Just wondering. Can you install Windows without Boot Camp or Virtualization

The answer appears to be a YES you can do that.
It is discussed in detail [HERE|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7031153&#7031153]. From reading that thread, you may find that this is not difficult at all.
Note that if you need OSx at some point to update boot camp then you can always boot the computer where OSx can be on a firewire/USB drive.

Axel F.

That is correct. However just assume for a second that you installed Windows on a Mac without OSx at all as outlined in that post. You would still take your Leopard disk and install all the Boot Camp Windows drivers in Windows. After that the boot camp version updates can happen on Windows side only. It happened that way for boot camp version 2.1 via Apple Software Update.

If for any reason you need OSx to get the drivers then you can always boot from a USB/Firewire drive, get the drivers/update and then install them. Once installed then you can disconnect the drive and proceed using windows as you have been.

Axel F.

If you are really strapped on HD space then you can always keep Leopard installed on one partition and nothing else. At most one would give up about 6GB of space. The rest can be Boot Camp and Windows. The leopard parition can be used only if needed for boot camp driver installations.

You know, aside from HD space I do not see any benefit of just having ONLY Windows on a Mac. Neither Operating System interferes with the other so there isn't even an issue of performance.

Axel F.

Axel,

as an aside... You may recall from other threads I seem to have shoehorned 64 bit vista on an earier installation of BootCamp. I only had one bootcamp folder and it was under program files (x86)\

Today I have updated my bootcamp installation from a torrent download of the 64 bit bootcamp install from the early Mac Pro 2008 install disk. All seemed to go well.. and indeed apple software update immediately noticed 2.1 and installed that too.

As I said, all seems to now be well, except that I now have two bootcamp icons in my system tray.... Also I not have two bootcamp folders... one under program files\ and another under program files (x86)\...

I'm wondering if my two bootcamp icons are linked to the two folders...?? And can I delete the bootcamp folder under program files (x86)\ since this seemed to be the older 32 bit bootcamp...?? The files in both bootcamp folders appear to be indentical in names.

Any thoughts...?

Robbie:

You do some of the most interesting things LOL.
Your 2 icons in the system tray are probably linked to each of the boot camp folders on Drive C as you noted.

Try the following:
1. Rename each boot camp folder ONE AT A TIME and do not delete yet.
2. Reboot after renaming one of the them (boot camp old or something).
3. See how it affects Windows
4. Rename the other one as old and previous one to what it was
5. See how that works on windows
6. After the above steps you should know which Boot Camp folder affects the operation of Windows and should be able to decide which one to delete.

Also, you could easily disable one of the instances of loading by disabling one of the them in the startup section of windows. How do you get there?

1. Go to START and choose RUN
2. Type MSCONFIG and hit ENTER
3. From the window that opens up choose the STARTUP tab
4. You will see a list of items with check marks besides them which are being loaded at startup.
5. You will see several boot camp related instances.
6. Uncheck items that you don't want to load at startup
7. Reboot and see how it affects windows.

Robbie, a lot of trial and error to determine which are the right files but worth the time.

Axel F.

Thanks Axel. Great suggestions. I will give those a try.