Macbook Pro but Windows?

Started by Qube, July 19, 2020, 00:51:38

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Qube

Knocking around the place I came across a 15" MacBook Pro ( i7, 16gb, 256gb ssd ) and had a passing thought... Could I get rid of MacOS completely and install the best version of Windows ever made, Windows 8.1, natively and not with Bootcamp.

I have a few spare Win 8.1 keys from yonks ago when I had an MSDN subscription and as I don't really use the MacBook I thought I'd give it a whirl. So I created a bootable USB of Windows, copied the Bootcamp drivers to it as well, slapped it into the Mac, booted off USB, formatted the drive and installed Windows 8.1 with zero issues \o/

Impressively Windows boots in ( I kid you not ) 2 seconds to the password screen  :o 8) - So I now have an expensive laptop using an unsupported version of Windows :))

Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

Derron

You will need to buy some keyboard stickers to get the necessary Windows key!


bye
Ron

Steve Elliott

Yes Windows 8.1 was extremely quick to boot even without a SSD, and Apple is dropping support for Windows via Bootcamp in the new ARM Macs.  I only updated to Windows 10 because of the continued support.

I was watching a video yesterday which is quite the opposite, and something I'm considering.  It showed how you could boot to Windows 10 from an external SSD (plugged into a MacBook Pro).  Therefore you could easily switch between Windows and MacOS from a laptop.
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

Qube

Quote from: Derron on July 19, 2020, 09:44:26
You will need to buy some keyboard stickers to get the necessary Windows key
lol, no I won't, just poured cmd ;D

Quote from: Steve Elliott link=topic=7999.msg347044248
I was watching a video yesterday which is quite the opposite, and something I'm considering.  It showed how you could boot to Windows 10 from an external SSD (plugged into a MacBook Pro).  Therefore you could easily switch between Windows and MacOS from a laptop.
That's what I use on my iMac, an external 512gb SSD with Windows 10 installed via the "Windows 2 Go" method.
Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

Steve Elliott

#4
Quote
That's what I use on my iMac, an external 512gb SSD with Windows 10 installed via the "Windows 2 Go" method.

I had to google "Windows 2 Go".  Looks interesting.  I'm not sure I'll do it yet, but a portable solution with Windows could be useful to go with the MacBook Pro.  Anyway, this is the video I was referring to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IhW722IMwE
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

Qube

Quote from: Steve Elliott on July 19, 2020, 15:45:34I had to google "Windows 2 Go".  Looks interesting.  I'm not sure I'll do it yet, but a portable solution with Windows could be useful to go with the MacBook Pro.
Yup, that's the method he uses in the video :) - great way of easily adding windows to a Mac without messing with partitioning your drive.
Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

Steve Elliott

Quote
great way of easily adding windows to a Mac without messing with partitioning your drive.

You should always put an OS on a separate drive anyway.
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb

Qube

Quote from: Steve Elliott on July 19, 2020, 16:54:10
Quote
great way of easily adding windows to a Mac without messing with partitioning your drive.

You should always put an OS on a separate drive anyway.
Absolutely but Apples Bootcamp doesn't allow such practical methods :/
Mac Studio M1 Max ( 10 core CPU - 24 core GPU ), 32GB LPDDR5, 512GB SSD,
Beelink SER7 Mini Gaming PC, Ryzen 7 7840HS 8-Core 16-Thread 5.1GHz Processor, 32G DDR5 RAM 1T PCIe 4.0 SSD
MSI MEG 342C 34" QD-OLED Monitor

Until the next time.

Steve Elliott

lol and Windows will eventually mess-up a Linux installation on the same drive.  Besides, for stability sanity treat each OS as a unique machine and boot to a unique drive.
Win11 64Gb 12th Gen Intel i9 12900K 3.2Ghz Nvidia RTX 3070Ti 8Gb
Win11 16Gb 12th Gen Intel i5 12450H 2Ghz Nvidia RTX 2050 8Gb
Win11  Pro 8Gb Celeron Intel UHD Graphics 600
Win10/Linux Mint 16Gb 4th Gen Intel i5 4570 3.2GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 2Gb
macOS 32Gb Apple M2Max
pi5 8Gb
Spectrum Next 2Mb