Vista RC1 under Boot Camp on iMac
from AntBlog701

Vista RC1 under Boot Camp on iMac

Finally, I installed Windows Vista RC 1 (evaluation copy) under Apple Boot Camp 1.1.2 beta on my new iMac. The installation is quite easy and straight forward. In short, you can follow this HOW TO guide.

In my case, I use Boot Camp 1.1.2 beta and Vista RC 1 (I couldn't find RC 2 on Microsoft's website, and I assume there aren't much difference.) All you have to do is to burn a Macintosh Driver CD from Boot Camp 1.1.2, and install Vista on your Windows XP partition created by Boot Camp as usual.

Once Vista is installed, you will need to extract Macintosh drivers provided by Boot Camp. To do so, simply open the Run windows by typing run in Vista's search field under Vista's start menu. Then type D:\Install Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP.exe /A /v in the box, something like the screenshot below:

Then, you should go to NIVIDA's website and get the driver for GeForce (GeForce 7300 GT in my case). If you use the GeForce video driver that come with Boot Camp, it will install but Vista will crash (Blue Screen) often as the driver is not compatible for Vista.

You can then install iSight driver, Apple Keyboard driver (to make the Eject key working). If you like me having Apple Wireless Keyboard and Wireless Mighty Mouse, chances are you will have to re-pair them every time. My suggestion is to use "wired" Apple Keyboard and Mouse to make your life easier.

This is what Vista Aero theme with Flip 3D look like:

Somehow, I have a feeling that the design of Flip 3D did not have wide screen users in mind. They did not optimise the space on the right very well.

Still seems to me, this Flip 3D borrows idea from Project Looking Glass and combined with Apple's Exposé. Exposé was released with Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" which was in early 2004.

Exposé is still way better than Flip 3D, in my opinion.

Vista gave my iMac a rating of 4.6, I am not sure if it's fast or not.

(Previously I couldn't get any scores under Parallels Desktop for Mac.)

It seems like the speed of my RAM is the slowest of them all (PC2-5300 667MHz DDR2 memory).

Windows Media Center is awful. Horrible.
It's similar to Apple's Front Row. Okay, Apple's Front Row does not have TV support natively, but if you have EyeTV 2 (and a supported TV tuner card), Front Row will have such feature.
The problem with Windows Media Center... the screen keeps blinking once I change from one section to another.

The new games in Vista are cool!

Well, this evaluation copy of Vista will expire on the 31 May 2007, still not sure if I shall shell out $400 for it. If you are looking for a new computer, get a Mac! It runs both Mac OS X and Windows, and it's sexy.