Running Windows 7 PDC Build on a Mac with Boot Camp

  

Update 30-Dec-2008: There have been a lot of comments saying that this doesn't work, but there have equally been comments saying that it does work. Other than saying that "it works for me", which isn't very helpful, here's what I did to modify the BootCamp.msi. Download an MSI editor like InstEd to edit the MSI file. Look in the tables and find references to VersionNT. Version 501 refers to XP. Version 600 refers to Vista. Replace references to VersionNT=600 with VersionNT>=600. This will tell the installer to install Vista drivers and reg keys for Vista and above. For comparison, the version of Windows 7 that I'm running (PDC Build 6801) shows up as 610.

If you're trying to run the build of Windows 7 given out at PDC on your Mac using Boot Camp, you will need to install the Boot Camp drivers just as you would do with Windows XP or Vista. However, the Boot Camp installer checks the OS version string and will fail.

While you can install the drivers individually, you will not get everything. The most obvious missing pieces are keyboard hotkey support and the on screen display. To fix this, I tweaked BootCamp.msi so that it will install Vista drivers for Vista and above (i.e. Win7). This is what you need to do:

    Install Windows 7 on your Mac from the installation media. Do this by holding Option down during boot and selecting the optical drive as the boot device.
    Once Windows 7 is installed, copy the Boot Camp directory from the Leopard installation DVD to a folder on your Windows 7 install. Note that to eject the DVD, you will need to go to Computer, right click on your optical drive and select Eject.

    Download the patched BootCamp.msi from here and copy it over the original that is located in Boot Camp\Drivers\Apple.
    Run setup.exe located in Boot Camp and all the drivers should install correctly.

 

On my MacBook Pro, I noticed that audio was non-functional and the RealTek driver supplied with the Boot Camp drivers did not work. I was able to get a later driver from the RealTek site to work. You can download it here (get the "Vista Driver(32/64 bits) Driver".)

Related articles by Zemanta

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• Microsoft Shows Windows 7 Running on Asus EeePC [Windows 7]
• Microsoft to hand out Windows 7 "pre-betas" at PDC, WinHEC

Comments

[callen]

i cant get step 1 to work. The windows 7 installer freezes after i choose a destination partition. It copies files and then stops completely.

[david]

Not sure what to tell you. If you already have Windows installed on the Boot Camp partition, you could boot into that Windows install and kick off the Win7 installation from there.

[FuZi0n]

I can't get this to work. When I try to execute the cracked msi it displays the same error with both the standard and the cracked one. Error code is something like 2229? Any help? :)

[david]

That error probably means that something is missing from the MSI.
Have you copied the patched MSI over the original one? Are all the other drivers in the directory?
Have you tried running the Setup program instead of the MSI?

[Pfeoora]

Yeah! Same goes for me (Error 2229). Thought it was because of an error while downloading with IE, so I tried with Firefox, but same thing again.

[Michael So]

same msi error
it just look like unpatched
is it the correct file? or u make uploaded the original one by mistake ;-)
what program u use to modify the string?

[Kian]

Same problem here... But I get the same error trying to run bootcamp from the cd

[SuperJoker]

I successfully installed Windows 7 on bootcamp but I'm having some sort of drivers issues. I followed your guide, but no help.

My index rating on Windows 7 is 1.0 because of the video drivers. Because of this, I can't get the Aero effect going.

Have you got it working ?

[James]

This is great! I have never had an easier time with boot camp, and it's windows freakin 7. The blue badge even works and everything, yay superbar! Thanks for this little hack, what a big help.

[iNF]

Hi, I encountered the same problem as these people above me. Can you explain how to tweak the .msi to approve Win7 or link to some article on this issue. I'd really like to get things working 100% and running the real installer would go a long way!

I did individually install most of the drivers that probably were meant for my specific MBP model, but it left some oddities that I'm in the process of fixing.

[Fux]

i have the same problem i downloaded the file and overwrite the file (BootCamp.msi) but then i got the error 2229 no differents if I run the setup or the msi file, any idea????

[Halil]

Same goed for me too. Error 2229, with original and this modified .msi file. Anyone solved this issue?
I can't get the SATA drivers to install, so my harddisk rating is much lower than on VISTA.
My score was a 5,2 in Vista and in Windows 7 it's 3,0. Macbook aliminum 2,4 ghz.

[Jose Trujillo]

Hi, I0m geting the same error.

Please Techie Musings, what can we do?

Thanks

[david]

Details of the modifications I made to Bootcamp.msi are in red at the top of the post. I am unable provide individual assistance.