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.
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- Boot Camp is the free utility included with Lion that allows you to install and run Windows on your MacBook’s hard drive. This gives you the freedom (and convenience) of having both Windows applications and Mac applications available.
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.
For Mac OS X Tiger, Boot Camp was available as a beta. However, that beta expired on December 31st, 2007, and now Boot Camp isn't available for Mac OS X Tiger.
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:
- 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.
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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.
When Apple announced its plans to transition the Mac to its own ARM-based silicon and away from the x86 architecture used in Intel Macs, the company listed a plethora of tools for making sure as many applications survive the shift as possible. But while it's helpful that Apple is providing developer tools for adapting Intel Mac apps and virtualization tools for running the apps that won't make the move right away, there's one scenario Apple didn't talk about at all during its keynote: running Windows natively on a Mac.
Presently, Apple offers a tool in macOS called Boot Camp that facilitates the installation of Windows on another drive or partition, right from macOS. It includes drivers and other boons that make the process a lot simpler than it might be otherwise. Once users install Windows by this method, they're running it natively on the machine just like they would on a Windows laptop from Dell or Lenovo.![Boot camp for mac os sierra to use windows Boot camp for mac os sierra to use windows](/uploads/1/2/7/2/127243528/839627623.jpg)
While virtualization via tools like Parallels or VMWare are usually sufficient for running most Windows apps under macOS, there are some edge cases when the Boot Camp approach is the only option. One of the most common: running Windows PC games, which tend to run more optimally under Windows than they do under macOS, no matter how well done the ports are. (This is, in part, because the games were built with Windows in mind, and it's also because Apple's macOS video drivers emphasize different priorities.)
Advertisement So what's to come of Boot Camp in Big Sur, Apple's next version of macOS? And will it be an option on Macs running Apple silicon—the first of which is expected to launch by the end of the year?
How To Open Bootcamp On Mac
We've learned that Boot Camp will not work on Apple silicon-based Macs. This will surely be a surprise to almost no one, of course. You can't expect to just run a game natively out of the box on a totally different architecture.However, Boot Camp will continue to be supported on Intel-based Macs in macOS 11 Big Sur. And while Apple says the transition to Apple silicon from Intel will take about two years, Apple has said that it still has plans to launch new Intel-based Macs that have not even been announced yet. The company also committed to some form of long-term support for Intel Macs.
We don't know the fate of Boot Camp beyond Big Sur, but it looks like it's not going anywhere in the immediate future—not if you're using an Intel Mac, anyway. Boot Camp won't be an option for you if you buy an Apple silicon Mac—but you probably figured that already. Still, clarification is nice to have, so here it is.