Windows 7 on a 2010 MacBook Pro 13 inch

I’m going to review what it is like to use Windows 7 Home Premium on a 2010 MacBook Pro 13 inch. This is one of the 2.4GHz models with 4GB of RAM.

macbook pro running windows 7 aero

Some parts of this review would be applicable for running Windows 7 on any Mac, but other parts may be specific to the 2010 MacBook Pro 13 inch.

Installing and setting up Windows 7

I installed the 32 bit edition of Windows 7 rather than the 64 bit version on the assumption that more 3rd party software and drivers would be compatible with the 32 bit version.

windows 7 home premium

Installing and setting up Windows 7 using Boot Camp is simple and takes less than an hour (most of that time is take by Windows 7 installing and setting itself up).

On a previous post I’ve put links to the Boot Camp install instructions. And if you want a writable shared partition I’ve written up my own instructions for how to add a third shared writable partition to your MacBook hard drive.

Booting up Windows 7

By default the MacBook will boot into Mac OS X. If you hold down the ‘alt’ key when you turn it on you will get boot selection screen in about 10 seconds that will allow you to choose to boot from either the Mac OS X partition or the Windows 7 partition.

boot camp os selection screen

On choosing Windows 7 it then takes my month old install of Windows 7 48 seconds to reach the login screen. And once I’ve submitted my user details it takes another 15 seconds for the desktop to be fully loaded (with all the taskbar icons in place and for the mouse cursor to be idle).

Using the MacBook Pro track pad for Windows 7

The MacBook has a large multi-touch track pad and Apple have allowed some of the multi-touch functionality to be used in Windows.

macbook pro trackpad

Moving across the trackpad with a single finger moves the mouse cursor as you’d expect.

Moving up and down with two fingers will scroll the current page up and down.

As there are no left/right buttons on the trackpad you have to click with a single finger for left-click, and click using two fingers for right-click. You can also configure the track pad to accept a single click in either the bottom left, or bottom right of the screen for the right click.

No three or four fingered gestures are supported yet.

Using the MacBook Pro keyboard for Windows 7

The keyboard is large and feels good to type with, but it is with the keyboard that you may run into problems when you start using Windows 7. Many of the standard Windows keys that you are used to aren’t on the keyboard. For example there is no Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, Print Screen, Del, or Windows key.

Here are the keyboard shortcuts that allow you to get the functionality of these keys on your MacBook Pro.

  • Home – fn + left arrow
  • End – fn + right arrow
  • Page Up – fn + up arrow
  • Page Down – fn + down arrow
  • Print Screen – fn + shift + F11 (and for just the current window fn+shift+alt+F11)
  • Del – fn + backspace
  • Windows key – cmd
  • Pause/Break – fn + esc (you can therefore bring up the system properties with cmd+fn+esc – normally Win+Pause with Windows keyboard)
  • Hash symbol (#) – ctrl + alt + 3
  • Ctrl-alt-del – ctrl + alt + fn + backspace

Apple have a larger list of keyboard mappings, but many of them are for other types of Macs and don’t work on the MacBook Pro. Wikipedia has a big list of keyboard shortcuts that you can try as well – but again many of them aren’t applicable to the MacBook Pro keyboard.

USB, display port, and other hardware

Apple have been quite stingy with their USB ports. There are only two. If you want to attach more devices you’ll need to plug in a hub. Also both ports are very close together, so if you plug in a USB device with a larger than specification plug, you might not be able to plug in a second USB device. There is a FireWire 800 port as well if you have any FireWire 800 devices to plug in.

macbook pro usb and display ports

You won’t find any PC standard VGA monitor plug on the MacBook Pro. There is a Mini DisplayPort instead, so if you want to plug in a VGA monitor, or projector you’ll need to pay extra for an adaptor like this one.

The DVD drive, web cam, and SD drive all work as expected on the MacBook Pro.

System properties – Windows Experience Score, usable RAM, and battery life

The Windows Experience Index of Windows 7 (with Aero) on the 13 inch MacBook Pro is 5.3. I put more details on my MacBook Pro Windows Experience score page.

When booted the usable RAM is 2.74 GB. This is because 32 bit versions of Windows can only address about 3.3GB of RAM. The reason it shows less than 3.3GB is because part of the address space is allocated to other parts of the system (mostly to the graphics card I’m guessing). Using the 64 bit version of Windows 7 would allow more of your RAM to be used by Windows, but I can’t tell you what the 64 bit version of Windows 7 is like as I haven’t tried it.

