Installation of one operating system in parallel with the other is standard practice in the computer field. You can install both Mac OS on a Windows computer and vice versa. On our information portal you will find instructions for your computer. Below are detailed steps that will help you answer the question: how to install Windows on Mac?

Possible methods

To install the OS, you do not need special skills or professional help. Windows installation 7 or 10 on Mac is done in the following ways:

• through ;
• Parallel Desktop program;
• built-in Bootcamp utility.
• Let's look at each case in more detail.

Using an emulator

To install Windows on a MacBook using this method, you need to download free utility Virtual Box and install it. After that, follow the steps according to the instructions:

• launch Virtualbox;
• click the “Create” button;
• select the type and version of the operating system;
• determine the size of RAM that will be allocated for using the OS through the virtual machine;
• then click on “Create a new virtual HDD»;
• select type virtual disk and volume;
• then click the “Run” button;
• After the installation is complete, you will be able to install Windows on your Mac and use it.

How to install Windows on Macbook air or pro?

For the second method, you will need the Parallels Desktop utility. After downloading the program on Mac, follow the guide below:

• run the program;
• click the File button and context menu select New;
• then click install;
• select the installation source (image with the operating system);
• click the “Continue” button;
• in the new window enter the activation key software;
• enter the name of the virtual machine and select the location;
• Click "Continue" to begin installation.

You can use it as free trial version, so full version Parallela Desktop. For normal use of the software, the standard version is sufficient.

How to install Windows 10 on mac via Boot Camp?

With BootCamp, Windows will be able to use all Mac resources to the maximum, so this option considered the most profitable and optimal. IN latest versions Mac OS this program installed by default. Run the utility after closing everything running applications And open files:

• check the boxes next to “Download the latest software...” and “Install or remove Windows 7 or later”;
• click the “Continue” button;
• then select one of the options: make a copy of the support software to disk or save to external media;
• then set the volume hard drive, which will be used for Windows. For normal operation 20-30GB of software is enough;
• wait until the files are copied, after which the Mac will restart automatically;
• During reboot, press the Alt button to display a window with OS selection;
• select Windows section;
• Now wait for the final installation and configure the settings.

Now you know how to install Windows 7, 8 or 10 on a macbook or imac. All the instructions described are suitable for any OS, starting with “seven” and newer.

Installation Features

After installation, you may encounter compatibility and driver problems. To fix this, you must download the drivers to a USB flash drive in advance, so that you can install them on a clean OS.

Hello. In this article, we will talk about such a necessity as installing Windows 7/8 on a Mac, as well as the methods of this process, its advantages and possible disadvantages. The three most common reasons:

You may have difficulty launching applications on a Macintosh. Many convenient and familiar utilities cannot be installed in this case. Everyone, of course, knows that there are utilities for OS X that can be used to launch necessary programs, although in many cases there are compatibility problems and operational errors. Therefore, to avoid complications, you can install both OSes in parallel.

Small number of games. It’s not easy for those who like to play, since most of the games were developed for Microsoft and were not adapted for Apple. Utilities that can be used to launch incompatible applications, are quite unstable and only work with some applications.

Difficult to get used to. Other operating systems have many differences from Apple. There are certainly similarities in them, but the differences are obvious - different appearance, as well as managing both programs and files. Of course, a person gets used to everything, but you must admit, it takes time. Returning to your familiar environment makes it possible to quickly cope with still unresolved difficulties, since working in an interface familiar to you will make it easier to complete the necessary tasks.

Installing Windows 7/8 on a Mac makes it easy to deal with all the above-mentioned causes of inconvenience at work.

If you add Windows to Apple OS.

Many will object: “Why do you need to do this and what will it give?”, do I need it? To answer this frequently asked question, let's first find out the benefits of running another additional operating system. It is this that allows you to easily work simultaneously with something that is very familiar and familiar to you. Let's look a little more closely:

Firstly, having learned to work in the most common system, you have the opportunity to expand your horizons, learn more new things and acquire the skills necessary for subsequent work.

Secondly, along with this, huge additional horizons are opening up. Of course, the most popular OS has programs necessary for all occasions. However, now you don’t have to put up with missing functions and work in the format you have. Because by installing Windows 7/8 on a Mac, you have an excellent opportunity to get the most out of your computer.

Third, this makes it possible to help loved ones. Let's say you have an excellent understanding of how computers work, but many of your loved ones and acquaintances have great difficulty in using this rather popular environment. This is a great way to help them because you can easily simulate, test, and ultimately solve the problem.

