The support page also notes that Boot Camp supports upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8, provided that you install Boot Camp 5.0 drivers on your Windows 7 machine before upgrading to Windows 8. If your Mac comes with Fusion Drive, it turns out that Boot Camp Assistant will help you install Windows on hard disk drive, not the Flash drive even if you have sufficient free space. Also note that Boot Camp doesn’t support installing Windows on external hard drive. The download size of Boot. Format a USB flash drive. Start your Mac from macOS. Plug the USB flash drive into your Mac. Open Disk Utility, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. Choose View Show All Devices from the menu bar. From the sidebar in Disk Utility, select your USB flash drive.
The 64-bit version of WIndows 8 requires at least 20GB of disk space; the 32-bit version 18GB. Launch Boot Camp Assistant. On the first screen, uncheck the option to download the latest Windows. Some people like it, and some hate it. So eventually only your Mom's opinion counts. If you still insist on buying a Mac Mini for her after careful consideration, yes, Windows 8 works in Boot Camp.
The latest macOS updates, which can include updates to Boot Camp Assistant. You will use Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows 10.
64GB or more free storage space on your Mac startup disk:
An external USB flash drive with a storage capacity of 16GB or more, unless you're using a Mac that doesn't need a flash drive to install Windows.
A 64-bit version of Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro on a disk image (ISO) or other installation media. If installing Windows on your Mac for the first time, this must be a full version of Windows, not an upgrade.
To install Windows, use Boot Camp Assistant, which is included with your Mac.
Learn how to check your Secure Boot setting. The default Secure Boot setting is Full Security. If you changed it to No Security, change it back to Full Security before installing Windows. After installing Windows, you can use any Secure Boot setting without affecting your ability to start up from Windows.
Open Boot Camp Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. Follow the onscreen instructions.
When Boot Camp Assistant finishes, your Mac restarts to the Windows installer. If the installer asks where to install Windows, select the BOOTCAMP partition and click Format. In most cases, the installer selects and formats the BOOTCAMP partition automatically.
Unplug any external devices that aren't necessary during installation. Then click Next and follow the onscreen instructions to begin installing Windows.
After Windows installation completes, your Mac starts up in Windows and opens a ”Welcome to the Boot Camp installer” window. Follow the onscreen instructions to install Boot Camp and Windows support software (drivers). You will be asked to restart when done.
Restart, then press and hold the Option (or Alt) ⌥ key during startup to switch between Windows and macOS.
If you have one of these Intel-based Mac models using OS X El Capitan or later, you don't need a USB flash drive to install Windows:
To remove Windows from your Mac, use Boot Camp Assistant, not any other utility.
For more information about using Windows on your Mac, open Boot Camp Assistant and click the Open Boot Camp Help button.
1. If you're using an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) or iMac (27-inch, Late 2013) or iMac (27-inch, Late 2012) with a 3TB hard drive and macOS Mojave or later, learn about an alert you might see during installation.
2. For example, if your Mac has 128GB of memory, its startup disk must have at least 128GB of storage space available for Windows. To see how much memory your Mac has, choose Apple menu > About This Mac. To see how much storage space is available, click the Storage tab in the same window. Mac mini os catalina.
3. These Mac models were offered with 128GB hard drives as an option. Apple recommends 256GB or larger hard drives so that you can create a Boot Camp partition of at least 128GB.
For many Mac users who occasionally need to run Windows applications, virtualization solutions like Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, and VirtualBox are often the best way to do so. You take a definite performance hit with virtualization programs, but for most people the ability to run the applications they need without rebooting is more than convenient enough to make up for such shortcomings.
There is one exception: gaming. 3D performance is either much-reduced by virtualization or (in the case of VirtualBox) completely non-existent, and given that most Macs don't have top-shelf graphics processors to begin with, there's simply no substitute for running Windows on bare metal, as they say.
This means using Boot Camp to install Windows on your Mac as you would to any PC, and that means relying on Apple's Windows drivers to get everything working properly. The issue is that Apple doesn't exactly prioritize Windows driver updates, and this is doubly true when a new version of Windows is concerned: Boot Camp support for Windows 7 trailed general availability by about three months, and the song remains the same for Windows 8.
But official support be damned, we say! We installed Windows 8 on our 2011 iMac and 2010 MacBook Air to see what happened, and we kept a log of our findings to help those of you who don't feel like waiting on Apple's drivers.
Because we haven't talked about this in a while, let's take a gander at the Boot Camp installation process as it stands in Mountain Lion. Here's what you need:
Once you've gathered the necessary materials, launch the Boot Camp Assistant from Spotlight or by navigating to Applications and then to Utilities. It will walk you through partitioning your drive to install Windows, downloading the necessary driver files to your external drive, and (for newer MacBook Airs, Retina MacBook Pros, iMacs, and Mac Minis without optical drives), creating a USB installer for Windows from an ISO file.
Users of slightly older Macs, however, will notice that the installer still requires a Windows install DVD before it will start working, and the option to create a USB drive isn't even available—those with access to an optical drive cannot opt to use any other method. Fiesta casino vegas. Strangely, this requirement applies even to 2010, 2009, and 2008-era MacBook Airs, all of which shipped without optical drives; people with those computers will have to find an external optical drive before continuing.
AdvertisementAfter formatting your drive, let the Boot Camp Assistant reboot your computer, and install Windows to your newly created Boot Camp partition as you would to any PC. When going through the installer, be sure to reformat the Boot Camp partition to NTFS, but don't delete it—this will break the partition and require you to start over again from the beginning.
These days, the Windows installer is dead simple to get through as long as you're not terrified of technology—enter your product key and create a user account and you've done most of the heavy lifting. Once you reach the Start screen, insert the external drive containing the Windows support files, navigate to it from the desktop, and run setup.exe.
