How to Install Windows 10 on Mac (Dual Boot)

Mac users can also install the Windows 10 on the same machine MacBook, Mac mini, Mac Pro or iMac that running macOS. With the help of built-in macOS app Boot Camp Assistant, you can install and run dual boot Windows 10 and macOS. In this guide, you will see How to install and run Windows 10 on Mac using Boot Camp Assistant.

Requirements:

  • You need a Windows 10 64-bit ISO file, you can follow this guide to Download Official Windows 10 ISO file.
  • Windows 10 license/product key.
  • The Boot camp will prepare a Windows 10 USB drive including some important driver, so we need at-least 16GB USB flash drive.
  • At least 30GB free space required on Mac hard drive.
  • Before installing Windows 10, make sure you backup all your important data on Mac using Time Machine. See how to use Time Machine to backup Mac.
Install Windows 10 on Mac

Install Windows 10 on Mac

  1. To install Windows 10 on Mac we will use Boot Camp Assistant on macOS, Boot Camp will prepare a USB drive for use and then install the operating system.
  2. Run Boot Camp, hit cmd+space from the keyboard on Mac and type Boot Camp in the spotlight search box and then run Boot Camp from search results.
  3. Insert a minimum 16 GB USB flash drive in USB port of Mac and click Continue button on Boot Camp window.
  4. Select the following options on Boot Camp window, “Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk”, “Install Windows 7 or later version” and hit Continue button.
    create windows 10 install disk for mac boot camp
  5. On the next window click the Choose button and select the Windows 10 64-bit ISO file from the computer. Destination disk will be your 16GB USB drive and hit Continue button (Your flash drive will be formatted to confirm that you want to do that).
  6. Now, Boot Camp will start downloading Windows files and drivers on USB flash drive and will take some time, so be patient.
  7. Once Boot Camp finished downloading Windows files, now you need to create a separate partition for Windows 10 on Mac hard drive. So give at-least 30GB storage size to Windows 10 partition. Click the Install button, this will create a new partition and reboot the computer to start installing Windows 10 on Mac.
    create a partition for windows 10 boot camp
  8. Follow the Windows Setup on-screen instructions its easy, it will ask you to select a partition (Where do you want to install Windows?) just make sure you select the Boot Camp partition that you created for Windows 10 in the previous step.
  9. Once Windows setup finished installing everything, this will reboot your computer and follow the on-screen instructions to finish the initial Windows login setup.
  10. Install drivers: Boot Camp copied some drivers on USB flash drive that you need to install manually If Boot Camp drivers setup didn’t run automatically after installing Windows. So, open the USB drive and run the setup.exe file to install required drivers and reboot. After rebooting your Mac you have successfully installed Windows 10 on your Mac.

Switch between macOS and Windows 10

Because you installed Windows 10 on a separate partition and this will not disturb your existing macOS, so you can boot into any operating system. To switch between Windows 10 or macOS, reboot computer and hold-down the Option/Alt key from the keyboard on startup. From boot menu select the Operating system that you want to launch.

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Change Default Operating System

When you install Windows 10 on Mac, Windows 10 will be the default OS that your Mac will run. But you can change this setting from Mac System Preferences > Startup Disk, and here select the default OS disk to boot from. For more information see this article.

Remove Windows 10 from Mac

If you are having problems after installing Windows 10 on your Mac and decided to uninstall it. Using Boot Camp Assistant the process to delete Windows files and partition completely is very easy. Run Boot Camp and on the Task selection screen select the option “Remove Windows 7 or later” option and then follow the on-screen instructions.

See also: How to install Windows on USB drive

Share your experience of installing Windows 10 on your Mac. Tell us which macOS version you are using and you can ask any question using the form below in comments.

1 comment… add one
MicheleK December 30, 2015, 9:53 am

Hi,
I’m not sure how to reach out to you any other way, so thought I’d try through this post. I have an iMAC 20 that I bought from a friends friend, friend. Anyway, it was working fine but because of the Administrator and password lock, I couldn’t download anything. I bought the Windows 10 download cheaply through my company and wanted to download it, so I followed the instructions and was happy to see it working. I went through the “flying” welcome screen, the posting of new information, my address, my shortname, my password, reconfirming password, where I was using the computer, etc. Hit enter, looks like it’s processing the information, but within 30 seconds puts me back into the “flying” welcome screen and asking me about logging in as a new user again. Obviously some type of glitch. I’ve been scouring the web trying to find out what might be happening and a possible fix, to no avail. Any suggestions besides bringing it in to someone? Thank you for any direction you can offer.

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