It can’t be done.

Admit it, Mac owners: you’re a little jealous of PC users right now. While OS X users wait for the arrival of El Capitan, Microsoft has released the long-awaited Windows 10 update, which Windows. Mac OS X El Capitan BootCamp doesn't target Windows 10 ISO. Ask Question Asked 4 years, 2 months ago. Active 3 years, 3 months ago. Viewed 9k times.

Update: It seems that it really can’t be done now, if you’re running a later version of macOS. I’ve had reports of Boot Camp crashing if you try to amend the Boot Camp Assistant software as outlined in Step 2 below.

Well, not if you take Apple’s Boot Camp software at face value. It suggests that only Windows 7 can be installed, and (by implication) anything newer should be left to newer Macs. But having seen the specifications of some modern Windows PCs I was fairly confident that it would run. Possibly even quite well. So I persevered.

There is a lot of advice about how to get later versions of Windows running on older Macs. Much of it is very complicated and quite possibly works if you know exactly what you are doing and the wind is behind you.

I tried some of these more complicated solutions without any success. I spent several hours over a number of days disabling system integrity protection (which doesn’t sound like a good idea), manually blessing disks (really), and creating special versions of the Windows 10 installer DVDs, which ultimately told me to press any key and then proceeded to ignore that key press and do nothing.

The wind has been very swirly recently.

In the end I decided to adopt a more basic approach: I simply overrode the Boot Camp setting that said it couldn’t be done.

And it was simple – changing one number in the appropriate info.plist file.

Then I ran Boot Camp again and was told that of course my 2008 MacBook Pro was more than capable of running any version of Windows and when would I like to begin? I’m paraphrasing slightly. So I put in my Windows DVD and ran through the process of selecting a partition size and installing the operating system – all without any issues.

Then, when Windows 10 was successfully installed, I ran the Windows Boot Camp support software – and was told that it wasn’t compatible. Having heard that before, I ignored it and instead of running the main setup executable, installed the drivers via the Windows driver package that was also available with the support software (BootCamp.msi). Once that had crashed (oh) and I’d rebooted the computer I found that nearly everything was working as expected, with a crisp looking display and basic touchpad support.

There are one or two issues that I still need to look at – such as getting two finger scrolling working – but nothing that you don’t get with most new PCs (don’t ask my girlfriend about her oversensitive ASUS touchpad if you value your life). And the whole process was a lot simpler and quicker than trying to install Windows manually.

Now I have to remember why I started this process in the first place.

Steps for installing Windows 10 on your old MacBook Pro

If you follow these steps you do so at your own risk and with no guarantee that things will work out. I used a late-2008 MacBook Pro. Others of a similar vintage might well work.

Step 1

Get a copy of Windows 10. Fairly obvious but worth mentioning. You can download a copy of the Windows installer DVD in iso format from here:

You will need the 64 bit version.

To keep things simple you will need to create an actual DVD from this file, but in El Capitan that is very easy. Once the file is downloaded, insert a blank DVD (we all have those still lying around don’t we?), right-click on the iso file and select Burn to Disc.

Step 2

This is the important bit. Find the Boot Camp Assistant software in the Applications > Utilities folder on your Mac, right-click and select ’Show Package Contents’. That should open up the software package to show a Contents folder. Open that and you’ll see a list of files including one called info.plist, which is the main configuration file for the Boot Camp Assistant software.

Open that file in a text editor (I use the excellent TextWrangler) and look for this block of text:

We are interested in the MacBookPro entry. This part of this configuration file says that anything before the MacBook Pro 5,5 should only have Windows 7 installed. You can find out the version of your MacBook Pro in El Capitan by selecting ‘About This Mac’ from the Apple menu and then System Report. All you need to do is make sure that the number in the info.plist file is earlier than the MacBook Pro you are attempting to install the Windows operating system on. I changed it to MacBookPro4,5 to be on the safe side.

Save the file.

Step 3

Run the Boot Camp Assistant software, tick both boxes when prompted to do so and follow the on screen instructions.

You will need a USB flash drive to install the Apple support software for Windows (this includes all of the drivers required to get the screen, keyboard, trackpad etc working).

Step 4

When the whole process is over and Windows has installed, make sure the USB flash drive is attached.

Unfortunately the main setup.exe file on the USB flash drive won’t run properly. It will tell you that you can’t install the drivers for this Mac. Fortunately, you can ignore this and install the drivers manually by navigating to BootCamp > Drivers > Apple on the USB flash drive and running BootCamp.msi by double-clicking on it. This process may hang – it did for me when attempting to install some audio drivers.

