Mac users have a couple of options when it comes to installing and running Windows 10 on Mac. One can install Windows on Mac with the help of the built-in Boot Camp Assistant software offered in macOS, use virtualization software like VirtualBox to install Windows inside Mac, or manually create a new partition and then install Windows without the help of Boot Camp.
In one of our previous articles, we discussed installing Windows 10 on Mac with the help of Apple’s Boot Camp software. In this guide, we’re going to show you how to install Windows 10 on Mac without the Boot Camp Assistant software. This method involves creating a new partition for Windows, preparing a bootable Windows 10 USB, and of course, installing Windows 10 on your Mac.
Complete the given below instructions to successfully install Windows 10 on your Mac without Boot Camp software. Note that this method can also be used to install Windows 8.1 on Mac.
Install Windows 10 on Mac without Boot Camp Assistant
Step 1: Turn on your Mac machine and boot into macOS. Open Launchpad, click Other and then click Disk Utility to open the same.
Step 2: Once Disk Utility is launched, select the drive (your SSD or HDD) in the left side, and then switch to the Partition tab. Disk Utility will now show you the partition layout.
Step 3: Next, click on the small “+” sign to create a new partition.
Step 4: Select the newly created partition, enter a name for your new partition (remember the name as you can easily select the newly created partition later while installing Windows), select the size (at least 30 GB), and then select the format as DOS (FAT) or ExFAT. You can choose either DOS or ExFat here, as you can format the partition to NTFS while installing Windows 10.
Click Apply button to create a new partition to install Windows. Click on the Partition button when you see the warning message. Once the new partition is ready, close Disk Utility.
Step 5: Next, you need to prepare bootable Windows 10 installation media. Download and run UNetbootin (free) and prepare the bootable USB of Windows 10.
And if you already have the bootable media, you can proceed to the next step.
Step 6: Once you have the bootable media, restart your Mac, hold down the Alt (Option) key while restarting the Mac, choose the option titled Windows (don’t select EFI unless you are very sure) to begin installing Windows on your Mac.
Step 7: Follow the simple on-screen instructions, and when you see the partition selection screen, select the newly created partition (be sure to select the right partition), click Format to format the partition with NTFS, select the formatted partition, and then click Install button to continue installing Windows on your Mac.
Note that during the installation, your system will be rebooted a couple of times. Every time your system reboots, hold down the Alt (Option) key, and then select Windows to continue the installation.
Step 8: From here on, you need to follow the normal Windows 10 installation procedure.
Step 9: Once Windows is installed on your Mac, check if everything works fine.
If keyboard, trackpad or any other hardware doesn’t work, you might need to download device drivers (Boot Camp drivers) from Apple using our how to download Boot Camp drivers on Windows 10 without Boot Camp Assistant software guide for directions.
If you plan to use Windows as your default operating system, we suggest you set Windows as default OS in boot selection screen to avoid pressing the Alt key every time you turn on your Mac. How to quickly reboot into Mac from Windows guide might also interest you.
Anthony Thudium says
This worked perfectly for my unique situation. Although, once it was all said and done, windows 8 still asked for a product key. BOO
f says
LOL how to install windows 10 without boot camp. “USES BOOTCAMP”
Alex says
It says that a file is missing :'(
Robert Price says
Could I use a variation of this method to install an IMAGE of a Windows install? I want to just migrate my existing Windows install from another PC.
THOUGHTS?
Michael Bradley says
Works perfectly, I’ve done this many times. In fact, I have a 2012 MBP that I don’t need as a Mac anymore as I have others so I simply left the Mac alone and booted holding option with the Windows 10 install USB thumb drive plugged in. I booted into the USB thumb drive. I select Windows Pro as I wanted to use Remote Desktop later. Once the Windows installation reached the ‘select a partition’ section I simply deleted the Mac partition. Once deleted Windows install proceeded. Now, all finished the Mac is now 100% a Windows PC and after all the updates finished all the required drivers installed. I don’t actually use this as a PC directly I use Microsoft Remote Desktop from my Mac Pro to operate this MBP with Windows 10 Pro on it. It works flawlessly.