The battery life of the MacBook Pro when running Mac OS X is about 10 hours. When running Windows 7 it is about 4 hours. Still good for a Windows laptop, but it is a shame the battery life isn’t closer to the Mac OS X battery life.

Features such as hibernate and standby both work well. When hibernating you’ll have to make sure you select to boot from Windows on the boot partition selector if Mac OS X is your default OS.

Boot Camp control panel

In the Windows 7 taskbar (or from the Control Panel) you can access the Boot Camp control panel.

boot camp control panel windows 7

It will let you change settings relating to the keyboard mappings, and how the trackpad works. You can set how you activate the right-click for example. Right clicking on the taskbar icon gives you a ‘Restart in Mac OS X’ option.

Default boot partition

After installing Windows 7 via Boot Camp the default boot partition will probably be OS X. If you want to change it to be Windows 7, boot into OS X, go to the System Preferences, then Startup Disk, and choose the Boot Camp partition

Useful MacBook Pro utilities for Windows 7

If I find useful utility programs for Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro I’ll list them here.

  1. TrackpadMagic – if you are playing a game using a mouse and keyboard, you may find that you accidently hit the trackpad. This free utility will allow you to enable or disable the trackpad easily. You can also configure it to automatically disable the trackpad when you plug in a mouse.

Windows 7 on MacBook Pro problems

When I got the MacBook Pro a few weeks after it was released there was a problem where no sound came out of the headphone jack in Windows 7 (the headphone socket worked fine on Mac OS X. Apple have now released a patch for this problem – here is the 32 bit version, and the 64 bit version.

Freezes in Windows 7 on MacBook Pro – Updated

The most serious problems that I have encountered are complete freezes of the Windows 7 OS. I know I’m not the only person having this problem with running on Windows 7 on Mac OS as a simple Google search will show.

In my case I can be using Windows 7 for many hours, and then without warning it will completely freeze. The mouse and keyboard will both stop responding. Sometimes the system will wake up briefly after a few minutes, only to freeze again seconds later. Once it has got into this frozen state I find I need a reboot to fix it.

I’ve looked into some of the proposed solutions, but many of them aren’t applicable to the 2010 MacBook Pro 13 inch. What I’m trying at the moment is running Windows 7 with Aero turned off (using the Windows Classic interface).

Update 7th July 2010: I’ve now been running Windows 7 with the Classic UI instead of Aero for a month. Since switching to the Classic UI I have had none of the regular freezes that I’d been getting before. It looks like the freeze problems are therefore due to Aero / graphics chip related issues. Fingers crossed that either Apple or Microsoft release an update soon that allows Aero to be used without problems on the MacBook Pro. In the mean time I’m sticking with the Classic UI.

Update 30th November 2010: I switched back to Aero 4 days ago and so far no freezes. Looks like the problem is fixed, but I’ll update this post if any more freezes occur.

The good and bad

Good points of running Windows 7 on the 2010 MacBook Pro 13 inch.

  • Windows 7 runs smoothly and fast (when it doesn’t freeze).
  • Great screen for Windows applications or video.
  • Much more attractive than any other Windows laptop.

Bad points with Windows 7 on the 2010 MacBook Pro 13 inch.

  • Expensive!
  • The OS freezes after a few hours of intensive use when using the Aero UI (see the above update for the latest details).
  • Some of the standard Windows keys are missing from the keyboard. You’ll need to learn the shortcuts, or use an external keyboard to access them.
  • No Windows standard display display out (e.g. no VGA).
  • Only two USB ports.

Here is a final photo. This is how I use my MacBook Pro at home. I have an external keyboard, USB hub and wireless mouse. With these extras it doesn’t look as neat, but it is much easier to use.

macbook windows keyboard hub mouse

If you want to know how it is packaged look at my MacBook Pro – What’s in the box? post.

58 Comments on “Windows 7 on a 2010 MacBook Pro 13 inch”

  1. Very good info. Thanx! I liked that you touched upon all common features one would expect out of a windows machine. It was disheartening to learn that Win 7 freezes on MacBook Pro every now and then. Apple, pls fix it!

