Jul 17, 2020. Aug 19, 2020. Jul 11, 2019.
Installing Windows on a Mac should be a piece of cake with Bootcamp, but thatrarely is the case. In fact, I would personally say that Boot Camp Assistantis one of the worst apps that comes with OS X and unlike the rest, it doesn'twork seamlessly.
A few of its drawbacks:
- It only supports a drive with a single partition.
- It often throws very obscure error messages with limited detail.
- It re-downloads 1.6 GB Windows drivers every single time it runs. These areplaced under
/Library/Application Support/BootCamp/WindowsSupport.dmganddeleted and re-downloaded each time Boot Camp Assistant starts processing.
This post did take a lot of work to complie and I did bone my hard drive afew times while trying certain ideas, so please throw out a thanks if ithelped you out :)
Disclaimer: This guide below contains procedures which can potentiallydestroy your partitions and data. I accept no responsibility for such loss soplease proceed at your own risk.
Update (2016-07-20): I have updated this post with further improvementsrelating to downloading of Boot Camp drivers and ensuring that a Hybrid MBR isnot used (which would cause issues when installing Windows).
- An 8 GB or larger USB stick
- A copy of the Windows 10 ISO
- A valid Windows 10 license
- A downloaded copy of unetbootin
- Start Boot Camp Assistant
- Select Action / Download Windows Support Software
- Choose your Downloads directory, enter your password and then clickSave
This will be the only step that we will use Boot Camp Assistant for.
Formatting Your USB Stick
Attach your USB stick and start Disk Utility, select your USB drive in theleft panel under External, click Erase and set the options as follows(exactly) and click Erase:
Name: FAT32
Format: MS-DOS (FAT)
Scheme: Master Boot Record
Turning Your USB Stick into a Windows Installer
Open unetbootin, enter your password, set the options as follows andclick OK:
Diskimage: checked, set to ISO and browse to your Windows 10 ISO
Type: USB Drive
Drive: Your USB drive (you should only see one entry here)
If you see more than one drive listed, you may confirm which is your USB driveby opening the Terminal and typing:
You'll see your USB drive in the output and it should look something like this:
Once you have kicked off unetbootin, grab a snack while the Windows ISO iscopied to the USB stick. This process takes around 15 minutes to complete.
Finishing Up
When this has completed, you may right click on the USB stick in Finder,select Rename 'FAT32' and rename it as you like (I'll call mine'WINDOWS 10').
Finally, copy the WindowsSupport in your Downloads directory tothe Windows 10 USB stick so it's easy to get to after our installation.
In Disk Utility, select your internal hard drive on the left panel, andclick on Partition.
Click the + button and create a new partition of your desired size for yourWindows installation and name it as you wish (I'll call mine 'BOOTCAMP'). Ensure that the Format is set to MS-DOS (FAT) and click on Apply.
Huge thanks to Rod's post from the superuser post titledWindows detects GPT disk as MBR in EFI boot.
Once you add a FAT32 partition with either Boot Camp Assistant or Disk Utility,your disk is converted into a hybrid GPT / MBR disk which is actually notsupported by newer versions of Windows. In this step, we revert thisadditional change made by Disk Utility by switching back to a pure GPTpartition table.
- Dowload the latest version ofGPT fdiskby browsing to the version, then gdisk-binaries and clicking the filewith the *.pkg extension (e.g. gdisk-1.0.1.pkg).
- Install GPT fdisk by running the installer you downloaded
Open a Terminal and check the state of your MBR
If your MBR partition is set to hybrid, please continue with step 4,otherwise if it is set to protective, you may skip the rest of thissection. Simply type q and hit return to exit GPT fdisk.
Type p to view the existing partition table and verify you're workingon the correct disk
Type x to enter the expert menu
Type n to create a fresh protective MBR
Type w to save your changes and confirm the change when asked
Type q to exit GPT fdisk
Run GPT fdisk to show your disk layout:
Your partition table should look something like this:
Disconnecting All Devices From USB Ports
This step is critical as I have had rather serious problems during Windowsinstallation when certain external drives are connected.
Unplug everything from your Mac except your keyboard (if wired) and yourbootable Windows USB stick (which we prepared earlier).
