Windows 10: 12" Retina MacBook - Windows 10 - Never Use OSX - Update Question

Quick question for MacBook users, I never use OSX, I use Boot Camp, it boots straight to Windows 10 every time, the new 12" Retina MacBook is the best notebook I've ever owned for Windows, makes me forget that Sony dropped thin/light machines, extremely happy.

Question is, do I have to pay any attention to OSX at all? Namely, when there is an OSX update do I need to run it and install it just to keep the Windows side strong or can I just ignore OSX entirely, updates and all?

I believe El Capitan is out now, not sure if I must install it and maintain it in order to keep my awesomely stable Windows 10 experience via Boot Camp, well, continually awesome and stable.

BJ

:)

 

SD Card Detection Issue in Windows Installed on MacBook Air

Same issue here 2015 MacBook Retina 13" with Bootcamp dual boot manager.

Internal SD card reader works perfectly when booted to OSX byt always fail when booted into Windows.

Card reader actually was working before 1607 Anniversary upgrade.

 

Can I upgrade to Windows 10 when I installed the technical preview using Boot Camp from OS X?

Hey guys,

So I have just installed Windows 10 Technical Preview build 10162 on my 13" MacBook Pro with Retina display directly from Boot Camp Assistant with all the required drivers, it runs perfectly smooth currently. Can it be upgradeable to Windows 10 from July
29 just from installing the Technical Preview using Boot Camp? Thanks for reading the question and hopefully you could answer it.

MacBook specs:

MacBook Pro with Retina display 13" Mid 2014

3.0GHz Intel Core i7 dual-core processor

16GB RAM

Mac OS X 10.10.4 as Mac OS

Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview Build 10162 as Windows OS

 

Boot Camp essentially determines on which hard disk partition your OS exists at start-up. If it detects more than one partition, each with an OS, it prompts for a selection (if no default is configured).

In theory, you s/b able to disregard OS X and have W10 work just fine. FWIW, Apple recommends keeping OS X up-to-date "for best results with Boot Camp." As w/anything, YMMV.

 

I think your main worry would be if Apple doesn't play nice with Windows' Driver Update system and relies on a hackjob that requires mac OS X to refresh the available drivers. I don't know if that's the case, but I wouldn't put it past Apple.

 

You don't have to boot into OSX ever if you don't want to and it certainly makes no difference what version of OSX you use. I have 2 MBP both running Windows 10 - a 2013 13" with el capitan and a 2006 15" which no longer has OSX on at all (it has Windows 10 and Arch Linux).

There are a couple of good reasons to keep OSX even if you don't use it much.

1. You have a new model and it is quite possible there will be firmware updates and these may be worth doing. See here About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers - Apple Support to check if you have latest. You can only do these through OSX not Windows. As my 2006 is so old there is no chance of any updates for it and if there were I could boot OSX from external disk.

2. Battery lasts a lot longer on OSX - about 4 hours longer for me on 13" rMBP. If you are away from power socket for some time that is pretty useful.

With regard to the previous point about drivers some (like Intel display drivers for example) you will get through windows update. Some (like almost everything else) you need to get through Apple software update program (which runs automatically on windows unless you've turned it off). This is the same as any other OEM as far as I know.

There is one driver you should disable though which is AppleHFS.sys which is known to cause BSOD. You can use autoruns to do this and untick it under the drivers tab. You can use the free Paragon 8.1 HFS driver instead if you need access to HFS volumes.

 

Not only what was stated above, IE you never have to boot into OS X if you don't want to. You also don't have to boot into OS X to update any Apple Mac Windows drivers or software, IE Boot Camp software. you can do that from the Apple Boot Camp applet in control panel (or PC settings. Wherever Win 10/Boot Camp placed that applet).

You can also Wipe your Mac HDD, Run the Windows 10 installer from a USB stick and install Windows all by itself. The Mac uses the exact same hardware as any Windows PC. You just have to have on hand the Bootcamp Windows software as the Apple/Mac firmware (EFI) won't allow you to install certain drives if they aren't included with the bootcamp software.