  2. Thanks. Info and links will be useful when I begin my installation of Windows 7 on my new MacBook Pro 13″ next weekend. I’ll give the 64bit version a spin and let you know how it goes.

  3. Hi M G,
    I’ve updated the post with a work around for the freezing issue – switching from Aero to Classic UI seems to stop the freezes from happening.

  4. Thanks for the very good article. I have just set up my Macbook with Windows 7 and am very happy. I have also taken a trial of Parallel virtualization and am very impressed that it boots the windows boot camp partition in OSX and integrates it into the OSX toolbar – nifty. Not sure if I’ll buy it yet but it could be useful.

  5. Don’t know why, but the key mapping of ‘ Ctrl-alt-del – ctrl + alt + fn + backspace’ doesn’t work in my case (MBP, Windows XP)

  6. Maybe because you are using XP? It certainly works for the 13 inch MacBook Pro with Windows 7.

  7. This article is really nice and helpful. Just got a macbook pro and this has helped bunches. Just want to say that this site is made up of everything I love lol. Visiting Japan to study abroad for a Semester and also Majoring in Computer Science. Anyway, keep up the good work.

  8. Hi all! I have the same MacBook Pro and I have installed win7 as secondary OS as well. So there are following things I have note from this great review:
    1. At last I know Home/End and etc shortcuts.
    2. I haven’t freezing glitches on Win7 OS. Note that I’m always using aero.

    I agree with all other MacBook Pro observations, cons and pros. For every day use this machine should be equipped with external keyboard and mouse (for now I have bought only a mouse). First time I struggle with Cyrillic layout (I’m from Ukraine and I don’t have it :) ).
    As a conclusion I should say MacBook Pro is expensive notebook with very powerful H/W, gorgeous design, high quality and unusual touchpad/keyboard layout.
    Have a nice choice!

  9. Very nice review ^^ Do you also have a problem with the mac getting hot really fast?? I’ve installed windows 7 a couple of days ago and I noticed that my MBP 13” gets hot even when I don’t use any program… :/

  10. Hi Wunik, My MacBook Pro 13″ does get hot when using Win 7 as well. I don’t classify it as a problem myself, but it is something I have noticed.

  11. Hey man so would you recommend doing this I mean, Im thinking of doing what you did here since the MacBook Pro seems to be a solid laptop, but at the same time im also driven away by other Windows laptops, whats your take ?

  12. Hi,

    thanks for the review! Just two quick questions:

    whats the maximum size of windows partition you can have the on 13 MBP, does boot camp limit it?

    and can you use an upgrade copy of windows 7 to install it onto bootcamp, or a full copy required?

    thanks!

  13. Hi Preet – there is no maximum size for the Windows 7 partition – as long as you leave enough room for Mac OS X. You’ll need to leave Mac OS X at least 20GB for a fairly bare Mac OS X install.

    If you are setting up a Windows bootcamp partition for the first time then you will need the full version* of Windows 7 in order to do an official install.

    * Unless you use the unofficial workarounds as described here.

  14. Thanks for the nice review.

    Can you tell your present status with the freeze trouble shooting after switching from Aero to Windows classic UI?

  15. Hi Saad, I’ve just re-enabled Aero on my MacBook. I’ll see what happens and report back.

  16. Thanks for quick response.

    Did you have the freeze problem in the last 5-6 months when you were using Windows 7 Classic UI?

  17. Hi Saad, I’ve had no problems when using the Windows 7 classic UI on the MacBook. It doesn’t look as good, but its perfectly functional.

  18. So happy to find this review, but I’m having the sound problem with both the speakers and the headphone jack–the mixer shows that sound is working fine, both are enabled, but nothing comes out. When I tried the patches linked above, Windows said I don’t have the software to support them. Any help?

  19. Saad – so far no freezes! I’ve been using Aero now since Friday morning (3 days). Usually it would freeze in a few hours, so it looks like it might be fixed. I’ll report back if any freezes do occur.

    Paul – you could try this link. Failing that have a look at or ask with more details on Apple’s Boot Camp forum.

  20. This is incredibly well written – it has the perfectly relevant information for somebody pondering whether to buy a macbook pro for use with windows 7, and I simply want to thank you for that. The grand majority of review sites fail to post anything nearly this useful.

