Installing Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro Using Boot Camp

I’ve recently spent many, many, maaaany hours attempting to install Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro. I’m hoping that others can learn from my experiences. Here are the two main problems I ran into:

  1. the 64-bit version of Boot Camp wouldn’t install in Windows 7 mode
  2. wireless didn’t work in Windows 6 mode (probably because I have a relatively new computer and the drivers weren’t included)

The first problem was actually pretty easy to fix. Just insert your Mac OS X dvd, go to the DVD drive -> Boot Camp -> Drivers -> Apple, then right-click on “BootCamp64” and select “Troubleshoot Compatibility“. Then click on “Start the program” and continue until it’s all installed.

The second problem was waaaaay more complicated. I spent much of the weekend, plus a fruitless hour-and-a-half phone call to Microsoft technical support in India, and many, many Google searches to find this web page. This isn’t going to help you unless your hardware is similar to mine (Firmware Version: Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.131.16.1)). But hey, if you’ve got a MacBook Pro from 2009 or 2010, give it a shot. The actual driver is here and it’s called sp41675.exe. You’ll have to download it on the OS X side and then transfer it over to the Windows 7 side, though.

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