harbar.net component based software & platform hygiene
Macintosh

Does Windows 7 break Firewire?

It sure does on both my MacBook Pros and Sony VAIO. For a long time now I’ve been running a mobile rig on the MBP with VMWare. This rig allows me to demonstrate a five machine SharePoint setup at acceptable speeds with PowerPoint on the host. It’s worked really really well over the past couple years with only one problem child due to insufficient warm up time (the presenter before us overran). I was doing this using an external firewire disk for the VHDs. It wasn’t super fast, but it was workable and efficient. However since upgrading...

Triple Boot MacBook Pro Update: Running the Vista x64 Partition in VMWare Fusion.

A while back I posted my popular article series, Triple Boot MacBook Pro, which described the steps necessary to configure a three-way system running Mac OS, Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64. At the time it was unfortunately not possible make use of VMWare Fusion’s killer feature – running a VM directly from the Boot Camp partition (no VHDs). This was due to a couple of “issues”, which have thankfully now been addressed by VMWare. This article explains the issues and details the remaining tweaks necessary to run the Vista partition under VMWare Fusion for a triple boot system.  

Windows 7 on MacBook Pro

During the PDC a number of folk asked me about running Windows 7 on the Mac - using BootCamp as per my Triple Boot MacBook Pro article series. I was always planning on giving it a shot as soon as I got "the goods". Whilst it might seem really obvious, the real question is: do the bootcamp drivers for all the stuff (right click for example :)) work on Windows 7? I can confirm that indeed they do - or at least appear to - I've done this on my 17" MBP which is the generation before the recent latest rev, using...

Apple Keyboard Layout for Virtual Machines

One of the freakiest things about running on an excellent MacBook Pro is the keyboard layout. Keys in the wrong place and a few missing ones like #, PrtScr and AltGr. Once you get used to it it's all good however. There's combinations and so forth to get at things you need. The trouble is just as you've gotten used to it, you fire up those development virtual machines and they don't know squat about the Apple keyboard. This is because the custom Input mapping installed as part of the Boot Camp package isn't installed on the VM. Arse! ...

Installing applications on Windows Server 2008 or Vista x64

You know the score - you've a couple of indispensable applications which refuse to install on your operating system of choice because the idjut vendor decided it would be a good idea to bake into the installer some sort of version check. This is usually when you're trying to use a 64 bit operating system or wish to install something on a server OS. I have a couple examples - Sony's Ereader is a must have for me, but the installer doesn't like 64 bit. Others include Live Messenger and LifeCam which refuse to install on Windows Server. It...

Enabling Bluetooth on MacBook Pro and Windows Server 2008 x64

As you may have noticed, I've been getting a bit carried away with my shiny MacBook Pro of late. I have this bad boy set up to triple boot Mac OS, Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64. The idea here is to have a small Win2k8 partition running MOSS for demos/presentations (and the odd bit of coding) running on the metal rather than in a VM. The latest Boot Camp drivers enable this goodness, they all work flawlessly. All that is, apart from the Bluetooth stack. This is a problem because I use the excellent Microsoft Wireless Notebook...

Finally decent x64 drivers for Atheros WLAN in MacBook Pros

For those with the pre-Penryn MacBook Pros running Vista x64 you will no doubt be bloomin' annoyed by the conflict issue between the wireless driver and the sound card which results in white noise and annoying clicks and pops when using a WLAN connection. At last a complete fix for this is now available - via - wait for it - Windows Update! Now you could solve this previously for hunting down Atheros drivers from dodgy laptop forum type sites - but that's helva risky. This way is much better!

My must have Mac OS utilities

One of the great things about my MacBook Pro (or any computer running the excellent Mac OS X for that matter) is that pretty much everything just works and for the most part everything you need is included in Mac OS. Things have certainly changed since my early days in this "industry" cramming all manner of dodgy third party applets into the system folder! There are however a small number of essential utilities I wouldn't wish to be without when I am on the turtle-neck side of my MacBook Pro. Battery Health Monitor This bad boy I hopefully won't use much, but checks...

Triple Boot MacBook Pro

Running Mac OS X, Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64 on a MacBook Pro. This article series details a process for installing Mac OS X, Windows Vista x64 and Windows Server 2008 x64 on a MacBook Pro with complete driver support. While it is not the only way to setup such a system, this approach minimises the configuration necessary and avoids shell commands, and the need for third party boot loader utilities. The scenario this approach is intended to address is as follows: Primary OS for day to day use – Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Service Pack...

MacBook Pro Tidbits

I note that Vista 64 bit drivers and BootCamp 2.1 appear on the latest MacBook Pro install disk one and the release to web a couple days ago (also via Apple Software Update). This is great news!!!. This avoids the somewhat troublesome approach using the MacPro drivers and a couple of workarounds. In addition the annoying soundcard/wireless conflict which results in very annoying white noise on Vista has gone! W00t! These newer MacBook Pros of course have multitouch (bah humbug - although zoom is pretty cool) and re-arranged function keys. It's not all good news though as the whopping 170Mb update for...

Did the MacBook Pro thing

A month or so ago I joined what has become somewhat of a mini-trend amongst SharePoint types, and bought a MacBook Pro. It's not like us SharePoint heads are special (well, we are, but not because of this) and there were many others before us of course. I had been considering a new laptop for quite a while and since the switch to proper hardware and the release of BootCamp, Apples are now a more than viable option for running Windows. The primary purpose of this machine is to run Vista (obviously), and the specs available are extremely competitive. Now having said...