Fourth, great popularity Microsoft systems gives more freedom of action due to the huge number of programs written exclusively for it. We are talking about both narrow-profile and basic programs. A big advantage is the increase in opportunities associated with more sophisticated Windows settings, equipment, as well as various elements necessary for the work.

Fifth, applications created for another OS are cheaper due to the huge number of offers, and therefore competition, which naturally affects their cost. We also note that the existence large number analogues, and offered absolutely free.

Big advantage of Windows is compatibility, many devices and equipment are designed to work only with it, so by installing both systems, you eliminate this inconvenience.

Installing Windows OS on Mac

1. Separate installation from each other. The installation assumes that the second system will be installed independently and separately from the first. Using this option, when booting your computer, you determine which operating system you want to work with. This means that when loading a non-main environment, all components (video chip, CPU etc.) will be able to work fully. That is, in terms of the level of capabilities, the work of your Mac will be the same as the work of any other PC. This option will suit those who plan to run quite resource-intensive applications or games that cannot be run on OS X due to incompatibility.

To install the second OS, use Boot camp, which comes pre-installed on Macintosh.

2. Installing windows 7, 8 on a mac, inside OS X itself. This becomes real using a virtual machine. It all starts with Mac launcher OS, then click on the virtual machine application and in a separate window similar, for example, to the window text editor launch a full-fledged operating system. Of course, looking at this option, we can safely say that it has an absolute advantage, since it eliminates rebooting when switching to another operating system; however, it is worth taking into account its minor disadvantages. They are related to the power of your PC, since with such a load the power will be divided for each system.

If you expect to download games or demanding applications, it is better to use the first option. If you are mainly interested in simple office tasks, then this choice will be an excellent solution. Installation is possible thanks to paid programs – Parallels Desktop and further VMware Fusion. TO free options relate VirtualBox. The advantage of this method is its reliability. The result is two environments in one! This will increase your speed and make your work as comfortable as possible.

Afterword

Drawing conclusions, we can say that environment 2, in many cases, will provide more than it requires in return. The size of such an operating system is less than a hundred gigabytes, add the license price here - that’s all your costs.

It is important not to forget that making a mistake or inaccurate actions can cause the destruction of all information on the hard drive, so it is recommended to contact specialists for the service of installing Windows 7, 8 on a Mac.

Also on the site:

Is it necessary to install Windows 7, 8 on mac and macbook pro? updated: February 6, 2018 by: admin

Not long ago Apple released new version 13-inch MacBook Air. Contrary to the usual year difference, the new product came out just six months later, however, the changes in it are small: a little more powerful processor, and that's all. Reviewers decided on a desperate experiment - installing the Windows operating system on a MacBook Air. You can find out more about the results below.

Standard configuration new MacBook Air 13 has a default processor Intel Core i5-4260U with a clock frequency of 1.4 GHz instead of the Intel Core i5-4250U with 1.3 GHz in the six-month-old model. This gives a very small increase in performance, it can only be noticed in benchmarks, however, the new product is offered to customers for the same money, and the previous model is cheaper. It is difficult to find adequate competitors for the MacBook Air. Models that are more or less comparable in price tend to have lower performance (despite higher clock frequency, the Intel Core i5-4200U itself is less powerful than the i5-4250U/4260U).

On the other hand, you can find Windows laptops similar in size and performance, but they will cost much more - it will be a completely different price category, and some characteristics will be noticeably better (screen resolution, for example), which is not always justified in such laptops.

Well, moreover, it is impossible to find a Windows laptop that would last as long as a MacBook Air on battery power. This is due, among other things, to the energy efficiency of the OS X operating system.

How to Install Windows on MacBook Air

It is very difficult to install the OS X operating system on a regular Windows PC, and even then it is not a fact that everything will work. In most cases, the so-called “Hackintosh” is used - a special build of OS X, which, after performing special rituals “with dances and tambourines,” is capable of running on a regular PC. However, if the user is lucky with motherboard, then after flashing the BIOS and replacing the bootloader, you can even install a completely official OS X distribution, which will even receive regular updates from Apple servers. Some, however, also call this method hackintosh.

But install Windows on any Mac easier than steamed turnips. No more difficult than installing Windows on any “regular” computer, perhaps a little longer. The easiest way to install Windows on a Mac is to use the built-in OS X Assistant utility. Boot Camp", which will help you partition the disk, configure the bootloader and prepare bootable USB flash drive with drivers and distribution image (or without it, if you have a DVD at hand).