McWindows says
Pardon my typos in the previous post. I can’t correct them after submitting the text :(
McWindows says
If you created the partition and formatted it, go on and start windows setup as said in procedure.
Be sure to download the 64bit (or x64) version of Windows and only from the Microsoft site (other ‘free’ downloads have been proven many times to hide malware in that version of windows). Search for windows 10 media creation tool or search for windows 10 download and look for the link that contains Microsoft.com. Use that tool to ‘install windows on a different computer’ which will automatically create a bootable usb drive when providing one. Make sure to cooy that usb drive first as it will wipe all data from it!
When done reboot imac as told in above procedure and choose the efi boot on the usb drive.
Running the setup choose custom installation, select the partition you just created and choose format. If you can’t select it first select disk tools or disk options. After formatting the new partition just select it and go further with the next step of the installation wizard.
I installed win 10 on a fully formatted imac (after a complete wipe of all partitions) and i just selected the unpartitioned disk. Windows setup did the rest for me automatically.
However: after installation and all the auto updates from the web three hardware components won’t work. The Intel HD display crashes the imac so I disabled it completely. No problem as the AMD display adapter is being used.
Further there seem to be no drivers for the facetime camera, the Bluetooth hub (but mouse is working properly) and the sound card.
Can anyone tell me where i can download the sound and camera drivers without bootcamp or without having to reinstall the Mac OS again?
Cheers!
c says
you can ignore bootcamp
Marc Thalheim says
PELASE HELP ME…I PARTITIONED MY DISK BUT THE FUCKING PARTITION ISN’T SHOWING UP AS AN OPTION TO BOOT FROMWHEN I RESTART MY COMPUTER. WHY THE FUCK IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME!??!!?
Prabakaran says
Verry verry thanks admin.works its for me
SomeGuy says
It doesn’t help me when I need Bootcamp to install windows to a usb stick. Bootcamp doesn’t work at all on my Mac. So DON’T USE BOOTCAMP WHEN YOU SAY WE DON’T NEED IT IN THE DESCRIPTION!!
anonyom says
What a rubbish post!
install without bootcamp using bootcamp…
mind says
It works for me. but the problem was no sound after installing windows drivers.
AKSJS says
When I boot holding the alt key I don’t see my usb with Windows 10 on it to choose? All i see are my OS X partition and the recovery hd. I tried booting and the plugging the usb as well as plugging in the usb before booting and both options didn’t work.
Listen, I really want windows on my mac. I’ve been trying to get windows 7 through bootcamp but it always freezes… something to do with the drivers or some such bullshit.
Bootcamp won’t let me install anything other than windows 7. Would it be possible if I create two usb’s? One with windows 10 and one with 7. That way I use bootcamp to install windows 7 and right whens it restarts to open windows I can replace the usb’s so it opens windows 10 instead?
Thoughts?
Wick says
@Bruno. Totally! Don’t use boot camp so you can install your boot camp…
Bruno says
“Without Boot Camp” Haaaaahaaaaaaa TROLLLLLL
Pat39 says
i followed all the steps but I can’t use the ask-Fi. What do I do? I really just want it so I can use Steam, but so far I’ve found no easy solution to the problem, so I would really appreciate the help.
mahdi says
I follow this step until chose drive,I chose that drive it was EXFAT but error me windows can’t install in this drive I tried but I can’t.
how I make it NTFS drive?
thanks.
Dean says
Your title is “How To Install Windows 8.1 On Mac WITHOUT BOOT CAMP”, yet it depends on Boot Camp to create the USB installer!!!!! Bogus.
Jose says
I followed this guide and found it great, except I was still getting issue “Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only….”
