Best version of Windows to run under Boot Camp

Ever since I setup a Mac for a friend of mine, I've been very interested in the Mac and Mac OS X. It's fairly easy to learn and runs very well. Of course, I've been dealing with Windows for over 15 years, dating back to Windows 3.1. I also work with Windows 99% of the time since I mainly work on PCs as a PC tech.

Of course, Windows will run on a Mac using Boot Camp, but it seems like there's a whole variety of glitches when running Windows on a Mac using Boot Camp. Thus, I come up with the following question: which version of Windows runs best under Boot Camp? XP? 32 or 64-bit Vista? 32 or 64-bit Windows 7 RC? Do I need to wait for Snow Leopard to come out with better Boot Camp drivers? Do I even need to wait for Windows 7 to come out?

I am seriously looking at getting a 13" MacBook Pro and will most likely run some version of Windows on it using Boot Camp. Also, depending on the version, what amount of RAM is needed? I know that if you have 4GB or more RAM, you might as well run 64-bit Windows 7. Other than that, I'll probably run mostly Mac OS X on the MacBook Pro, but having some version of Windows on the MacBook Pro running under BootCamp would come in handy. Not sure if I'll do Parallels or Fusion.

As for the glitches, perhaps someone needs to write a guide on how to setup Boot Camp and maybe even give some info on what drivers to use, what version of the Boot Camp software to use, or other downloads needed.

Am looking forward to reading people's responses to this question.

 

I'd rank them as follows:

XP
Vista 32bit
Vista 64bit
7 32&64bit

My reasoning is that Bootcamp was built from the ground up to support XP. It was then patched to work with Vista 32bit. AFAIK, Vista 64bit was never officially supported although I know a lot of people running it just fine through Bootcamp.

7 is definitely not supported but the Vista drivers, for the most part, work OK for 7 in Bootcamp (minor issues here and there notwithstanding). I'm sure come late 2009, Bootcamp will be updated to fully support 7.

 

I've had zero problems on my uMBP 13" with Windows 7. The only (minor issue) is that the trackpad isn't nearly as fluid as it is in OSX, but beyond that, I don't notice any other problems.

 

xp 32bit has the least problems, then vista. I'd say xp64 is less glitchy than 32bit vista. Some of the drivers for vista are really bad.

 

boot camp doesn't support xp64 at all. afaik the boot camp drivers flatly do not work with xp64 and you would have to find working ones on your own.

windows xp 32 definitely has the most rigorous bootcamp support. Vista 32 is also officially supported. I don't think other operating systems are technically supported, but I know you can at least get vista 64 working flawlessly, even if you have to find a few drivers on your own. It isn't officially supported but apple provides a set of drivers for it anyway.

Windows 7 is not supported at all, but most of the vista drivers *pretty much work*

 

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846

I have Windows 7 RC installed on my uMBP 17" with no issues beyond the over-sensitive trackpad. It did require a mix of Boot Camp drivers (the Vista x64 drivers that come with newer Boot Camp) and manufacturer downloads.

 

Note: Vista 64bit is now officially supported by Apple and has been since 2008. Read the Boot Camp guide for more information: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=145917

 

Which would be better in terms of gaming? Vista 64bit or XP 64 bit?

 

Microsoft never really got around to supporting and implementing 64b XP, so that OS version continues to have more than its share of driver and other problems.

If you absolutely must have 64b, go with the Vista version; but BootCamp will probably run better with the 32b versions of either OS release in comparison.

 

I guess xp64 would be a real bad idea then, its not good for gaming anyway. I'd go with vista64 if you have 4gigs or more of ram, xp32 if you have less.

 

I second that.

I'm looking forward to Windows 7 64 support (eventually), but have had very few issues with Vista 64 thus far.

 

w7 is not supported but mine works flawlessly. love you w7!!!

 

ok boot camp "officially supports" vista 64, but only for the pretty recent models. they don't support vista 64 on all of their 64 bit machines.

 

Which are those?

 

Macbook, MBP from early 2008 onwards, and nehalem Mac Pros.

 

well, it depends on when you bought your machine. if its 2008 on, like budding said, it *should* be fully supported.

otherwise, you are looking for a wifi driver at minimum, possibly blue tooth and wired (ethernet) internet as well but i'm not sure.

 

You guys seem to know a thing or two.

What is the battery run-time like between os-x and windows, I have heard it is halved or worse.

 

It is much lower on the non-removable battery models (as shown by Anandtech) because Apple doesn't provide a battery driver that is vital to the long life.

 

Same with myself. ;x knock knock