I ended up having to boot into OS X and re-run Boot Camp Assistant all over again to do the process over. A relatively minor quibble: the first two attempts to install resulted in nothing but a blinking cursor. I should say it has been some time since I installed Windows, but the process didn't seem any different from what I remember. Format the 'BOOTCAMP' partition as NTFS, and install away. Finally, your Mac will boot into the Windows 7 installer. Then various Windows 7-compatible drivers for the Retina MacBook Pro's hardware components are downloaded from Apple's servers (also stored on the flash drive). I installed from an ISO, so that gets decoded and stored on the flash drive. Once your drive is partitioned, you'll have to wait for Boot Camp Assistant to do its thing. More doesn't hurt, especially if you plan to run a lot of software concurrently-the virtual memory system can chew up quite a bit of space. You'll need to partition your internal drive to give some space to Windows I recommend at least 30GB at a bare minimum, depending on your software needs. Once you have those, plug in your USB drive, launch Boot Camp Assistant, and simply follow the instructions. If you're installing from disc, you'll need at least a 1GB flash drive to download all the necessary drivers. If you're installing from a downloaded ISO, you'll want an 8GB or larger flash drive. You can download the latter online, but you'll need a license key to activate it once installed. You'll need either a Windows 7 install disc and a USB SuperDrive, or an ISO of Windows 7. Installing Windowsįor those who haven't used Boot Camp before, the process is pretty straightforward. Though I don't have much Windows software on hand to give a really in-depth impression of daily use, I was able to run some cross-platform benchmarks, browse the Web, do a little writing, and play around a bit with both Windows resolution and font-scaling settings. After a couple hours of downloads and two failed install attempts, I was able to get Microsoft's OS purring along quite nicely on the Retina MacBook Pro hardware.

So I downloaded the latest Windows 7 ISO, grabbed an 8GB USB flash drive, and fired up Boot Camp Assistant. Since we still had the hardware at our disposal, however, readers expressed interest in knowing how Windows runs at the Retina MacBook Pro's ultra-high resolution. We already gave you our impressions of running OS X on Apple's Retina MacBook Pro, as well as how to maximize battery life by overriding the automatic GPU switching.

Windows 7 on macbook pro retina