So I followed the steps detailed here:
http://superuser.com/a/508454
After that I restarted the mac, and then followed your guide from step 7 onwards :)
Thanks!
nic bailey says
i have a mac mini late 2014 3ghz fusion drive. have been trying to install windows7 via boot camp with usb sticks . usb formatted on mac with a windows iso created from a windows disc, but also tried windows iso downloaded from microsoft. usb also created on windows xp machine using windows dvd/download and also tried rufus. (rufus creates log of process, ending by saying that stick is bootable) all trials have been run on 3 different sticks. boot camp gets as far as creating partition then boots to black screen; in all cases. windows dvd checked by creating a bootcamp partition on an old mac pro (without problem). just bought an external dvd drive. mac mini sees disc drive and cd on desktop. run boot camp, but it does not see it. so create fat32 partition using disk utility and your very clear instructions. restart hold down option key….black screen. b.t.w. this is mac mini no 2, having sent no 1 back after 2 weeks of earlier frustration, including a visit to a genius bar where all they could tell me was that it was “formatted unusually”. do you know of anyone who has successfully installed windows 7 on a new mac mini with fusion drive?
Iván García says
For all of those having the “GPT” error, make sure you are using a 64 Bit version of the Windows installer, because 32 bit versions wont work.
Muhammad Farooqi says
hi,
After reading all comments I though i’m in between.. weither I would be able to install it or no.. and when i decided to give it a try I got an error .. :( I can’t install windows because of some thing GTP etc type error.. I could boot into windows installation, and formate but “next” option doesn’t get appear to be clicked…
ONLY you can’t install windows on bla bla bla..
:(
Can you guys tell me if it is some “hardware” issue or windows?. Some of guys above do have the same issue..
Regards
admin says
@ Roddy
Yup, it’s possible. I will soon write a guide on it.
admin says
@ Vern
Did you follow the Step 9 in our guide? Have you installed all necessary Boot camp drivers after installing Windows on Mac?
vern says
i installed window 8.1 into my apple computer but i can’t get on line first it said i needed to install driver network adapter. which i did and now it says i need to install intel r adapters isn’t these adapters in windows 8.1 what did i do wrong
can someone please help me. iam begining to wish i never brought an apple computer. first one i ever owned
thank you very much for any help i can get
vern
Roddy says
Can you install Windows 8.1, whilst completely wiping out the OS X partition?
If I ever need to install Mac, simply run Internet recovery. But space on the SSD drive is precious. I plan on run Mac on the Windows side as a VM. Completely backwards I know, but is what I was thinking.
admin says
@ Booke
I am glad that my guide helped you. Enjoy Windows 8.1.
Brooke says
This was amazing. I can’t tell you how much of an absolute disaster this process has been. How many times I’ve accidentally wiped my hard drive trying to follow directions from different websites for installs via the command line. How many DVDs I went through. How many hours searching online.
I started trying to get this to work back in September, gave up and moved on to updating to Yosemite and setting up OS X Server. Now that all that’s done and good to go for all my devices, I thought I’d return to this …
Your instructions worked perfectly. I don’t understand what was different this time as opposed to before, but I was able to format the drive within the Windows install process just fine. Before, it wouldn’t even let me do that (which is how I ended up braving a few different sets of instructions for command line installs).
At any rate, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Mark Brown says
Hi,
If you install manually will this enable Virtualisation on the CPU without having to cold boot into Mac OSX then restart into Windows?
Thanks
nadav says
i get an orange screen after i select “windows”
Danny says
You can change from gpt to Mbr, by clicking on options before, in Disk utility (for the selected partition )
Sai Lin Han says
Finally successful install Win 8.1. Here a tip. Just follow the Post guide for how to create partition. you can use a copy of win 8.1 on dvd too. When installation step reach (Upgrade or Custom) Just choose custom and delete the partition you create in Mac OS. after that selete new and don’t format it. now you can click next and continue install win 8.1 hope that help you guys.
Tom Hook says
If not working (cant install on gtp partition..) choose EFI Boot !!!!
Crossfader says
cant install on gtp partition :(
Jelamr says
pff cant install on gtp partition.. your screenshot also shows that :/
Arya says
It keeps repeating that it couldn’t create a partition after i formated it. So it can’t install on this disk. I can’t use bootcamp because my Mac is too old. What can i do ?