Bring Vista64 on a Mac

So, is spent the last weekend with experimenting on my Mac and I want to share new experiences with you

The problem with Leopard is, that often in a business aspect you simply need a Microsoft OS to get some specific work done. Don’t get me wrong, OSX is perfect in its way, but for a lot of business applications (Outlook i.e.) you will get a lot of troubles if you use the Mac equivalent. (i.E. get a universal layout out of it, when you design in the OSX keynotes or Outlook 2008 pendents.
So when I decided to upgrade my Unibody Macbook (more ram, bigger HDD), I gave Vista64 a try on my new 500GB HDD upgrade.
So I will give you a rough walkthrough to hopefully prevent errors which I did when I first installed Vista64 and spare you some (life)time with problems may ocure during the installation…

First of all, there are several ways to get Vista to your Macbook, I decided to work with Bootcamp (comes default with OSX Leopard), because I simply need all of my (hardware) resources on one OS. Parallels and VM Ware are also fine tools to, let’s say, test something or do some quick and dirty crossover stuff, but I simply don’t want to lose a lot of RAM (4GB) – and after doing the whole thing, it was the right decision (especially with AERO and the Vista64 running) for my needs..

So what you need first is a GUID partitioned volume (check the options menu in the Disc Utility tool when you create the partition, with other settings the volume won’t be bootable with Windows and Bootcamp installation will fail).
In my case it was the only installed hard disc in my Macbook.

Here comes the first trap, don’t separate the mainpartition in the first place because Bootcamp won’t let you install the system when there are more partitions. You will need a full single partitioned hard disc with a GUID partition table to get it done.

And before you start, I recommend a backup of your MacOS, with either Time Machine or any other tool of your choice.

When you are done with your backup and bringing your hard disc into shape, start Bootcamp. It will first ask you where you want to install the system and what size your new windows partition shall be.
From the numbers, 30GB are enough to bring your Vista to run, but I want to work with it, so I took 150GB.
Note, there are several forums, which tell you to update your Bootcamp client in the first place, but the default version 2.0 will do it’s job just fine.

Afterwards the system asks you to insert your Windows CD and when doing so, the system will reboot and start the Vista installation.
The only possible difficulty within this process is the location of the right installation target. When Vista asks you, chose the “Bootcamp” labelled partition and format it.
Don’t format any other partition from the list (check with the size of it, if you are not sure which one) – you may hurt your OSX otherwise.

Afterwards Vista will install rather uneventfully. It will restart a couple of times but that’s ok for Windows. If the system will boot at any stage to your MacOS, restart again and press the Option-Key when you hear the starting sound. This will allow you to chose which system you want to boot (note: later you will need this trick to start your “other” OS on the fly, because Bootcamp can only boot one system per default – I checked for a manual bootloader like Grub from the old linux days, but I wasn’t successful).

When Vista completed the installation, a lot of hardware won’t work from the beginning. This includes

• WiFi
• Bluetooth
• Trackpad
• iSight Cam
• MacKeyboard functionkeys
• Lefklick (!)
• MultiCore CPU

To get them running, you need your MacOSX Installation DVD.
I recommend you at this point to get a Mighty Mouse or any other 2 button mouse and plug it into your system. Vista will recognize it automatically.
Browsing in Windows with no right click is kinda hard and you need it for the next critical steps.

On the MacOSX Installation DVD you will find a binary called “Bootcamp”. Copy this entire binary (or the binary “Drivers” inside) to your local hard disc.

Afterwards start a Command Shell (CMD – Start – Programs – Accessories) with administrator privileges (this is important, do it by right click at the CMD link – “Start as Administrator).

In the command shell, switch to the previously copied binary, and move further inside to the “Apple” binary (should something be like ./Bootcamp/Drivers/Apple).

Now you have to start a msconfig setup by hand, by entering the following command:

msiexec /i BootCamp64.msi

This will launch the bootcamp driver installation wizard, which will install every needed driver to your Vista system.

When you restart afterwards, you are up and running to get all updates and system registrations done. The Bootcamp driver will install a program into your info bar (don’t know the correct name, the thing in the bottom left) where you can set up Mac related settings.

You may wonder why we had to start the MSI installation that complex. The answer is simple. The default installation on the Mac Installation DVD will not work with Vista64. It will quit after execution, telling you that the system is not supported.
Further the MSI can’t be installed without Administration Rights simply by clicking it in the explorer. For some wired reasons you can’t start MSI installation routines with administration rights directly in the explorer.
This may not happen when you try Vista32 or XP SP2, because the wizard in Bootcamp will allow you to install all the drivers with the setup.exe.
I haven’t tested Windows 7 yet, but I am also not fan of beta or alpha ware when it comes to operating systems. So I have and will no information about the installation with that specific system for you now or in the future (until release).

Finally some information which may help you operating the Vista-Mac system after the installation:

• Left click works with two fingers laying at the touchpad, and a third finger pressing the button.

• Default bootsystem can be switched by either the Bootcamp tool in Vista, or within MacOSX. The boot the non default system, press the Option Key (ALT) during startup.

• More to come when I find some during daily work. Sorry I am also still in the try and error phase 

• Don’t ever ever resize or move the partition created by bootcamp. I know it has a crappy name/lable but you can destroy your windows partition rather easy and without warnings from or OSX system. Call me a noob, but it happened to me right after I have invested 8 hours in getting all information from the web about the topics, doing all backups, bring Vista to my systems with all updates and finally deleting the backups…

• To access your Windows Partition within Leopard you can take the tool called NTFS-3g.
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/
It works fine to get some docs or music into your Vista.
Unfortunately I haven’t tested tools to access HTFS within Windows, but I will go into testing during the next month and give you some information on that.


Finally doing this way you also have the possibility to start your Vista with a Virtual Machine like VM Fusion or Parallel if you want simultaneous access without rebooting.
This tool will recognize your Vista automatically (newest versions), but you will see that the performance is not good to really work with it. For me it will be a solution if you have a strong (and better upgradeable) machine, like the iMacs or Mac Pros.
On the notebooks you simply don’t have the resources to run Vista64 smoothly. Maybe XP will work like this but I recommend installing it directly into the system and using it none virtually…

So that’s all, if there are any questions or other experiences with the dual system Macbook feel free to comment the post or send me an email…