  21. using mbp13 2010 since April’10. Enjoying OSX. but yesterday I installed Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit. windows 7 is stunning in mbp than any other windows only laptop.
    yours review is exact & true feelings switching frm OSX to Windows 7. Thanks a lot.
    although my bootcamp version is updated to 3.2, I noticed trackpad is oversensitive thsn OSX.

  22. I have another small problem, hope u can solve. When I reboot from windows to OSX my clock changed every time.

  23. many many thanks, solved the problem with these links.
    1. when I boot in windows 7, keyboard light is always on highest level even I keep minimum, next time boot same highest level.
    2. every-time I boot in win7, sound volume remain mute, have to press unmute key after every bootup.

  24. Been thinking of getting an MBP forrunning windows 7/64 as well as mac os based music apps. Looking over the apple support forums, I suspect the freezes might be down to overheating.

    Seems driver support for some hardware management functions might be non-functional or missing, so win7 doesnr control fans, cpu speed etc properply – resulting in overheating and poorer battery life.

    Probably only apple can sort this out be ensuring adequate drivers or what it is that this functionality in windows needs to run like it would on a normal windows laptop.

    Might even be worth email them about it – especially if you have an apple care agreement as technically its a bug/fault.

  25. Hi Adam – I haven’t seen one of these MacBook freezes for months now (it used to happen a few times a day). It looks like the problem is now fixed – at least for me anyway. Check the date of those Apple forum posting to see if they are talking about the old problem, or one that is still happening for them.

  26. Thanks so much for this review. I run Windows 7 and do a lot of Android development, but am now adding iPhone to my development skills and buying a Macbook Pro 13″. If I can successfully dual-boot Windows, I can sell my current Dell laptop which has roughly the same specs.

    Here’s hoping! The Unibody Macs are kick-ass compared to any other laptop I’ve seen.

  27. Hey, awesome post. I think I’ve heard some of my friends say that the macbooks were not prone to viruses at all. Is this true for the macbooks that have windows downloaded in em?

  28. Oops, I forgot to add. Have you felt any slowness in your MBP after installing windows? Thanks a lot!

  29. Hi Jasmine, From your first comment:

    In terms of security you can treat a dual booting (Mac OS X/Windows) as two computers.

    o When you are using Windows you are subject to all the security risks that any Windows computer is subject to.
    o And when using Mac OS X you are subject to all the security risks that any other Max OS X computer is subject to.

    Macs do get less viruses because virus creators would rather spend their time creating viruses for the 90% of home computers that run Windows rather than the 5% that run Mac OS X. It is simple business sense for them to target the larger market!

    However as Macs get increasingly popular the bad guys will start targeting Mac OS more. Results from hacking contests such as Pwn2Own have consistently shown that Mac OS is not secure, and is often the first OS to be hacked. It has ‘security by obscurity’ only.

    Having said that the weak link that lets most viruses onto any OS is not the software but the person using the computer.

    If you follow sensible security precautions you should be ok. e.g. use an up to date virus scanner/firewall, don’t visit suspicious websites, don’t click on suspicious links, be aware of phishing attempts, use a different complex password for each online account, keep regular backups, etc.

    From your second comment:

    Installing Windows will not affect the speed of Mac OS X if you are dual booting with BootCamp, as Windows will not run while Mac OS X is running. All it will do is use up disk space. If you run both OSs at the same time (using Parallels or VMware Fusion) then both OSs will be a bit slower (but not that much slower under normal use).

  30. Hi,

    An excellent review and very helpful information. I have today picked up my new MacBook Pro 13″ 2.66 GhZ. I am as I write this installing Windows 7 via Bootcamp for the past 3 hours now it is installing Windows 7 with the screen on my MacBook grey displaying the Apple symbol. How long do you think I can expect this to last for? I opted for 64 GB Windows Partition.

  31. Hi Frederiksen, it shouldn’t take 3 hours to install Windows 7 on a MacBook Pro! And if you are no longer getting feedback from the install process then it has probably hung. You may have to reboot and try again.

  32. Can someone help me.?
    I recently got a Macbook Pro 23” 2.66Ghz.
    I got it from my school so Windows 7 was preinstalled.
    Now here’s my problem. Whenever I log in to Windows, it seems to start up normally, when it reaches the desktop, it just freezes. I can move the mouse but everything else just doesn’t respond. It’s happened more than 5 times now. Getting kind of desperate to fix it.

