Remember when Apple promised that Boot Camp would be updated to officially support Windows 7 in late 2009? It turns out that promise was a few weeks off, but the company has finally delivered, only one week after Microsoft’s beloved Patch Tuesday.
Boot Camp 3.1 for 32-bit Windows and 64-bit Windows, recommended for all users of Boot Camp 3.0, finally brings official support for the Apple wireless keyboard and everybody’s favorite Apple Magic Mouse. There are also a few bugs fixed for the Apple trackpad, and the infrared sensor on all MacBooks now turns off on when it’s not being used, to help conserve battery power.
But wait, there’s more. For ladies and gents planning to do a straight upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows Vista instead of a clean install, there’s this lovely Boot Camp Utility upgrade. It fixes an error that occurs because the Windows 7 installer foolishly tries to write to your computer’s read-only Mac OS X partition. Just download the file while you’re in Windows Vista, follow the rest of the directions in this tech note, and you’re good to go.
If you’ve got a Mac Pro or an iMac, you’ll want to grab these firmware updates. Graphics Firmware Update 1.0 lets your GPU play nicer with Windows 7. Download the 1.20MB update from Apple’s site if Software Update doesn’t grab it for you, and run the installer as usual.
If you have a 21.5-inch or 27-inch iMac that was first introduced in October, 2009, there’s a driver update for Windows just for you. This one is a bit trickier, as it requires a spare USB drive to move the drivers from OS X to Windows Vista or Windows 7. Just leave the USB drive plugged in while you’re installing Windows 7, and the installer should grab the necessary drivers right off the drive with no muss or fuss. There’s a fourteen-step tech note to help walk you through the whole process.
Phew! Some of these procedures don’t exactly feel “Mac-like,” but at least Apple’s provided thorough documentation. Then again, I suppose Steve Jobs isn’t much of a Windows fan.