MacBook Pro to Vista Enterprise, works great (once you turn off UAC). Thanks for the tips!
Finally! A solution to all my Mac instability problems. This Vista install works great. Thanks for posting this article.
Hej!
I bougt a mac mini 2 MHZ, 1 and 1/2 year ago. I wanted to try with Parallels Desktop. It doesent work very well, and i dident have any use for Macs operting system. What can you do with OSX that you dont can do with Windows? So i did exactly what you did with your Vista installation. A few weeks ago, i read an artcle on the net that you could update your mini to 4 Gb ram. I bougt 2 x 2 Gb ram an putted it in to the mini. With that amount of ram i also bougt Vista 64 Business and istalled it exactly as you did. Got the Leopard drivers from a friend. Everything works just perfect. I run both AutoCAD Architecture and Revit Architechture on it. I works as well as my “big PC” with a 3.0 Intel Core 2 Duo and 8 GB of ram. The graphic card is not that good, but it doesent matter. So my next computer will be a Mac Book Pro with Vista 64. Sad that Macpeople don`t like Winmac people.
I am trying to find help with a problem I have with my 18 month old MacBook. The internal disk drive failed within a year, but there is no support close by and I didn’t send it away because I needed it for online courses. I now need to partition Leopard OS in order to be able to install a statistics program for a course. Should I ditch the MacBook and get a non-Apple product? I need a solution asap as my course starts Thursday.
Lynn, you should be able to install a new hard drive and then use your Leopard install disk to partition the drive as needed.
Thanks for this great tutorial… Works great !!
ok so i did this but my sound dosent work :'(
do i have to install a new sound driver? and how?
it says windows sound driver working…but it dosent.
So I would like to do the opposite of what you did. I bought a MacBook off line from a guy who got rid of the Mac program and now has Vista. How do I turn my Mac into a Mac again?
im thinking about getting a macbook but i stil might just go and get a gateway fx instead. any suggestions? because i dont like OSX. ive had it and i hated it. i have mi vista disc and works fine. any suggestions? thanks! ;D
Hi
Great little article!
I am currently running Windows 7 on my MBPro (late 08) through boot camp. The problem here is that the “bios emulation” doesn’t allow windows to use speedstep and thereby save battery… How does this work when installing directly? Can Windows slow down your processor automatically?
I just did this on my 13″ MacBook without a problem using Windows XP. It screams.
will be doing this. mac os does not have any advantage over vista, all I see is disadvantages – keyboard shortcuts, sw, sharing, usb ports strange etc. I seriously do not understand all the buzz about mac os. compared to windows, it simply sux.
hey there any of instilling sound and other drivers with out using osx
Is someone using Macbook Air with Superdrive?
I have problem after I pass “Start install” It asked for CD/DVD Driver.
How can I do?
I’d like to know if you can configure the trackpad and some buttons on the keyboard like the eject button (It’s not
working anymore. thanks
Hi all
This may help some of you, download a linux Os called Parted Magic and burn to cd. This then can be used to clear harddrive for install without any problems. Its a must for people that tinker and as a maintenece tool. There is also Knoppix also linux. They load into memory. Be carefull as they are powerfull tools.
kind regards
Thanks man. it works.
I cant get it to work, I get stuck where the boot screen is supposed to find the Windows Server 2008 installation DVD, the internal disk drive just makes some noise from time to time and then it ejects the DVD. Sometimes it takes really long but it always seems to eject the DVD…
Hey, after having to put up with the internal disc drive ejecting the DVD over and over again it finally took the DVD (this is a late 2007 MacBook). The installation is loading files and it’s really really slow but it’s progressing, it looked like it froze a couple of times, but it does eventually move again.
The drive popped out while expanding files… I’m running the installation again and right now it’s at 1%, I’m thinking it’s gonna take a while and many pop in pop out scenarios before it finally is done. 2% now and counting… it’s really really slow…
Took awhile but the installation did eventually complete. Thanks Derek!
I have a macbook 13. I want to have 3 partition. On first mac os, second windows xp and on 3th as my archive partition.
Is it possible ?
How?
Hi Derek,
Thank you for such detail install process. After running winXP W/boot camp over the last couple of years. I followed your instructions to install Win7 on my MBP (32-Bit); the install went very well and i have working MBP. However, I need to update the video driver to the latest so I can have the max resolution. And the ATI win7 driver update does not install and does not produce any errors. The other issue, is that I can disable the trackpad when a mouse present. ]
It will be great if anyone can help here. Sorry for bothering you guys. Win7 is great so far.
Regards, –jh
I cant believe I did not see the MBR option in the osx disk utility when I have tried to do this same thing in the past.
Just finished installing, thanks a bunch!
Do you still have the heat issue as under boot camp?
Brilliant post, much appreciated.
Did you manage to get the built in iSight, speakers and trackpad (two-finger scrolling and right-click) working? Or is that only possible via Bootcamp?
Yeah Yeah…..
No sound, webcam, any drivers for them on vista?