Boot Camp

Microsoft has been running a campaign for the past few months trying to convince individuals and businesses to stop using the company’s wildly popular, but 10-year-old Windows XP operating system.

On the one hand, you can cynically view this as the company trying to make more money by getting you to pay for an upgrade to a new operating system. On the other hand, Windows 7 includes a slew of security features and other updates that you’ll never see in XP.

So it’s interesting to see that Apple is effectively dropping support for older versions of Windows. For the last few years Apple has offered a tool called Boot Camp on Mac computers that allows you to install Windows alongside OS X and choose which operating system to run each time you boot.

But when Apple launched OS X Lion last month, the company apparently updated Boot Camp so that it only supports Windows 7. If you’re currently using a Mac with Windows XP or Vista installed on Boot Camp you can keep that Boot Camp partition — but you can’t upgrade to the latest version of Boot Camp. And if you buy a new Mac or upgrade to OS X 10.7 Lion before installing Windows using Boot Camp, you’d best have a Windows 7 installer handy, because Windows XP ain’t going to work.

 

Share this article:

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

17 replies on “Boot Camp in OS X Lion won’t support Windows XP, Vista”

  1. you still have to install it as xp when all you have is the win 7 upgrade.. the install disk isn’t recognized even though I’m going to immediately install the upgrade from xp to win7

  2. this is not good for me. im a gsm engineer and 96% of my flashing boxes and softwares supports only xp. i guess i will stop using mac then.

  4. I work in a large medical institution hooked to a statewide corporate network. I’ve integrated my Macs over the past 15 years without much support.  The corporate platform is XP and I DO need to use XP on my new MacBook Air.  The decision by Apple not to support earlier versions of Windows is short-sighted and just makes it difficult for those of us trying to think different in the real world rather than the apple utopia that some of those in this forum appear to inhabit.

  5. Lion will support XP
    Setup Lion with no other partitions
    Install bootcamp but install windows later
    reboot and hold down the alt key
    boot the xp install disk and install xp
    get all the drivers you neede from a snow leopard disk

    Sorted

    1. I hope this works otherwise I’ll have to give up running a Mac on the corporate network for 15 years!

      How do I know what drivers to install?  Presumably I would have to by-pss the Boot Camp Assistant.

  6. I don’t want Windows XP, but I do console games development (which does require XP) and purchased a Mac because it can support both Windows XP and Mac OSX. That means that I won’t have to purchase a new machine for different platforms (some platforms might require OSX), and I can still iPhone development in between projects.

    Plus much of my tools such as Photoshop and After Effects run in OSX.I’ve sent a complaint. I am not happy, what a waste of twenty pounds. That could have been seven decent coffee’s with a world of exotic toppings.

  7. This should have been done a long time ago. XP on a Mac is just embarrassing anyway. Who buys a Mac and then puts XP on it? I support Apple’s decision to drop support in BootCamp 4.0 in Lion. If your so tied to XP just stay with Snow leopard? You obviously still like a decade old Windows OS so why upgrade to Lion?

    1. I would love to stay with snow leopard.  Except my brand new mac shipped with lion and won’t let me install SL unless I can find a 10.6.7 install disk.  I have a 10.6.6. 

    2. All the people on corporate set-ups running XP for one.
      There’s “supporting” something and there’s “allowing” something.

  8. Look idiot.  I have a $7000.00 credit card printer that is not old and it only supports Windows XP 32-bit.  While you may not need nor understand the reason that someone else may need it there are others with much more advanced needs that tinkering around on the internet and surfing porn, and other elementary uses.  Why do people think that it’s all about them and never consider there are other lateral uses outside of the norm?

    1. Here’s the workaround. You will need a windows 7 and a Snow Leopard disc even though you will not be using it. Here are the steps – Read them before you do them. This procedure works will all laptops compatible with BootCamp 3.X

      Step 1 – Boot into OS X LION
      Step 2 – Insert Windows 7 disc
      Step 3 – Run Boot Camp and make your Windows Partition the size you want and complete the wizard. It says to start the Windows 7 installer, but we will be working around this.
      Step 4 – The Mac will reboot – right after the chime, hold down the ‘Option’ button until you see the screen showing Machintosh HD and the Windows Disc.
      Step 5 – Use the arrow key to highlight the Windows CD, then press the eject key.
      Step 6 – Insert the Windows XP CD
      Step 7 – Install Windows XP
      Step 8 – Install Bootcamp Drivers from your SnowLeopard DVD from inside windows.
      Step 9 – Run Apple Software Updates in Windows a couple of times. This should get you to  the latest Boot Camp drivers that work with your mac.
      Step 10 – Do your windows updates and install Microsoft Security Essentials – just to be safe
      Step 11 – Enjoy a lighter weight windows that boot much faster.

      1. AN AWESOME WORK AROUND, THANKS!!!!!!!! I have a Windows 7 UPGRADE disc, need I say more?

  9. If one is using an Apple computer, why would they want to lower their standards and boot to Windows? 🙂

    The thing that people like about Win XP is that it can run on older computers. The newer the operating system, the newer the computer requirements are needed to run it. If Microsoft wanted to fill this market, instead of trying to make Win XP upgrade to what they might not want, they should create a newer version of it (Win XP or Win CE?) and calle it Win NB (netbook).

    I am watching ReactOS and hoping it will get to a stage of development where it can be used as a replacement for Win XP.
    https://www.reactos.org It is free, it is open source and it does not require a lot of resources.

    1. I like playing good games on my mac, the new apps are nice but SC2 does not work well on my mac but works well with the same hardware on a pc.  I had it all set up but then I just got a mysterious virus on the PC side, I deleted the partition hoping that I could reinstall.  NOPE!  I hate you mac.

    1. Even Windows 7 can be used, and has been btw, for botnets.  Eliminating XP just will make such attacks more focused on Windows 7.

      While there’s still a lot of XP users out there who either don’t like Windows 7 and/or don’t want to invest in a upgrade yet.  So will continue to use XP despite the lack of support…  Even if they have to set up their own VM setup for it.

Comments are closed.