Note that even if you prefer virtualization to installing several operating systems on your computer, this is also not a problem in OS X: the most popular for Mac virtual Parallels Desktop allows you to work with Windows installed in Boot Camp and does not require additional manipulations: that is, you can use Windows both in virtualization mode and by booting into it separately. But for the purposes of this article we will only work with Boot Camp.

So, let's stock up external USB DVD drive, in the form of 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium and an 8 GB flash drive. Now it's time to do something small - launch Boot Camp.

First, the utility will ask what we are going to do. The top checkbox: “Create a Windows installation disk or later” can be removed immediately - we don’t need this, because There is already a disc (DVD). Click “Next”.

Since we have already inserted the flash drive into the USB, Boot Camp suggests using it to save drivers and other useful utilities that will be useful to us when working in Windows. The next stage is disk partitioning.

Usually programs that deal with disk partitioning are quite complicated for beginners, but here everything is elementary - you don’t have to do anything by hand. Maybe just pull the slider, choosing how much space on the built-in drive will be allocated for OS X and how much for Windows. We chose the “Divide into equal parts” option.

Basically, that's all. After clicking the “Install” button, Boot Camp will begin preparing the USB flash drive. At this time, you can go have tea, having previously connected a USB-DVD drive and inserted the Windows distribution into it. Boot Camp will work for about half an hour, it all depends on how much you have to download from the Internet. Remember the checkbox in the first step: “Download the latest Windows support software from Apple”? This is what it is. You could turn it off, but we prefer everything fresh. After Boot Camp finishes, the computer will reboot and Windows installation will begin as usual. Select your country, select your keyboard, sit back, enter your product code, sit back again, and so on. Unless you have to manually format the newly created partition (it will be called BOOTCAMP) in NTFS. But Windows will warn you about this.

When Windows installs and finally boots, it will install the very same Windows support software from Apple that it includes.

In total, Windows 7 was installed via Boot Camp a little more than an hour with minimal user interaction. Even a child can handle it.

Running Windows on MacBook Air

Windows 7 feels great on the latest MacBook Air.

This is not surprising - the hardware of poppies is quite ordinary.

To help the Mac owner who has just left the friendly and familiar world of OS X and entered Windows - a world little familiar to him and therefore hostile, there is a “Panel Boot control Camp", which is automatically installed from a USB flash drive. The icon of this application is placed in the tray and you can always call it from there.

The application has three sections: boot volume selection, keyboard settings, and touchpad settings.

In the keyboard settings - only selecting the operating mode of the functional row of keys F1-F12. Unfortunately, there is no key mapping. By default, the Alt/Ctrl control keys correspond to their Windows counterparts, but Cmd turns into Windows key(accordingly, in order, for example, to launch Explorer, you need to press Cmd+E). If you connect an external Windows keyboard, it will work as expected from a Windows keyboard. As for the layout, the default will be “Russian (Apple)” - completely similar to the standard Russian layout in OS X, but you can simply select “Russian”, and then the button under Esc, to the left of the “1” key will turn into the letter “Ё” "

There are more options in the trackpad (touchpad) settings. In fact, they allow you to bring the use of the touchpad in Windows as close as possible to OS X - almost all the usual multi-touch gestures will be available.

By the way, the logical disk with OS X (which is formatted in HFS+) is also accessible from Windows. True, only for reading. You won't be able to delete anything from it, just like you won't be able to create a folder or file.

By the way, formatting will also not work - the system will throw an error. But it’s still better not to do this - after we tried to format the OS X partition from Windows, it crashed and we had to restore OS X via Recovery. In general, this is the only bug that we found. Although quite unpleasant.

From OS X, the Windows disk (formatted in NTFS) is also readable, but not writable.

Download and select OS

On a Mac, there is no “traditional” OS selection menu. By default, after installing Windows in Boot Camp, the laptop will boot into OS X without issue when rebooted or turned on. If you want to boot into Windows, you need to hold down the Alt button while booting - then a menu for selecting a boot partition will appear. If you have not installed anything else, there will be three sections: recovery (OS X recovery), OS X and Windows. Select the third one and boot into Windows.

And since Windows will reboot much more often than OS X, which generally rarely requires a reboot, it makes sense to configure the Boot Camp utility on Windows to boot into Windows by default. Even if you very rarely use Microsoft operating systems, believe me, it will be easier. After all, you will have to turn off or restart your Mac under OS X even less often.

