Risotto’s weblog

I was lucky enough to get a copy of Vista from my University which holds a MSDNAA license. The license I got is for Windows Vista Business edition. This is the version without Media Center. Instead it comes with “improved networking functionality”, whatever this means… probably it just means you can logon to a Windows domain. Very improved functionality indeed!
Anyway, I’m going to document the installation process on a MacBook Pro. Maybe someone else will find this manual useful when trying to install Vista on a MacBook.

First of all, there is a big warning at this point: DON’T PROCEED WITHOUT BACKING UP YOUR CURRENT MAC OS X INSTALLATION. Installing Vista can result in a complete loss of all your data on your machine!

Ok, you have backed up everything, right? Let’s continue:

1. Get the BootCamp Beta from Apples site. You should check that you really have the current version of this nice tool. Install it, and start it.
2. Burn a recent copy of the drivers disk. Even if you already have a driver’s disk, check that it was burned with the latest version of bootcamp. Many drivers have been updated in the latest release.
3. Now continue with partitioning your hard-drive. Make sure your hard-drive needs no repair. You can check this with the Disk Utility application which comes with Mac OS X. Partitioning will fail if your hard-disk is not healthy! When partitioning also make sure to keep enough space for your Mac OS X installation. Mac OS X becomes very slow if there is not enough space left on the hard-disk. Also make sure to have enough space for your new Vista installation. The OS and a few applications will require at least 15-20 GB space on your disk. Vista recommends 10 GB for a minimal installation.
4. Start the Windows installation from BootCamp. BootCamp will ask to insert a Windows XP servicepack 2 cd. Just ignore this message and insert a Windows Vista CD instead. BootCamp will not complain and restart your computer.
5. Things will get interesting now! First of all, say bye-bye to high-resolution! Windows Vista first starts in some kind of pseudo text-mode and will then switch to something like a 800×600 pixel resolution. If this is all to technical for you, don’t worry, it simply means, the installation looks ugly!

   
   

   Anyway, Windows Vista will now ask you for some regional settings and then will proceed to the license key entry. Just enter it. By the way, the key includes dashes (-). The dash key did not work on my MacBook Pro with a Swiss German keyboard. Still this was no problem since the dashes will be entered manually if you just continue to type in the license key.

   

6. The next step is very important and also very dangerous. After selecting the “custom installation” Vista will ask you for your hard-disk partition you want to install it to. Look carefully and identify the partition which you created for Vista. You can recognize it by looking at the sizes of the partitions. On a standard Mac OS X installation with one partition you should see four partitions on this screen. The last one is usually the new partition for Windows. I say “usually” because it is imperative that you double-check this. If you select the wrong partition you WILL destroy your Mac OS X installation.

   

7. The next thing you will notice when continuing is Vista installing itself. Vista will show a screen where it iterates through the following steps:

   

   • Copying Windows files
   • Expanding files
   • Installing features
   • Installing updates

   Windows will reboot at this point.

   
   There will be a message while booting to hit any key to boot from cd/dvd. DON’T! Windows will continue installing by itself. If you hit any key you will simply restart the Windows installation from the cd.

   

8. After rebooting you will still see the same screen. This time the Windows Vista installation will be “Completing Installation”.

   

   The step took quite a while on my MacBook Pro with 2GB of ram. UPDATE: This installation step crashed (what better way to welcome a new Windows user ). After waiting 30m I decided to reboot my machine and see what happens. I figured that Windows will have some kind of way to resume the installation. In fact I was presented with the Windows Recovery screen which suggested to “start windows normally”. After reloading the installation error was discovered and I was suggested to restart the installation. One click later my machine is rebooting once more.

9. This time you will have to push any key, when asked to boot from the cd/dvd. We will go back to step 5 and hope that the installation will not freeze again. If it doesn’t then you’ve made it to step 10. Welcome to the real Windows .
10. After the screen going dark and showing only the mouse cursor the installation will restart again. Again don’t boot from cd/dvd and wait for the user setup screen to show up. Enter your name and a password if you would like to secure your machine with it.

    

11. Next, choose a name for your computer and select a desktop background.

    

12. Now select your kind of protection level. Keep in mind, since this is Windows your are better off using the “recommended settings” .
13. Select your time settings on the next screen. For some kind of reason the clock was one hour late.

    

14. Windows Vista installation will now thank you .

    

15. The installation will now start checking your computer’s performance. Again, who knows what is really going on at this stage of the installation :).

    

16. The login screen will now come up. Windows seems to be installed. Login and take a first look of your new OS. But we’re not done yet! The real work just starts now!

    

17. Installing drivers! Without these drivers you will not be able to use the bluetooth or wireless lan adapter. In order to do this you will need to eject the Vista install cd and insert the bootcamp driver disc. But since you are running Windows without any drivers now, you will not be able to eject the cd by pushing F12. You will need to go to the Windows Explorer (Start->Computer), select the CD/DVD drive and push select.

    

18. After inserting the bootcamp cd you will be asked if you would like to run autorun.exe. There will be a Windows security message asking you, if you want to let the unidentified program access your computer. Deny this, since we will need to extract the drivers from the installer manually.
19. First, copy the “Install Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP.exe” File to some directory of your Windows installation. I made a directory named c:\Users\myusername\Drivers and copied the file there.
20. Open a shell and go to your directory. Type cd \DirName . Now type “Install Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP.exe” /A /v . This will extract the drivers from the installation package. At the warning just allow the execution. Select your language and continue. When prompted select the directory again. The files will be extracted to that directory. Windows will prompt you for reinstalling. Don’t allow this. The files were successfully extracted. Windows just didn’t get it…

    

21. You can use the Windows Explorer now to continue. Go to the directory where the files were extracted and select program files -> Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP 1.1.2 -> Apple Keyboard and run setup.exe. Click through the installation and the keyboard should work as expected (Eject key, function keys) after restarting Windows.
22. For all drivers I was able to install, this is as far as we can go. Still missing now is Bluetooth, iSight and the trackpad. Right-clicking is not possible without additional applications. If anyone knows how to install more drivers, please let me know in the comments. I’m sure others will profit from your knowledge too!

By the way, I got a 4.8 “Windows Experience Index”. Oh, and if you want to go back to good old Mac OS X, then just reboot and hold the “Alt/Option” key while booting. It will give you the OS selection screen where you can select your Mac OS X partition to boot from. Enjoy!