  33. nice review “reviewmylife” i wanted to ask you cause i have the same macbook as you. Its true that if u install Win7 you mac osx gets slow, i have been searching for advice cause i wanna install windows xp cause is lighter but i heard that i wouldnt had audio and then i heard win7 gets your mac really slow and i dont want that :( all i wanna do with the win7 is play some games i cant with the mac, so i will appreciate your advice, thank you

  34. Hi Javiier. Installing Windows 7 should have no effect on the speed of Mac OSX when using Bootcamp as Win7 is not running / in memory at the same time as Mac OSX.

    But – If you use some software (Parallels / Fusion) to run Windows 7 at the same time as Mac OSX then it could/will slow OSX down as Win7 will then be in memory and using resources at the same time as OSX.

    I don’t have any experience of using XP with this Mac, but the Bootcamp software is only designed for Windows 7 so you may well have problems.

    If you just want to play games with Win7 then don’t use Parallels/Fusion. Just boot directly into Windows 7 so that Windows 7 gets exclusive access to the MacBook’s resources.

  35. Nice, thanks for your advice i asked if it was going to get slow cause i heard of some issues that when u install win7 ur mac takes longer to boot or something like that, but well maybe its not a major issue, i was going to ask you if i want the win7 for games do u recommend me to install the x32 or x64 of win 7? and also i wanted to ask you how much space does the win7 os takes of the partition so i can calculate how much i will need for my games and for the win7 os, i will appreciate your advice, thank you :)

  36. Hi Javiier. If you have a dual booting Mac it will take a few extra seconds to boot as at the start you’ll be prompted to select which OS to boot from.

    I wrote about the size of Windows 7 on this post – https://www.reviewmylife.co.uk/blog/2010/05/03/three-partition-macbook/ When I installed it the OS + patches took up 11.1GB. That was a year ago so I’m sure with all the new patches it will be a bit bigger now.

    I installed the 32bit version. One disadvantage of the 32bit version is that Win7 can’t use the full amount of memory in the Mac. See the above post for more info.

    I never play computer games so I can’t comment on which version would be better. Perhaps check which versions the games you play are compatible with? Or if you have time and are happy to install/re-install the OS you could try both versions and test your games on both.

  37. You assumed wrong. 64 bit version of Windows is fully backwards compatible with 32bit. I’m using it on my 15″ i7 Macbook pro right now. Lots of 32 bit and 64 bit programs. 64 bit has a megaload of support since Vista 64 bit

  38. Great info. I’ve been thinking of putting Windows 7 to my MacBookPro just to play DC Universe online but I’m having thoughts of installing Windows because I don’t know if I also have to install an anti-virus since with Mac OS I don’t have to. Is it true that whenever you have Windows you should also have an anti-virus installed even in a MacBookPro?

    Thanks.

  39. Hi pax, A MacBook with Windows installed is a windows machine so you need to treat it the same as with any other Windows machine – you definitely need to have Windows anti-virus software installed. There is a growing amount of malware targeting Mac OS X these days so you might want to look at installing some anti-virus software for that as well.

  40. Great report!! Excellent! Hope you do more of these important research! I’ve been looking for an article like this on the web because I want to run Windows 7 on a Macbook Pro 13″ since I am planning to buy that laptop coz it looks great but I prefer to use Windows 7 because I need to use MS Office 2010 on my laptop as well as Lotus Notes R8.5.2. Can you also do a report if Office 2010 and Lotus Notes 8.5.2 can run well on a Macbook Pro 13″ on a Windows 7 OS?

    Thank you very much for your great research it really
    helps!!

  41. Hi Joseph, glad you like the post. When you boot the MacBook Pro into Windows 7 using Bootcamp it becomes a normal Windows 7 PC. You can ignore the fact that it is made by Apple. So if you have software that runs on another Windows 7 machine, it will run on your MacBook which is Bootcamp booted into Windows 7 as well :)

  42. Very good article. Did you encounter sharing application or desktop on webex. I had to change the setting to 16-bit and trying other changes to get 32-bit color back. I am also running windows 64 bit and running office 2010 as someone asked about it.

  43. Nice article. In response to a few posters who seem to be having various device issues such as sound etc dont forget that after you have done your windows install via bootcamp that you must then insert your osx disc while running windows and install the apple drivers with bootcamp on your osx install disc.

  44. I’ve just gone through the same basic testing/experience that you have mentioned in this post and you are right on target with the points made. 2 USB ports…Seriously Apple……….