If your Mac contains multiple physical drives, you will need to disconnectall disks except the one which you intend to install Windows on or you mayencounter the following error:
Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation.
Booting From the USB Stick
Ensure that the USB stick containing the Windows installer is inserted andthen restart your Mac while holding down the option (alt) key.
You should now be presented with a list of bootable drives. Select the USBdrive (usually titled 'EFI Boot') to begin installing Windows.
Correcting Your Windows Hard Disk Partition
When you are asked Where do you want to install Windows?, select theWindows partition created earlier (which I called 'BOOTCAMP') and clickDelete.
Next, select the chunk of Unallocated Space and click on New to createa proper Windows NTFS partition.
Note: OS X only supports creation of FAT filesystems, so this is why we needto re-create the partition ourselves during install.
Completing the Installation
Allow the installer to complete and boot into Windows.
Installing Boot Camp Support Software
Once Windows is up and running, install the Boot Camp Support software runningWindowsSupport/BootCamp/Setup.exe Broforce for mac. on your USB stick.
Note: The installer takes a little while to show up, so please be patient.
You may encounter a known issue whereby the Boot Camp Support Softwareinstaller locks up while installing Realtek audio.
Bootcamp Download Could Not Continue
If this occurs, you will need to open Task Manager and kill theRealtekSetup.exe process.
After the installer has completed, answer No when prompted to rebootand install the Realtek drivers manually by running%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalTempRarSFX0BootCampDriversRealTekRealtekSetup.exe.If you can't find this file, check any other directories starting withRARSFX under %USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalTemp.
Once complete, reboot Windows.
Boot Camp Mojave
- The latest version of SharpKeys
- The flipflop-windows-sheel binary (see README for a download link)
Mapping Your Mac Keyboard
Install and run SharpKeys and then configure the following mappings tocorrect your Mac keyboard so that it behaves like a regular Windows keyboard:
Function: F13 -> Special: PrtSc
Special: Left Alt => Special: Left Windows
Special: Left Windows => Special: Left Alt
Special: Right Alt => Special: Right Windows
Special: Right Windows => Special: Right Alt
Boot Camp Assistant Cannot Be Used
Note: for F13, you'll need to select Press a key and click F13 on yourkeyboard.
Switching to Natural Scrolling
If you wish to flip scrolling direction to match that on OS X, runFlipWheel.exe and then click on Flip All.
Enabling Num Lock on Boot
Paste the following into a file named Enable NumLock on Boot.reg thenimport this into the registry to enable NumLock when Windows boots up(it doesn't by default).
Completing Configuration
That's it, give your machine one last reboot and you'll have a fully workingWindows 10 installation.
Note: I have found Apple's Magic Mouse to be extremely unreliable usingthe Boot Camp drivers from Apple. As such, I recommend purchasing a Logitech(or similar) mouse for use in Windows. I have no trouble plugging thewireless receiver for my Logitech mouse into one of the USB ports of my wiredApple Keyboard and it's so tiny that you can't see it at all.
Removing the Windows Partitions
If you decide to remove Windows, you may find that Disk Utility doesn't allowyou to delete the two partitions that have been created by the Windowsinstaller.
This happens due to the fact that the first small partition created is of atype called Microsoft Reserved which OS X's Disk Utility doesn't support.
The safest way to delete these partitions is through the Windows installer. Sosimply boot from your USB stick as we did before and when you reach theWhere do you want to install Windows? question, you may delete your'BOOTCAMP' partition and the small 16 MB partition of type MSR (Reserved)just above the BOOTCAMP partition. The sims 3 complete collection all sp ep 2014 repack mr dj play.
Once done, simply quit the installer by clicking the X in the top right cornerof each Window and reboot back into OS X.
Removing the Boot Entry
Even though we have removed the Windows partition, a boot entry will still bepresent when holding down option (alt) during boot.
You may remove these items by running the following in your Terminal:
If you own Intel-based Macs, you can run OS X and Windows on one machine. In fact, it's been possible to run Windows on a Mac for some time — with agonizing limitations. Near-extinct Mac models were loaded with Virtual PC emulation software could do Windows, too, but the program was painfully slow. Even if you find an old copy of the software, it won't work with any current Macs.
