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I figured it was time for a follow up on the adventure that is running Windows 7 on a Mac. I was able to install Star Trek Online and participate for a short time in the open beta. Now that the game has hit the head start period I have hit the ground running while taking my time working through the quests.

I have had some issues with Windows, I have never seen so many BSODs on any other Windows based computers that I have owned. There was an update to the drivers last night and hopefully now that they have been applied I will no longer see the BSOD. The computer is just over the minimum requirements for Star Trek Online so there are a few graphical glitches since I have the settings at mid to high. There have only been two instances where I have had to dial back the quality to make the game playable. I am looking at building a machine with better specs and that should resolve any issues that I am having.

The one thing I am missing the most is having access to my entire iTunes library and having that streamed to my HDTV, but building a new system will resolve that since I will be able to use the Mac as my media server.

One of the minor annoyances that I am having is with the IR port on the Mac. Unfortunately it is picking up any remote that is used around it and will deactivate the screen saver or wake the monitor from sleep but that is something minor and doesn’t have any lasting repercussions on overall use.

Figured I would post an update since it has been a while.

Last night I took the plunge and attempted to install Windows 7 on my Mac again, this time only partitioning part of the drive. The 64 bit installation went through without a hitch. When the computer restarted the machine started into Windows and it was time to install the drivers, it seems that my Mac is not supported for 64 bit Windows and that sucks. The drivers refused to run and I was forced to spend 2o minutes searching the OS X install DVD to find a utility that would let me boot back into the Mac OS. After starting the process of everything that was left on the desktop of the Mac to my external raid I opened the Boot Camp utility to see what options I had. To my surprise it had an option to recover the Windows partition.

After recovering the Windows partition and moving the information that was left on the desktop of my computer I re-ran the Boot Camp utility and proceeded to install the 32 bit version of Windows 7. After installing the drivers from the OS X install disc there are still a few small things that I am fighting with. I currently have the system configured to ignore any information coming from the IR port on the system but whenever I use an Apple remote or my TV remote near the computer it will cause the screen saver to deactivate(Hopefully the driver update I forgot to install last night will take care of that). I have also configured the F keys to function as F keys, according to the Boot Camp software installed I need to use the Fn key to use the specialized functions of the key, unfortunately they keyboard that I use(full Mac keyboard) does not have the Fn key so I am not able to control volume or use any of the other specialized keys.

I haven’t tried connecting iTunes to my Apple TV, I figure I will leave that for a little bit.

With the Star Trek Online release date just around the corner I have been wanting to try the game out. Most people would just tell me to get a beta key and download the client. Great suggestion but there is one small problem with that… I run a Mac and Atari has decided to make STO Windows only. So that leaves me with a couple of choices, try and get Windows running on my Mac or go out and buy/build a computer. As easy as it would be to hit up a local electronics store and purchase a machine I would want to do it on the cheap and then I would end up with a machine that would have to be upgraded after a few years. I am looking at doing a computer upgrade in the next couple of years.

The thing that makes me hesitant of installing Windows on the Mac is the last time I did I was unable to get iTunes and my Apple TV to work together for any period of time. It would synchronize once but then it would report that the firewall was blocking a specific port that is used to sync the information to the Apple TV. So after disabling the firewall on the system and creating custom rules for TCP and UDP both inbound and outbound it would still give me an error.  I do have a copy of Windows XP available to me but I would prefer to install 64 bit Windows 7 and have more options for external storage and RAM.

I guess I need to decide soon due to the fact that I would want to pre-order the collectors edition if I still can.

I recently was pointed towards two articles that are quite fun to read if you have played a tank or a healer in WoW. I have spent a good deal of time in the tank role with a feral Druid and have done a little bit of healing with the same character, but HoT management wasn’t for me.

Here are the two articles:

• 5 Things your PuG Healder Wants You To Know
  
• 5 Things Your PuG Tank Wants You To Know

Hope you enjoy reading them.

Here is the video I was referencing in my previous post.