What Is Boot Camp For Mac
Positives
- Is Boot Camp For Mac Good
- Boot Camp Not Restarting In Os X
- What Is Boot Camp Assistant For Mac
- What Is Boot Camp Assistant For Mac
Boot Camp is the easiest way to get Windows 10 on your Mac Boot Camp doesn’t allow you to easily transfer content between OS X and Windows partitions like virtual machines do, and you can’t.
- Boot Camp is designed to allow Mac users to set up a partition to run Windows, providing access to PC-only apps and content. Apple's Boot Camp update for macOS 10.14.5 comes about a month after.
- Boot Camp is software developed by Apple, in cooperation with Microsoft, designed to effectively run Windows on Mac hardware. By using Boot Camp, you don't have.
- Boot Camp reformats the flash drive as a Mac bootable install disk, and combines Windows 10 with install scripts to load hardware drivers for the targeted Mac computer. Boot Camp currently supports Windows 10 on a range of Macs dated mid-2012 or newer. Startup Disk. By default, Mac will always boot from the last-used startup disk.
- Jul 29, 2015 Boot Camp is the easiest way to get Windows 10 on your Mac Boot Camp doesn’t allow you to easily transfer content between OS X and Windows partitions like.
- Full-fledged Windows experience
- Strong performance
- Full Retina display support
- Great Windows environment on a Mac
- Boot Camp is part of macOS
Negatives
- Issues with APFS during install
- Couldn't find macOS startup disk
- Windows will shorten battery life
- Requires at least 40GB of allocated space
There is another way to take the Windows experience to the next level: run it on a Mac using Boot Camp. Apple's multi-boot utility – which has been included with the Mac operating system since OS X 10.5 Leopard – guides users through installing Windows on Intel-based Macs, and it's actually pretty easy to get started if all the necessary components are in place. What sets the Windows experience apart from any virtualization software is that users can take full advantage of their hardware in every possible way, the Retina display included, so long as you agree to allocate at least 40GB of space on the startup disk for this operating system. In other words, Boot Camp allows you to run Windows without the compromise of using just one processor or only a limited amount of RAM, the sorts of restrictions that would be imposed by virtual machines as they balance the various resources to optimize the running of two operating systems side by side.
Features
The software itself is part of macOS, so installing Windows on Macs using the legacy HFS+ file system is smoother than those using the Apple File System and Time Machine or FileVault. Boot Camp will take your startup disk and create a partition that's compatible with Windows. When you install Windows on a Mac that includes a Fusion Drive, the Windows partition is created on the mechanical hard drive part of the Fusion Drive, and not the SSD.
Time Machine Snapshots With Boot Camp Installation
The good part of the installation process is that Boot Camp downloads all the necessary components (drivers) to make Windows work, except for the operating system itself. However, we ran into an error message on our MacBook Pro (late 2016) that stated it could not partition the startup disk because it didn't have enough space, despite the system telling us exactly the opposite. This was due to the Time Machine function on the Mac, and how local snapshots work. Snapshots older than 24 hours are automatically deleted, but the downside of local snapshots is that Finder and Get Info windows don't include these in their calculations of the storage space available on a disk.
Command prompt for mac address windows 10. I sometimes need to install updates remotely on a server I maintain.
Setup Process
Creating Boot Camp Partition
Windows Installed via Boot Camp
Power Handling
What you'll notice immediately after installing Windows are the benefits of the Retina display: icons look much sharper and text looks much clearer when compared to the equivalent running in virtualization software. Intel's HD graphics software will also help optimize both the operating system and battery life. However, this is where the difference between the two operating systems becomes significant: users running Windows are unable to get the same battery longevity that they would get from the same Mac running macOS. For example, running Windows with only 5% battery charge rendered the Mac useless, while on macOS that level allows at least half an hour, if not more, of light use.
It’s also worth noting that running Windows on a Mac will require further input to adjust basic aspects such as the brightness of the display or other such energy-efficiency settings that are mostly automated on a Mac or have already been customized by the user in macOS.
Integration
Boot Camp users can use the Mac's keyboard and all its ports while running Windows. Some keys on the keyboard will look different between macOS and Windows, but Apple provides a support page where users can learn how to map Windows keys to the Apple keyboard.
Boot Camp Volume Mounted
The Boot Camp software also comes with controls specifically for the startup disk, keyboard, and trackpad behavior. The tool sits in the Windows taskbar section and provides the option to reboot into macOS if the user so chooses.
File Sharing
Running Windows 10 via Boot Camp comes with certain challenges. The convenience of virtual machines – specifically meaning the ease of transferring files between Mac and Windows – is unfortunately non-existent here as the dual-boot utility completely separates the two operating systems. While this is good for privacy reasons, it's not quite as convenient for automating workflow and so users will need to figure out a way to enable bidirectional communication themselves.
Windows File Explorer Doesn't List the macOS Volume
Shared Folder
This is possible only when using third-party apps such as Paragon NTFS for Mac, which enables write capabilities for macOS. Without similarly capable software, NTFS drives – Boot Camp included – will be read-only from a Mac. In Windows, however, users can only see the Boot Camp volume and won't be able to mount or write to any APFS-formatted partition.
Another way to create a ‘tunnel’ between the two operating systems is to use cloud services such as iCloud or Dropbox, but this isn’t space efficient because you’ll be storing two copies of the same files, one on the macOS volume and another on the Boot Camp volume.
Performance
The major advantage of using Boot Camp for running Windows on a Mac when compared to a virtual machine shows up when it comes to performance. This is where Windows truly shines due to the lack of compromise that comes with virtualization software by their very nature. Conversely, the Microsoft-developed operating system can use all the available hardware resources of the Mac via Boot Camp, which greatly improves the overall user experience. This means that users get a full Windows experience packed into an elegant Mac computer, though it's still too costly a machine to use it just for running Windows.
Battery Performance
Setup
Since Boot Camp is an in-built part of macOS, there isn’t much users need to do to prepare the software, though the need for a Windows ISO file or an installer (via a USB stick) is still a requirement. The Boot Camp assistant provides clear and easy-to-understand on-screen instructions which will guide the user throughout the setup process.
After installing the guest operating system, Apple’s Boot Camp utility will take its place in the Windows task bar. The software lets users customize their keyboard, trackpad and select their preferred boot volume to define which of the two operating systems will automatically launch after rebooting.
Boot Camp Control Panel: Keyboard
Startup Disk Error
Setting macOS as the default operating system is possible through the “Restart in macOS” option, but during our testing the “couldn't find macOS startup disk” error message appeared every time we wanted to reboot using this command. This forced us to power the system down and use the Startup Manager to select the startup disk we wanted the Mac to boot from. This error is APFS-specific, and hopefully Apple will address it in a future software update.
Pricing
Price-wise, Apple's Boot Camp is in ‘direct competition’ with Oracle's VirtualBox since the utility is also available for free thanks to the fact that it’s part of macOS. Typing ‘Boot Camp Assistant’ into Spotlight will bring up the utility's dialog box, informing the user of how it will help them to get Windows onto their Mac. Boot Camp will download the necessary drivers, create the NTFS-formatted partition on the startup disk, and start the Windows installer. However, a valid version of Windows will, of course, be necessary to install the OS.
Customer Support
Although the overall use of Boot Camp should be smooth if you are using the legacy HFS+ file system on the Mac, questions may arise during the installation process. To address this Apple provides a link to its Boot Camp Assistant help page, where users will find detailed information about what they need to get started and a step-by-step installation guide that will help them finalize the Windows installation.
Apple also has a handful of support guides gathered under the Boot Camp Support page. If you don't find any answers there, then the Apple Support Community forum is there to help. There you'll find Apple fans from across the globe helping to address the issues found during the installation process. On top of that, you can always get in touch with Apple Support.
Bottom Line
If you are looking for the ultimate Windows experience on a Mac, then Boot Camp is the best option you can get. This utility will make the most of the combination of Microsoft's operating system and the Mac's hardware as the OS will be able to fully utilize all the resources packed into the Apple computer.
Dual-boot, however, does bring with it several compromises. First, it’s necessary to actually restart your Mac into the secondary operating system and vice versa each time you want to swap OS. Secondly, the two operating systems run isolated from one another, which means there is no option for shared folders, drag and drop, or copy and paste – neat features that can be easily handled by virtualization software – and so for this it’ll be necessary to establish a ‘tunnel’ to enable communication between the two if streamlined access to files on both systems is important, otherwise you'll be stuck with an external drive.
But if you are into gaming, then there is no better way to play Windows-only games on a Mac without fear that you'll waste the hardware resources of your macOS. In fact, Boot Camp lets you focus on one thing, just using a standard Windows environment to get whatever task(s) you need doing done. And when finished, it’s easy to go back to macOS and continue from where you left off.
Microsoft has made steady and significant improvements to Windows 10 which is why more and more longtime macOS owners are now switching to it. While macOS does have its own fair share of strengths, Apple’s has largely been focusing on iOS for the last few years and it shows.
While Microsoft has added some major new features to Windows 10 over the last few years, macOS has gained only some minor such improvements. Then, there’s also the fact that many applications are still only available for Windows which forces many people to use it as their primary OS. Irrespective of what the case is, if you are a MacBook owner and are looking to install Windows 10 on your Mac for work purpose — or just for educational purposes, check out the steps below to know how.