Boot Camp software from Apple shook up the computing public upon its apocalyptic arrival in April 2006. Boot Camp graduated from beta, or near-finished, status with the arrival of Leopard. Boot Camp Assistant software is stored in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder.
Boot Camp itself is free. You have to supply your own single-disc or downloadable full-install version of Windows; an upgrade disc won't cut it.
It's also important to note that you can use a 64-bit version of Windows, Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate), Windows 8, or Windows 8.1. Consult Apple support to see which Mac models are compatible with which versions of Windows. In its current incarnation, Boot Camp isn't compatible with 32-bit versions of Windows.
Other requirements follow: Fabfilter pro q free mac.
An Intel Mac with OS X version 10.6 or later
At least 2GB of RAM and 20GB of available space on the Mac's storage drive that you want to donate to Windows
A blank CD or USB storage device that you'll use for Windows software drivers
If you don't run into snags, the entire installation should take about an hour.
Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 are optimized for a touchscreen environment, though you can use it with a standard mouse and keyboard. For now, Macs don't support touchscreen computing.
To install Windows 8 via Boot Camp, you still must have a legitimate Windows 8 license from Microsoft and a Win8 installation disc, assuming that you have an optical drive. If you don't have an optical drive, you may be able to create a Windows installer from an ISO file downloaded from Microsoft on a USB flash drive that's 8GB or larger.
Because snags are possible, back up all your important information on the Mac's startup disk.
Basic training
Following are the basic steps to get through Boot Camp:
Run Boot Camp Assistant (in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder) to make sure that you have the latest firmware on your computer and to install any support software from Apple that you might need.
You'll find any updates at Apple support. If you're using a portable computer, make sure to connect the power adapter. You will also be given the option to create a Windows 7 (or later version) install disk for which you'll need a USB flash drive and an ISO image downloaded from Apple.
Follow the prompts in Boot Camp Assistant to create a partition for Windows.
You're essentially carving out an area of your hard drive for the Windows operating system,. This partition must be at least 30GB and can swell to the total free disk space on hand minus 30GB. If you don't plan on doing much in Windows, keep the partition small.
Drag the divider to set the partitions for both OS X and Windows, or click Divide Equally to make equal partitions. You can't resize a Windows partition after creating it, though you can replace it with a larger Windows partition.
If you have a Mac Pro with more than one internal hard drive, you can select which drive to partition. If any of this makes you nervous, know that you can remove the Windows partition later and go back to a single-partition Mac.
Insert the Windows CD or a USB flash drive with the Windows ISO file and then click Start Installation.
If you exited Boot Camp Assistant before installing Windows, open it again, choose Start the Windows Installer, and click Continue.
When you're asked to choose the Windows partition, select the partition that says BOOTCAMP.
You may have to scroll down to see it.
Don't erase any partitions that you see or create a new partition here. Failure to heed this warning could wipe out your entire Mac OS X startup disk.
(Optional) If you see a listing for Drive Options, click it; otherwise, proceed to Step 6.
Reformat the partition by using the Windows installer: Click Format.
You're using the reliable and secure NTFS file system, but you won't be able to save files to Windows from Mac OS X, at least not without a techie workaround.
Follow the onscreen instructions to finish installing Windows.
Boot Camp 5.1 includes several Mac drivers so that Windows will recognize your trackpad, Thunderbolt, USB 3.0, the iSight (or FaceTime) camera, the Eject key on the Mac keyboard, networking, audio, graphics, and so on.
A Boot Camp Control Panel for Windows and an Apple Boot Camp system-tray item will be added.
As with any new Windows computer, Microsoft requires that you activate your Windows software within 30 days.
Switching operating systems
You can go back and forth between OS X and Windows on your Mac, but you can't run both operating systems simultaneously under Boot Camp. Instead, you have to boot one operating system or the other — thus, the name Boot Camp.
Restart your Mac, and hold down the Option key until icons for each operating system appear onscreen. Highlight Windows or Macintosh HD, and click the arrow to launch the operating system of choice for this session.
If you want OS X or Windows to boot every time, choose app → System Preferences, click Startup Disk, and choose the OS you want to launch by default.
You can perform the same function in Windows by clicking the Boot Camp system-tray icon and selecting the Boot Camp Control Panel. Click either the Macintosh HD or Windows icon, depending on your startup preference.