The Boot Camp installer shouldn't throw up any red flags—accept all of the setup defaults, and sit back and wait while it installs all of Apple's driver software along with Apple Software Update, and reboot when it prompts you to.
The vast majority of programs and drivers that work with Windows 7 also work with Windows 8. Luckily this also applies to much of Apple's Boot Camp software, including read-only access to your Mac's HFS-formatted partition, the Boot Camp control panel that lets you select your default boot partition and adjust other system settings, and the software that makes the Mac's function keys operate as they all do in OS X.
There are some small issues: the graphical overlays for things like volume and brightness don't show up in Windows 8, though the buttons operate normally, and things that bother me about Boot Camp in Windows 7 (like the inability to access FileVault-encrypted volumes) persist in Windows 8, but the new operating system doesn't bring any major, system-breaking new problems.
The biggest issues, especially for gamers, are the drivers. Depending on the Mac you have, you may need to track down and install some additional drivers yourself—2009 and 2010-era Macs with NVIDIA chipsets will probably need to download a separate chipset driver, available here (most Macs use vanilla Intel chipsets, though, so it shouldn't be an issue for anyone else).
The bigger problem is simply outdated drivers, particularly graphics drivers. The Boot Camp 4.0 software came out with Lion in summer of 2011 and hasn't really been updated since then, and as a result you may find yourself using drivers missing almost two years of fixes and performance enhancements.
AdvertisementLuckily, new drivers are just a few clicks away—Macs use standard PC graphics chips, and these can be powered with standard PC drivers. Below, I've laid out a table of Macs, the graphics chips they use, the driver you'll want to download to go with them, and any other applicable information you'll need to know. All of the drivers below are for use with the 64-bit versions of Windows 8 (but even if you're still sticking with Windows 7, these drivers should help you out, too).
| Macs | MacBook Air (2011, 2012), 13-inch MacBook Pro (2011, 2012), 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro (2012), Mac Mini (some 2011, 2012) | MacBook Air (Late 2008, 2009, 2010), 13-inch MacBook (2009, 2010), 13-inch MacBook Pro and aluminum MacBook (Late 2008, 2009, 2010), 15-inch MacBook Pro (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012) 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro (2012), 17-inch MacBook Pro (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010), Mac Mini (2009, 2010), iMac (Early 2009, some late 2009, 2012) | 15-inch MacBook Pro (2011), 17-inch MacBook Pro (2011), Mac Mini (some 2011), iMac (some 2010, 2011), Mac Pro (2010, 2012) | Mac Pro (some early 2008 and 2009 models) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPUs | Intel HD Graphics 3000 and 4000 | Various NVIDIA GPUs | Various AMD Radeon 5000 and 6000-series GPUs | NVIDIA GeForce and Quadro desktop GPUs |
| Drivers | Intel graphics driver 15.28.8.64.2875 | NVIDIA Verde notebook driver 306.97 | AMD Catalyst 12.10 driver | NVIDIA GeForce 306.97 driver; NVIDIA Quadro 307.32 driver |
| Notes | None. Intel's drivers aren't flashy but they're typically reliable. | Your experience with this driver may vary. If you encounter crashes, try rolling back to an older version; my 2010 MacBook Air seems happiest with the 295.73 driver from February, 2012. Also note that, yes, iMacs and Mac Minis do tend to use laptop-class GPUs. | If for whatever reason the 12.10 driver won't install (it seemed not to like my 2011 iMac), try the 12.8 version here. Older 2000, 3000, and 4000-series GPUs (most often found in 2007, 2008, and some 2009 and 2010-era iMacs) don't have official Windows 8 driver support; you can try the latest Windows 7 driver from here, or content yourself with the performance of the Boot Camp driver, which will probably be fine for these older GPUs. | These cards were only available as an upgrade option for 2008 Mac Pros, or if you've installed an upgraded graphics card in your Mac Pro at some point. |
This list should be fairly comprehensive as it stands, but note that we can't possibly test all of the GPUs listed with the suggested drivers, and one person's rock-solid driver could be a buggy, crashing mess for someone else. If you've encountered particular issues with a driver and GPU combo, bring it up in the comments and see if someone can get you the answers you're looking for. With a bit of luck you'll be able to find a relatively current driver that brings your graphics performance up to its best possible level.
One final footnote before we finish up here: how does Windows 8 handle the Retina Display currently shipping in some MacBook Pros? When we installed Windows 7 on a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro, our experience with 200 percent scaling was hit-or-miss, but Windows 8 is supposed to improve Windows' scaling for use with screens of many different pixel densities.
On the desktop, things haven't changed that much. Many of the same issues we had in Windows 7 persist: some icons and text looks great, other graphics (including the mouse pointer) look pretty bad. The biggest issue is still with consistency—different applications have vastly different behaviors, and while some applications look just great, others are blurry messes (or, worse, choose to ignore the scaling settings altogether).
The behavior is slightly better for Metro apps. Championship manager 4 patch 4.1.4. Every one of those I used, from the built-in Mail and Calendar apps to the New York Times and Kindle apps, looked just fine scaled up, though that doesn't mean every app you use will be that way—the Metro version of Chrome, for example, gave me a scaled-up scroll bar but chose to render pages at the same scaling level as before.
The variety of Mac configurations out there make this sort of thing an inexact science, but in our experience you shouldn't have problems running Windows 8 on your Macs if you really want to. Official support will smooth over some of the rough edges in the experience, including lack of function key overlays and old, old graphics drivers, but Windows 8's compatibility with software and drivers made for Windows 7 should serve Mac users well here.
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