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Thankfully, Apple makes it pretty straightforward to use Boot Camp and install Windows on your Mac. However, Boot Camp only supports Windows 8 or higher and only 64-bit versions of the OS. So, it is important that you get your hands on the right version of the OS. And yes, you will have to get your hands on an original Windows 10 installation ISO before jumping to the steps below.
If you don’t already have a Windows 10 ISO with you, you can download it directly from Microsoft. You will also have to ensure that you have 55GB of free storage space on your Mac and have access to 16GB or higher USB pen drive. The faster the pen drive, the faster the installation process will be. To create a bootable Windows 10 USB drive, you can use Microsoft’s own Windows USB/DVD Download tool. Most users end up getting an error during installation due to a faulty or improper USB installation media. That’s why I will strongly recommend you to create the bootable Windows 10 USB disk using Microsoft’s official tool itself.
Some of the latest Macs don’t require access to a USB pen drive as they store the installation files on the disk itself. On such Macs, you simply need to ensure that the ISO file is stored on their hard disk.
If you own any of the following Macs, you don’t need a USB pen drive:
Is Boot Camp For Mac Good
- MacBook Pro (2015 and later)
- MacBook Air (2015 and later)
- MacBook (2015 and later)
- iMac (2015 and later)
- iMac Pro
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
Windows 10 Compatible Macs
As per Apple, the following Macs are compatible with the 64-bit version of Windows 10:
- MacBook Pro (2012 and later)
- MacBook Air (2012 and later)
- MacBook (2015 and later)
- iMac Pro (2017)
- iMac (2012 and later)
- Mac mini (2012 and later)
- Mac mini Server (Late 2012)
- Mac Pro (Late 2013)
Things to Know
Before you jump to the installation steps below, there are a few things that you must know. While Windows 10 runs just fine on a Mac, there are some compromises that you will have to make. Firstly, the battery life of your MacBook is going to go for a toss under Windows 10. There’s not much you can do here and this is a trade-off that you will have to learn to live with. Secondly, you will not be able to access the macOS partition while running Windows 10. And to copy/paste files from the Windows 10 partition in macOS, you will first have to install an NTFS driver on your Mac.
Third, most of the keyboard shortcuts that work under macOS will not work under Windows 10. This is because the Command key will simply not work under the latter, with the OS primarily making use of the Ctrl key. You can remap the Command key to Ctrl key from settings to keep your muscle memory from tripping.
Boot Camp Not Restarting In Os X
How To Install Windows 10 Using Boot Camp on your Mac
Step 1: On your Mac, open the Boot Camp Assistant app. It is located inside the Utility folder in the Applications folder.
Step 2: Proceed to the next step where you will have to point Boot Camp to the Windows 10 ISO and also partition the existing hard drive on your Mac to free up space for Windows 10. Take your time and decide the partition size since you cannot expand/shrink the partition later on.
Step 3: Boot Camp will then proceed to download Windows support software. Depending on the speed of your internet connection, this can take anywhere between 5-10 minutes. Once downloaded, the installer will go ahead and partition the hard disk of your Mac and proceed forward with the installation process.
The Boot Camp Assistant will ask your admin password after which it will restart your MacBook and you will be greeted with the Windows 10 installer. Proceed to install Windows 10 like you would on any other PC. The steps are pretty straightforward and you are unlikely to face any issues. During the process, you will be asked to select the partition where you want to install Windows 10. Select the “Boot Camp” partition and format it as NTFS to continue with the installation.
Once you are done with the Windows 10 installation, set up the OS and then proceed to update it to download the relevant driver updates for the OS.
Once you go past the initial set up phase and reach the desktop, the Boot Camp installer will automatically start installing the necessary drivers for your Mac.
How to Boot Between macOS and Windows 10
Once you are done installing Windows 10 on your Mac, you would want to know how to alternatively boot into the two operating systems. To switch between the two OSes, you will have to restart your Mac. As soon as it restarts and you hear the chime or see the Apple logo, hold down the Option key. This will bring up the boot manager from where you select the macOS or the Windows 10 partition to boot into.
Remember that by default, your Mac will automatically boot into the last OS you had booted into. So, if you primarily use Windows 10, your Mac will automatically boot into Windows.
How to Remove Windows 10 from Your Mac
If you want to uninstall Windows 10 from your Mac, the steps are pretty straightforward. Simply boot into macOS, open Boot Camp Assistant, select the ‘Remove Windows 7 or later version’ option and click Continue. Finally, click Restore so that Windows 10 is removed from your Mac and the macOS partition is restored to its original size. Do make sure that you have backed up all your data stored in the Windows 10 partition as it would be completely erased.
What Is Boot Camp Assistant For Mac
If you end up facing any issues while installing Windows 10 on your Mac, drop a comment and we will help you out. And if you are able to install it successfully, let our readers know how the experience of using Windows on your Mac has been going for you.