Whether it does or not, once it has finished you should reboot. Windows should restart with most of the relevant drivers in place. Or you might end up with no sound like me. Fortunately I was able to resolve that by diving back into the BootCamp > Drivers folder and then into the RealTek folder to install the audio drivers by running RealtekSetup.exe. After another reboot the audio was fine.

So far, I haven’t come across any major problems other than the audio. I’ve installed Visual Studio and tried a few other things and it has all worked as expected. Obviously your mileage may vary and there are no guarantees, but it certainly works well enough for what I need.

It can be done.

Contents

• 3.3 Dual Boot Windows 10 on Mac OS X 10.11

Not only has Apple been diligently working on a new OS, El Capitan, but Microsoft isn’t too far behind, either. In fact, their newest version of Windows is, in my humble opinion (although there are a lot of people who agree with me), the best one they’ve ever released. Many of us were unhappy with how Windows 8 looked, but the creators rectified that mistake by combining the familiarity of Windows 7 with the productivity of its successor.

Bootcamp El Capitan Windows 104

Another great thing about this new OS is that is not solely available to Microsoft users, but Apple users can enjoy it, as well. Now, as a Mac user, you probably don’t want to part with your iOS, especially since you’ve gone through all that trouble of downloading El Capitan while it’s still in beta. What you can do is dual boot them, so you’ll get the best of both worlds. If you don’t really know how to go about this, I will walk you through the process.

Detailed Guide to Twin Boot Windows 10 on Mac OS X El Capitan

You don’t have to install Mac OS X El Capitan on your Mac device, you can also install it on an external hard drive, most especially when you want to access the OS quickly. You can consider Thunderbolt drives which are similar to the internal drives on Mac, or you can simply use the USB 3.0 external drive if you don’t have the Thunderbolt on your Mac. You will have to format an external drive before installing Mac OS X El Capitan, this will help to install the Mac OS X El Capitan safely on the hard drive and at the same time the configuration of your device will not be changed.

Bootcamp El Capitan Windows 10 64-bit

Obviously, you need an Internet connection, but I don’t want to be Captain Obvious here. So, go to their download page and sign up for the Insider Program. Once you’re signed in, scroll down and you’ll see two ISO files: x64 or x86. Depending on your OS, choose the one you need. If you’re not sure, x64 is for 64-bit OS, while x86 is for 32-bit. Not that x64 can install both version, but it’s still recommended to use the one that is more suitable.

For this step, you’ll need Boot Camp Assistant. Open it up and check the options that say “Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk” and “Download the latest Windows support software for Apple,” then click 'Continue'. Now insert a USB drive into your computer (it has to have at least 16GB) and move the Windows ISO file to it. Boot camp will then ask you to confirm it, since the flash drive will be converted to FAT and everything on it will be deleted, so click 'Continue'. The file will start copying and will be renamed to WININSTALL. It shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes and, once it is done, you can move on to the next step.

What will make this process easier is that you’ll be able to use Boot Camp Assistant for it, as well. Instead of checking the same boxes you did last time, select the one that says 'Install Windows 7 or later version' and go to 'Continue'.

Next, you’ll be asked to choose the size of your partition. You can go with any size that you want, but it’s recommended to have at least 30GB if you’re trying to install Windows 10 for the first time, or 40GB if you’re just updating it. It’s better to choose a little more extra space, just in case. Once you do that, click on 'Install'. When the installation has finished, your Mac will automatically restart.

Next, you’ll see the logo of Windows. Choose the language you want the OS to use and hit 'Install'. You’ll see two types of installation: the Upgrade and the Custom one. Choose the custom one and the partition you’ve created earlier. When you're done with that, click on 'Format' and then, 'Next'. Then you just wait until Windows finishes the rest on its own.

You’ll be asked to create an account and set up a pin, just like you would if you were installing it on a Windows computer. The only new thing with Windows 10 is that there’s now a pin, not a password, but it’s pretty similar, so you shouldn’t have any trouble with it.

From that point forward, you can normally use your new Windows 10. In case you want to switch between the two systems, you just need to turn off your computer and hold the Alt key when it’s booting again. It will open the 'Start Manager' where you can choose to use either Windows or Apple.

El Capitan Boot Camp Windows 10 Iso

If at any point you decide that you don’t want to have Windows 10 on your Mac, you can simply delete it. What you do is you go to 'Disk Utility', select the file that should be called Macintosh HD and click on 'Partition'. Then, choose the smaller one on the bottom that is untitled and click the minus (-) sign. Click on 'Remove' and voila – Windows 10 will be deleted, alongside anything you had stored on it.