Microsoft Partner Action Pack Subscription Update

Last week I recieved the first update to my Microsoft Action Pack Subscription which included Windows Server 2008 Beta 2. The first thing I did was try to install Server 2008 on my Mac using Parallels but for some reason I couldn’t get the disc to boot.

I thought this could be a problem with Parallels so I switch to my Windows box and fired up Virtual PC 2007. To my suprise the disc wouldn’t boot here also.

After searching around this internet it became apparent that other’s were having a problem with the MAPS discs also. It’s looks like these disc’s just arn’t bootable, so the only option is to download the install from the MS site, not sure what happened here maybe the discs are just upgrade versions?

Also there was a letter within the update pack, informing me that when I come to re-register for my subscription I would have to take a competency exam. Maybe this is to stop people signing up to the partner programme to get an Action Pack subsciption who knows.

Check it out over at https://partner.microsoft.com/UK/40016455

Vista on my MacBook

A while back my company joined the Microsoft Partner Programme with the goal to become a Microsoft Certified Partner and Small Business Specialist. By registering I became eligible to purchase the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription which contains a vast amount of useful software for use within my company, you can look at the details of the Action Pack Subscription over on the partner site.

The main peice of software I wanted was Vista Business, so when the pack arrived yesterday I promptly search for the Vista DVD. Much to my suprise the Vista disc was an Upgrade version (maybe that will teach me to read the small print).

I wanted to install Vista on my MacBook and as Bootcamp doesn’t support Upgrade versions of Windows I started to get worried. Anyway I figured I could just install XP Pro SP2 and upgrade from there. I was a bit dubious about this working but I gave it a shot anyway and it worked, so here’s a list of steps I took.

1. Download and install Apple Bootcamp Beta version 1.2 HERE
2. Install Bootcamp assistant from the download
3. Run Bootcamp assistant.
4. Insert a blank writable CD or DVD and burn the Apple drivers.
5. Create your Windows partition (remember Vista takes up over 10gb of space)
6. Insert the XP Pro SP2 disc and start Installation.
7. Make sure you Install Windows onto Partition C otherwise you could overwrite you OS X installation.
8. Follow the XP installation routine until you have XP completely installed.
9. Eject the XP Disc and insert the Apple driver disc your burned earlier.
10. This will install all necessary drives for your MacBook hardware.
11. Now insert your Vista Upgrade disc and click ‘install now’
12. Again follow the Vista routine until Vista is completely installed
13. Eject the Vista Disc and Insert the Apple driver disc again.
14. After the installation has finished you should have Vista up and running.

I was plesently suprised that Vista works so well on the MacBook, Aero works fine and so does all the built in hardware except for the iSight which Vista complained about.

The only other thing that didn’t work properly was extending the desktop to my external display, for some reason my Intel GMA95 stopped Aero working when extended other than that it was pretty seamless and painless and a credit to both Microsoft and Apple.

Heres proof of the pudding: