For all those Mac users who have been eagerly waiting to install and experience the Windows operating system on Mac machine, here is the simple procedure that you need to follow to install Windows 10/11 on your Mac using the Boot Camp Assistant software.
What you will need:
# Windows 10/11 DVD, ISO, or USB
# A USB drive with 8GB or more capacity
# One hour of free time
We are going to use the Boot Camp Assistant software available on Mac. Boot Camp helps you install Windows OS on an Intel-based Mac by downloading the necessary support software, creating a partition on your disk for Windows, and then starting the Windows installer. It’s worthwhile noting here that Boot Camp cannot be used to install Windows on M1/M2/M3 Macs.
NOTE: We assume that you have an Intel-based Mac machine with Boot Camp Assistant version 5.0 or later. It’s always a good idea to backup the important data on your computer before installing Windows on Mac. We used MacBook Air to install Windows 10 on the Mac. The procedure to install Windows 11 or Windows 10 on other Mac machines is pretty much the same.
Procedure:
Step 1: Launch Boot Camp Assistant software. To launch it, go to Utilities and click on Boot Camp Assistant to open it.
Step 2: Once launched, click the Continue button on the introduction screen to see the list of options available for your Mac. You will see three options:
# Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk
# Download the latest Windows support software from Apple
# Install Windows 7 or later version
If Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk option is not available on your Mac, it’s because your computer doesn’t support installing Windows from USB flash drive. Simply select the other options available and click Continue button.
By default, all three options are enabled. If you are on a Mac Mini or MacBook Air, use the first option (Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk) to create a bootable Windows 10/11 USB flash drive to install Windows 10/11 directly from USB flash drive. Click the Continue button to proceed to the next step.
Step 3: (Please skip this step if you haven’t selected Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk option in the above step) In this step, you need to select the Windows 10/11 ISO file and the USB device that you want to use to install Windows 10/11. Boot Camp Assistant will create a bootable USB drive for Windows 10/11 installation. Once you select the ISO file and destination USB drive, click the Continue button.
Click the Continue button if you are prompted with the “The drive will be erased” message. Boot Camp Assistant may take several minutes to create the bootable Windows 10/11 USB drive (it will also download Windows support software from Apple). Once Boot Camp Assistant finishes creating a bootable Windows 10/11 USB, you will get the “Boot Camp Assistant is trying to add new helper tool. Type your password to allow this” message. Type in the password and click the Add Helper button to continue.
Step 4: Boot Camp Assistant now takes you to Create a partition for Windows window. Drag the divider between the partitions to set the size of the partitions. We recommend a minimum of 30 GB for Windows partition (Microsoft recommends 16 GB, but if you want to install other software on Windows 10/11, allocate 30GB).
Click the Install button to start partitioning the drive, and then begin installing Windows 10/8 on your Mac. Your Mac machine will automatically reboot to begin installing Windows. You will see the “Booting from Boot Camp Assistant created boot drive” message.
OR
If you haven’t selected Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk option in step 2, please insert the Windows 10/11 installation DVD into the tray and click the Install button to start partitioning the drive and then Windows installation. Your Mac machine will automatically reboot to begin installing Windows.
From here on, follow the on-screen procedure until you need to select a partition to install Windows. On the Where do you want to install Windows? screen, select the partition named BOOTCAMP to install Windows 10/11. Make sure that you format the BOOTCAMP partition before selecting it as an unformatted drive may show the “Windows cannot be installed to this disk x partition x” error.
To format the BOOTCAMP partition, select the partition in the list, click Drive options (advanced), and then click the Format button. Click the Ok button for the prompt.
Click the Next button to begin installing Windows 10/11 on BOOTCAMP partition. Follow the on screen instructions to finish installing and configuring Windows 10/11.
Step 5: Once Windows 10/11 is installed and running, you need to install Mac-specific drivers and other support software for Windows. The support software is on the same USB drive if you have selected Download the latest support software from Apple in step 2. Open the Windows 10/11 USB flash drive (that you have created using Boot Camp Assistant) and navigate to WindowsSupport folder, and then double-click on setup.exe file to start installing all drivers and Apple Software Update.
If you are getting “Boot Camp requires that your computer is running Windows 7/8” error, then you need manually install all drivers and Apple Software Update. Open the Windows 10/11 USB drive and navigate to Drivers > Apple. Here, you will find all Apple drivers and other software. Manually install all required drivers one-by-one.
If you want to install drivers for third-party hardware such as NVidia and ATI, you can find the required drivers under the Drivers folder in the same drive. Good luck!
If you get the Software you are installing has not passed the Windows Logo testing message, click the Continue Anyway button.
When you switch on your Mac, hold down the Alt key or Option key to see an option to boot into Windows or Mac. Good luck!
I hope this helps!
AJThomson says
where do i get an iso file
Despiser25 says
You all must be Liberals… Buy a hyper expensive shiny PC because it has a Apple on it then put a far superior Windows OS on it. LOL. I just bought a CoreI3 shipped to my door with Win81 for under $400… You idiots rammed 0bamacare up our butts too… Liberalism is a serious mental disorder…
Karl says
Apparently the mac mini 2010 model does not support bootcamp 5 or windows 8. Well I tired it out anyway and it worked flawlessly. Mounted windows 7 ISO in mac, went through the bootcamp wizard. One reboot put in windows 8 USB. Loaded windows 8 and installed drivers from bootcamp5. Only 2 drivers did not install, coporcessor and SM Bus. These drivers can be found in bootcamp 4.0 under nvidia. Everything working 100%.
Great Post.
hadi says
hi
I have (macbook pro 2010). Everything’s going well in this manual until i need to choose bootcamp partition for win8. “Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, windows can only be installed to GPT disks.” But for Windows i need MBR, not GPT!? What should I do to install Win8 from USB? Help me please
hadi says
hi
I have (macbook pro 2010). Everything’s going well in this manual until i need to choose bootcamp partition for win8. “Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, windows can only be installed to GPT disks.” But for Windows i need MBR, not GPT!? What should I do to install Win8 from USB? Help me please
Eleni says
Doesn’t work:
1. Not all models support USB creation. Those with superdrives certainly don’t. To get around that you need to edit the Info.plist inside Boot Camp Assistant.app (BootCampAssistant.app/Contents/Info.plist)
To edit do right click on it, show package contents, navigate to Contents and open a terminal in that directory. Execute “sudo nano Info.plist” and edit the file.
You need to add 2 values in there:
DARequiredROMVersions
IM41.0055.B08
IM42.0071.B03
IM51.0090.B03
IM52.0090.B03
IM61.0093.B01
MP11.005C.B04
MB11.0061.B03
MBP11.0055.B08
MBP12.0061.B03
MBP18.0047.B27
MM11.0055.B08
And:
PreUSBBootSupportedModels
MacBook7,1
MacBookAir3,2
MacBookPro8,1
MacBookPro8,3
MacPro5,1
Macmini4,1
iMac12,2
These values you can retrive from the System Information application in utilities. Finally
DELETE the “Pre” in “PreUSBBootSupportedModels”.
PreUSBBootSupportedModels —-> USBBootSupportedModels
MacBook7,1
MacBookAir3,2
MacBookPro8,1
MacBookPro8,3
MacPro5,1
Macmini4,1
iMac12,2
In case you’re running it on a WIN 7 only macs and want to install win 8 also delete this:
Win7OnlyModels
MacBook7,1
MacBookAir3,2
MacBookPro5,5
MacPro2,1
Macmini4,1
iMac10,1
Now you can start Bootcamp Assistant and you will be able to make your USB disk.
HOWEVER, if you have a MBR partition table on your HDD, when you try to install Win8 from the USB, it will complain that you can’t install Win8 from EFI on MBR. So you only can do it through DVD…
jess says
i get all the way to the step to install windows 8 on my usb and when i select my iso file and go to download it I get this error:
your Bootable usb could not be created
Boot Camp only supports Windows 7 installation on this platform. Please use an ISO file for Windows 7 installation.
erdogan says
Same thing happened here. Did you solve it Nomis?
Jacks says
Can you be please more elaborate? Where can i find Info.plist
Gordon Saunders says
I installed Windows 8 as instructed here. It worked well until it had to be restarted for updates. Then I get only a dark blue screen on attempting to restart. Additionally, the Windows partition cannot be started from either a Windows 8 or a Windows 7 installation disk on an external DVD read-writer. By holding down the Alt key (on a Microsoft Keyboard) I can start Mac OS X 8.2, but in no other system.
Darren Howe says
So basically, NOBODY can get Windows 8 running on a Mac.
That seems about right for Apple.
j says
Can you post links for downloading latest version of bootcamp. I cant seem to find the latest version anywhere. I have an old macbook.
Model Name: MacBook
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Bootcamp:3.04
Nomis says
Unable to install win 8 via bootcamp; I reformatted the bootcamp partition to windows NTFS but the Next button still disabled ..
Mac user says
I have installed 8 on my macbook and after installing bootcamp and all drivers , it freezes minute after logging on , and if I don’t install bootcamp ( but only drivers ) it runs fine , but keyboard shortcuts don’t work ( Volume , brightness , eject cd etc ) and no right click . Dont know what is causing freezing .
Molz says
You can create an USB drive on all mac.
Edit file Info.plist and add your mac model into USBBootSupportedModels section.
Launch bootcamp assitant again and option will appears.
mark says
Thanks for the guide! I have a problem though. Whenever I launch Boot Camp Assistant it only gives me two options:” Download the latest Windows support software from Apple” and “Install Windows 7” – there’s no option to create a Windows install disk. Instead, there’s just a blank spot in the window where it’s supposed to be. I’ve got a flash drive with plenty of memory in, but without that first option I can’t turn it into a bootable drive. Any suggestions?
Thanks for any help.
murali says
Hi Admin,
Thanks for the brief explanation,
I tried installing it on my latest MBP 15″.
I’m happy until the Step 4, Windows setup started and I gave language, time and keyboard type. The next screen takes me to “Install” then its giving error saying some Media drivers missing, I scanned through the USB where I kept the downloaded drives from bootcamp and its not accepting any drives. where I’m doing wrong? Please Help me.
Thanks in advance
Murali
dave says
I was wanting to install this on my 2007 imac.. will it not work with the display drivers? / memory
alex says
Hey great guide. However, after following each step, when I came to copy the ISO to my flash drive, it says “an error as occured while copying the Windos installation files.” I’ve been trying like hell bootcamping my Mac into windows and so far not working! :(
thommck says
I tried doing this with lion.
It wouldn’t let me downlhad the windows support files, sayingvthwy were unavailable.
I created the partition anyway and my macbook restarted and booted into the win8 setup. however, it says that no disks can be found. i presume this is because it needs a specific macbook sata driver or something. do you know where i can get this from or is something else going wrong?
Thanks
Karthik says
To install drivers,
1. Select the BootCamp setup
2. Right click and select TroubleShoot Compatibility. If not able to right click, select the ‘Application Tools’ from the ribbon bar and click ‘TroubleShoot Compatibility’
3. Select Windows 7 and run. If it shows Windows XP, click next, select the first checkbox saying ‘This program worked in earlier version’, click next and select windows 7 option.
The BootCamp will install all drivers like Sound, WiFi for you.
Happy Programming Windows in Mac :)
Kevin says
Didn’t work for me. Using OSX Lion and downloaded the latest support software. Had to create a CD for the support software, and a DVD for the Windows 8 ISO… Windows 8 installed fine via bootcamp, however, it wouldn’t allow me to install any drivers or run the setup.exe from the support CD, so it was kinda silly to try the OS without any proper drivers….
admin says
@Karthik
Make sure that you install all drivers (as mentioned in the last part of the guide) for a good experience.
admin says
@Matthew
Are you trying to install Windows 8 on Apple iMac?
Matthew Allen says
I followed all the above steps and it worked fine, I did have the issue of right click and wifi and what not working.
I decided to install the drivers as per the last part, but after restarting it now displays the windows unlock screen for a second and then goes black. nothing I do after that will wake the screen. I think that maybe it was the mac display driver that has caused this. I have tried to locate the driver in the system 32 folder but cant. Looks like a fresh install for me.
Karthik says
Thanks for the writeup, I was just looking for this for almost an hour.
Will give windows 8 a shot soon in my mac :)