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I'm aware of plenty of options like Boot Camp and Parallels that allow you to run Windows on a Mac, but can you remove OS X and run only Windows on new Mac Intel based hardware?

Apple hardware is awesome but I prefer Windows for web development and have no need for dealing w/ 2 OS's.

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Then buy a friggin PC. What's the point, really? – wazoox Oct 4 '09 at 19:05
Maybe he needed the Mac for past work? I know at my friend's school they are required to buy one for the art & media program. They're also decent machines hardware wise so he could have gotten a deal on it. – John T Oct 4 '09 at 19:09
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@wazoox - Apple is known for both their hardware and software. So in my case the excellent hardware is the point. It's hard to find PC laptops that compare in quality to the MBP line - let alone offer a small set of configurations and components that are proven to work well together. – Cory House Oct 4 '09 at 20:02
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Or he just likes the looks, I've seriously considered it on more than one occasion – Chris Thompson Oct 10 '09 at 1:01
@wazoox actually the industrial design is what makes apple good imo. frankly I'd prefer both linux and windows over os x. The "guts" are the same as well. However the form factor, keyboard, trackpad, battery, and screen are all very nice... – TM. Oct 10 '09 at 2:54
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4 Answers

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Yes, you can have only Windows installed, but there are some other things to be aware of:

To have full hardware support, you will need a copy of OS X Leopard or preferably Snow Leopard since Snow Leopard has a newer version of the Boot Camp drivers and device software. When you are booted into Windows and insert the OS X disc, you will be prompted to install the Boot Camp drivers and utilities. These Boot Camp drivers are used for things like the Apple keyboards, trackpads, mice, special function keys for brightness, etc. to function in Windows. You can download a version of the Boot Camp drivers from Apple's website, but it is only an update and doesn't include the full suite of drivers and device software. Since the full Boot Camp software is on the OS X disc, you will need a copy of the OS X on-hand, but you don't have to have to keep OS X installed.

If you are installing Windows on an older Mac, you might need a temporary installation of OS X to update the EFI firmware to allow BIOS emulation which is needed to boot Windows. If you do need to update the firmware, you can wipe off OS X after it is updated. Some newer versions of Windows such as Vista SP1 and 7 have a EFI boot mode, but Microsoft's EFI boot code is not compatible with Apple's EFI. Because of this Windows limitation, the BIOS emulation is necessary to boot Windows, however this BIOS compatibility is in the computer's firmware and does not require an OS X installation in order to function. Also, you can safely format the hard drive as MBR-only if you want only Windows (and/or Linux) installed. If you are also running OS X, you would want to be using GPT or a GPT/MBR hybrid.

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up vote 5 down vote

Yes. I've done it myself. I've wiped Snow Leopard in favour of Windows 7, as I found myself booting into windows frequently and my need for Mac software became less important.

I won't question your reasons, thats not the point.

If you insert the windows disk and hold down 'alt' on startup, the windows install will kick in. As previously mentioned, if you want to install Windows 7, the latest Bootcamp drivers are required. These are a .exe found on the Snow Leopard disk (or torrent) and will make your touchpad, sound etc work well in Win 7.

Take it from me, I'm writing this answer using my Macbook white 13in with Win 7 ultimate, and it works like a charm.

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Just wondering: how does the touchpad work, especially the two-finger scroll? One thing I adore about the touchpad/OS X combination is that one does not need to click inside a window before starting to scroll. I guess that's an OS thing, though maybe it's a driver thing. So: do you need to click in a window (or even specifically in part of a window, like the preview of a mail message, or the mail folder list), to activate it to receive the two-finger scroll events? – Arjan Nov 12 '09 at 10:22
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Hi Arjan, the touch works well since installing the bootcamp 3.0 drivers. Before that it didnt have the tap to click functionality or the scroll/2 finger right click. Now it does. The scroll has a tendency to trigger the right click if you do it too quickly, but that may be just me. Also, as for clicking within windows it only happens on certain applications, but 90% of the time I don't have to. – Pickledegg Nov 13 '09 at 12:33
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up vote 0 down vote

I would install it via bootcamp and then just make sure to always boot into it.

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up vote -1 down vote

You cannot run only Windows on a Mac without using third party software. Although the hardware is identical, Apple did not include a BIOS-compatibility module in their EFI implementation.

Applications like rEFIt should let you install it; however, I'm not familiar with such software firsthand.

If you're willing to scrap Mac, but let a little Linux into your life, the next version of Ubuntu (9.10) should include native support for EFI, and not require rEFIt.

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This actually isn't true. I've done it on a MB pro. You can boot directly to the Windows disc. Boot camp simply allows you to manage the partitions and create driver discs. – Chris Thompson Oct 10 '09 at 1:00
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