Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category
Windows 7, ho!
Gaarbacca has been using the Windows 7 Beta (32-bit) full-time on her iMac (24″ mid-2007, MA878LL for the search engines’ sake) since it came out, and a few nights later, I “upgraded” my new (well, in October, but it still feels brand-new to me) MacBook Pro (15″ late-2008, MB470LL/A) from Windows XP to Windows 7 Beta (64-bit). Good times!
Each system had just one problem: the iMac had no sound, and the MBP was missing a lot of UI eye candy. A quick look at the Apple discussion forums revealed that the iMac just needed an updated audio driver, so I downloaded the latest Realtek HD audio driver for Vista (direct link: R2.14) and everything was gravy.
The MBP problem took a bit longer to resolve, mostly because I didn’t dedicate any real time to tracking it down until January 15th. 
I asked uncle Google and discovered that the Windows installer weighs your system’s ability to handle the higher-end Aero features, and if its soul is found lacking, you are relegated to the weeping and gnashing of teeth that is Aero Basic. Apparently with the default drivers, my system did not pass the test. How sad! :’(
The fix turned out to be rather simple, once you know where to look. Here is one of the blogs that helped. It turns out I didn’t even need most of the information there; all I really needed was to tell Windows to calculate the “Windows Experience Index” score, and voila, Glass/Peek/etc. were instantly enabled.
P.S. If the timing of this post seems odd, it’s because I wrote it on January 15th and forgot to publish until January 27th.
