AppleInsider Staff
Apple has dropped Boot Camp support for installations of Windows 7 on the recently refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air lineup, meaning users will have to switch to third-party virtualization software, upgrade to Windows 8 or wait for Microsoft to release Windows 10.
According to a Support Pages document posted on Apple's website, Boot Camp running on early-2015 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display and 11- and 13-inch MacBook Air — all of which went on sale earlier this month — is only compatible with Windows 8 and above.
It appears that Apple is moving away from Windows 7 as new Mac hardware is released, a trend started with last year's Mac Pro. The company did much the same when it ended Boot Camp support for Windows XP and Vista when the second-generation MacBook Air debuted in 2010.
For users invested in Windows 7, third-party virtualization software like Parallels Desktop 10 and VMWare Fusion 7 offers support for legacy Windows releases on Apple's latest OS X 10.10 Yosemite operating system. Unlike Apple's dual-boot solution, virtualization software is much more flexible and can weave together features from both installed operating systems to crete a seamless, integrated user experience.
Alternatively, Microsoft in January announced it would offer a free upgrade path to Windows 10 for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1 users, a move echoing Apple's decision to make OS X upgrades free. Microsoft's next-generation operating system is slated to come out later this year.
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18 Comments
As much I hate Windows, I really needed some of the programs. For certain VPNs, Parallels doesn't work out too well.
I kind of understand. For Apple to waste its time and resources creating Windows drivers for a "competing" OS on new hardware, it could make better use of its time elsewhere.
I use VMware for my multiple Windows OS'es. It's a perfect setup for me and drivers provided by VMware have been flawless to say the least. Bootcamp makes little sense to me. Virtual machines are the way to go.
As much I hate Windows, I really needed some of the programs. For certain VPNs, Parallels doesn't work out too well.
Have you considered VMware Fusion? They are the big-iron when it comes to Virtual Machines. I use various VPN's in my Windows vm's and never had any problems.
Hopefully Microsoft is paying Apple to drop support for older OSes to push their new ones.
Have you considered VMware Fusion? They are the big-iron when it comes to Virtual Machines. I use various VPN's in my Windows vm's and never had any problems.
I've been using Parallels since v3 and have never had any issues with the various VPN clients I've used (Nortel, Cisco, and AT&T). That said, I'm likely switching to Fusion this time around because I'm tired of paying Parallels $100/year for updates ($50 per Mac - VMWare's licenses are, allegedly, good for up to three machines).
Also, who uses Boot Camp? The only fathomable reason I can think of is gaming...