    My biggest complaint is the battery life going from OSX to Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. My next step is to try under-volting to see if I can squeeze anymore life out of the battery.

    With this in mind, I tried Parallels with Win 7 pro. It is fairly smooth, however I use Photoshop for web and print design. I experienced a bit of lag, which was enough to make up my mind that bootcamp is the better option.

    To expand on the display port, I use dual monitors (widescreen + laptop display) with the desktop extended. It works as expected with no issues.

    One last note is the heat generated while in Win 7 pro using bootcamp. Just general web surfing and email makes my MBP unibody 15.4″ heat up very quickly. Primarily the bottom left of the case is very warm to touch with the top left being a little less warm in comparison to the bottom.

    Right now I’m designing a cooling system specific for this design because I couldn’t find any reviews or products specific the MBP.

    Good review btw!

  45. hey buddy, can i install windows XP on macbookpro 13″???
    and if it is possible to do, then what is its battery life after installing xp????
    and do i need to install extra GRAPHICS drivers after installing windows XP or 7 on macbookpro? and also others drivers also?????
    plz let me know/……..
    and from MACBOOKPRO and DELL XPS 15, which should i choose??//
    plz let me know on my mail or here????
    plz plz plz

  46. “…Macs do get less viruses because virus creators…”

    uhh No, MacOSX do NOT get virus’s.
    It is inherently impossible for MacOSX to get a virus.
    Simply because OSX is based on the Unix Operating System, more specifically FreeBSD/Unix.
    It has nuthin’ to do with the larger “markets” of Windows, it’s the way Windows has been designed/made…

    Yes, through your web browsers,and other iApps…(in MacOSX) you might get crap like cookies,…and other security related things, but a “Virus”, in the true sense of the word, is impossible in a Unix OS.
    Obviously Windows can be a Virus in itself sometimes -lol.
    You’ll be guaranteed to get a virus with it if you use Windows7 on your Mac hardware.
    Anyway, virus’s are a normal thing to any Windows user, just install the latest free “Microsoft Security Essentials”, and you’ll be OK, <-fingers-crossed.

    I have used Solaris/Linux/FreeBSD/…, ALL the Unix's, for years, and no one, I know, has ever heard of a "virus" in Unix.

    :)
    Hey, GL and thx for your article.
    mm, best of both worlds on a single Apple Mac Pro.

  47. Rick….very wrong. Why would they make anti virus software for Macs if “It is inherently impossible for MacOSX to get a virus.” ?????????????

  48. Hi,

    Great Post. I’m running OSx Lion and VMWare Fusion. Being a full on Windows User (MCSE etc) I was and still am a little aprehensive – however my setup has been stable and the import of Win7 machine into Fusion has been seemless. Keyboard details listed here were extremely helpful as I dislike the time and effort expended using the mouse – kb is faster – no doubt

  49. hi there,
    I am interested in getting a mac…and I like to use microsoft office. Do I need to download windows 7 for that? Or will it work on Mac ox? Also if it works in mac ox…can I then open the document in a pc? Basically I have a pc at work and want to make sure microsoft office and/or open office is accessible without needing windows 7. Why get windows 7 for a mac? Why do people like to have that operating system if they have mac ox?

  50. Hi ilona – there is a native version of Microsoft Office for Mac OS that you can buy – here is an Amazon link.

    Documents you create on the Mac OS version of Microsoft Office can be loaded on the PC version and vice-versa.

    Some people (like me) have PC only software they need to use, so installing Windows 7 allows you to use one laptop instead of 2. Others just like the look of the MacBook and so are happy to pay extra to use it as a Windows machine.

  51. Can you give my some example of pc only software? I am wondering if I have any like that? What are the most popular pc only software? Also I was thinking of getting microsoft office for mac through ebay. What do you think?

  52. Hi ilona – the PC-only software packages that I consider essential, are unlikely to be on most people’s list!

    I count Money Matters (money management software that is no longer available), Microsoft VC++/VC# Express (for programming), Beyond Compare (for programming), Notepad++ (for programming) and Internet Explorer 8/9 (for verifying that my web sites work fine on IE) to be essential!

    Most mainstream software is available for PC and Mac so you shouldn’t have any problems.

    It shouldn’t matter where you by Microsoft Office from – just get it from the cheapest legal retailer :)

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