Macs to support Windows 7 "by end of 2009"
By Barry Collins
Posted on 23 Oct 2009 at 07:36
Apple says it will provide official support for Windows 7 in Boot Camp by the end of the year.
Boot Camp is the Apple application that allows Macs to dual boot Mac OS X and Windows. The software currently supports only Windows XP and Windows Vista, although it seems many people have already managed to successfully install Windows 7 via Boot Camp.
In a new support note posted on the Apple website, the company states: "Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp."
Surprisingly, however, Apple is claiming that a number of older Mac models won't support Windows 7 in Boot Camp. Nine 2006 models of the iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro won't offer support for Windows 7.
Microsoft has long claimed any machine capable of running Vista will run Windows 7, and PC Pro has seen no evidence to the contrary in its tests, so quite why Apple's decided to remove support for the older Macs is unclear.
In a naked attempt to steal some of Windows 7's thunder, Apple announced a major refresh of its Mac line-up earlier this week, including a new 27in iMac, plus revamped MacBook Pro and Mac mini models.
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Ah, now I understand what Apple meant by Win7 helping them to sell more Macs! ;)
By Grunthos on 23 Oct 2009 
Windows 7 does indeed seem to work fine with boot camp or virtualisation and Snow Leopard.
By Ascender on 23 Oct 2009
I think the lack of support for pre-2006 is due to Snow Leopsrd, not Win 7.
By Kid_Spock on 23 Oct 2009
Corporations don't like unsupported stuff. Drop support, they buy new kit. Easy money.
By mspritch on 26 Oct 2009
@Kid_Spock Bootcamp has nothing at all to do with the Version of OS X installed other than the ability to launch the bootcamp partition, which if the early models were able to do then nothing has changed. The reason early models aren't supported is because Apple aren't providing Win 7 drivers for their particular mix of hardware, which seems strange if they already support Vista in bootcamp as the driver model is the same. Its just Apple dropping support for early adopters.
By Shuflie on 26 Oct 2009
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