Performance test

Let's now see what MBA13 is capable of on Windows. First, a performance assessment based on the version of Windows 7 itself.

Everything is quite expected: fast RAM, a fast hard drive (which is actually not a hard drive here, but solid state drive), although the system was clearly flattered by the processor and graphics for games. But when working, as they say, with office applications, really “everything flies.”

We also ran PC Mark 7. The results are as follows:

Is it a lot or a little? See for yourself: Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro on Intel Core i3-4010U scored only 4286 points, and Acer Aspire S7-392-74508G25tws with Intel processor Core i5-4200U - 5048 points.

But we have one more test left. As you know, the MacBook Air 13 is the longest-lasting thinnest laptop available today. Under OS X it works up to 12-13 hours without any “dim the screen brightness, turn off everything” wireless interfaces, move at least 10 steps away from the computer and try not to breathe.” Well, what about Windows? Easy to check. We carried out the following test: in each OS we launched standard browser (Internet Explorer for Windows and Safari for OS X), opened three pages in the browser: Facebook, Twitter and VKontakte (so that they were constantly updated), and also launched an MPEG-4 video with Full-HD resolution for loop playback and expanded it to full screen. By the way, the screen brightness was set to maximum. In general - harsh conditions and no concessions.

In this mode, the MacBook running OS X worked for 9 hours and 32 minutes. Not a bad result, we approve. Well, what about Windows? Alas, the situation here is not so rosy: 5 hours 11 minutes. In principle, this is not so little compared to the same ultrabooks on Windows, whose manufacturers claim 6-7 hours of operation, but in reality they (if used approximately as we described above) are discharged after 4-4. 5 o'clock. But still, the difference is almost double with OS X. This, by the way, once again confirms the energy efficiency of OS X itself.

By the way, at first we wanted to test without launching the video player, but simply open the fourth page in the browser, from YouTube, where we could launch the Full-HD video. In OS X, the MacBook Air 13 worked in this mode for 6 hours 26 minutes (such a low result is explained by the constantly running Flash Player- because of YouTube), and in Windows 7 - five hours, but for some reason in Internet Explorer on YouTube it was impossible to select Full-HD resolution(1080p), HD only (720p), and when using Google Chrome, where from Full-HD to YouTube problems there was none, the laptop generally worked for 4 hours and 15 minutes. We rejected this test - you can hardly trust its results, because... conditions were unequal. But, if anything, keep in mind: Google browser Chrome drains your computer faster than Safari or Internet Explorer.

How to Remove Windows from MacBook Air

What should you do if you no longer need Windows on your Mac and need to remove it? Apple took care of this too. Boot into OS X, launch “Boot Camp Assistant” and select “Remove Windows 7 or later.”

That's it, nothing else is needed - the program itself will erase the disk partition that is no longer needed and fill the remaining space with the main partition.

Removing Windows has never been so fast - the whole procedure took less than a minute.

Practice shows that Apple still produces the best laptops in the world. Reliable, powerful, lightweight, energy efficient. But even if the Windows world doesn't let you go, all is not lost. Apple took care of the user and provided him with an amazing opportunity to use Windows on a Mac, if necessary.

If you have never reinstalled an operating system in your life, much less installed several operating systems on one computer, Boot Camp will still not let you get confused. You won’t even have time to get scared - a minimum of questions and Boot Camp will already start working. Well, if you are an experienced geek, then you will certainly be surprised by the simplicity and ease of the process. Although, it is worth noting that not every geek is able to appreciate the simplicity and ease.

The simplest and affordable way Installing Windows on a Mac is to use the Boot Camp program. Boot Camp is special application from Apple to install WindowsXP / Windows7 or 8, by dividing the hard drive into 2 partitions, one for each system. Switching from one system to another is possible only by restarting the computer.

In order to install Windows on your Mac, you will need:

1 MacBook Rro / MacBook Air / IMac with Mac OS installed;

2 USB storage(flash drive (at least 4 Gb) or external hard disk)/ DVD disc(from USB storage device (flash drive or external hard disk) transfer all the information, since in the future everything on the media will be deleted after formatting);

3 Disk with operating room Windows system 7 or its ISO image (can be downloaded from the Internet);

4 This article and about an hour of free time.

Attention!!! If you are going to install Windows with via USB flash drives on Mac late 2013 and newer (they use all USB 3.0 ports) you need to use a USB 3.0 flash drive. Otherwise, when installing Windows, you will not have active USB ports and a wireless keyboard.

