Apple Releases Boot Camp Update 3.1 with Support for Windows 7

Apple today released an update to Boot Camp to include support for Microsoft Windows 7, which was released last October, as well as addressing other issues and adding support for the latest Apple peripherals. Boot Camp is a Apple's tool to allow Intel Mac owners to boot dual boot Windows alongside Mac OS X. Running Windows under Boot Camp provides you with a fully compatible Windows environment.

This update adds support for Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate), addresses issues with the Apple trackpad, turns off the red digital audio port LED on laptop computers when it is not being used, and supports the Apple wireless keyboard and Apple Magic mouse.

Boot Camp 3.1 (in 64-bit and 32-bit versions) requires an authentic copy of Microsoft Windows 7 or Microsoft Windows 7 upgrade, as well as an Intel-based Mac computer. In a support document about Boot Camp and Windows 7 last updated on January 6, Apple also noted that the following computers would not be supported for use with Windows 7 in Boot Camp:

iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)

In addition to Boot Camp 3.1, Apple has also released Boot Camp Utility for Windows 7 Upgrade, which is needed before upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 and "safely unmounts the read-only Macintosh volume on Microsoft Vista."