Turn on your Mac and install the latest updates. To do this, click on the apple (left, upper corner) and select "Software Update".

After you have installed all the updates, proceed to the next step, launch Boot Camp. To do this, click on the search (magnifying glass icon in the upper right corner) and enter there "Boot Camp", among the found ones, click on "Boot Camp Assistant"".

In the window that opens Boot Camp Assistant, read the information and click "Continue".

In the next window, you need to select settings for installing Windows 7, or more precisely, how you will install.

The next step is to specify the volume disk space under Windows 7, to do this, just move the slider and determine the partition size for the Windows operating system and click "Install".

After this, the computer/laptop will reboot and the Windows 7 installation process will begin upon loading (it is no different from installation on any other computer).

The only thing I would like to add is that when choosing a volume on which the operating system will be installed, be extremely careful not to delete existing sections. Just format BOOTCAMP section and start installing Windows 7.

After installing Windows 7, go to the USB drive, in it you will see a folder WindowSupport(it contains drivers for Windows), run the file setup.exe.

In the next window you read License agreement, accept it and click "Further".

After this, you will be prompted to additionally install Apple Software Update, you can leave a checkmark and click "Install".

After this, the installation process of all drivers will begin, it does not require your participation, just when it is finished, a window will appear indicating that the installation is complete. Press the button "Complete".

Then there will be a window asking you to restart the computer, click "Yes".

After the reboot, you will have Windows 7 completely ready to use.

Let me remind you that Mac OS, in this installation option, remains (on your device there are two Mac systems OS and Windows 7). By default, you will always boot into Windows 7, but if you decide to boot into Mac OS, to do this you will need to restart your computer/laptop and hold down the button while booting "Alt". After which you will be asked which operating system to boot your computer/laptop under.

Then in Windows download your tutorial, open the archive and follow the instructions.

The article gives detailed instructions how to install Windows 7 on MacBook.

Everyone is used to working with Windows and when buying a MacBook, there is a need to install it for usual work with documents.

Installing Windows 7 on Macbook Air using Boot Camp

Installing Windows 7 on Macbook Air won't take much time. Installation requires a USB optical drive or 16 GB USB flash drive. Before installation, you need to check for software updates on your computer.

• Turn on your MacBook and launch Boot Camp.
• Uncheck the box at the top where you want to create a disk. Check the box if the installation will be carried out from an image.
• Use USB stick to save drivers and other information. All information on the drive will be deleted, so use an empty drive.
• Split the disk into two equal parts for the two operating systems.
• Connect a USB DVD drive and insert the Windows distribution into it.
• Wait while Boot Camp downloads the latest software from the Internet and reboots your computer.
• Install Windows following the instructions, select the suggested settings.

Windows installs in just over an hour. For those who don’t know how to start Boot Camp: on the desktop at the top, click the magnifying glass. In the search window write down the name of the application and click “Continue”.

Creating an image

If you have a disk to install the software, you need to create an image of it.

• Use an optical drive.
• Using Finder on your laptop, open Disk Utility.
• In the window that opens, select the installation disk.
• Go to the “File” menu, “New image” and then click “DVD disc”.
• In “DVD/CD Wizard”, find “Image Format” and "Encryption". Check "No".
• Create a file name, enter a password and wait until the new image is created.
• When finished, disconnect the optical drive.
• Use Finder to find the new image.
• Rename the file name from .cdr to .iso.
• If you are using removable storage devices, make sure they appear as removable devices in the Finder.
• Connect the USB drive.
• After creation ISO image start installing the program.

Keyboard

After downloading the software, you can use the keyboard in several ways. Keys in different operating systems can perform different functions. Many keys on laptops with the Windows operating system have analogues on the Apple layout.

Formatting Windows OS

To format, use the installer, after being asked about the installation location, select the Boot Camp partition. Next, we begin formatting by selecting “Disk Setup”.

The new partition can be renamed, formatted, or deleted. Once two partitions are created, they cannot be resized. To resize, you will have to delete the partition and create the required partition again. To rename a partition, boot the operating system itself and rename the partition in it. Do not use other programs to resize the partition; this may cause problems.

Be careful! Deleting a partition results in loss of files.

Boot Camp app

The application consists of three sections:

• selecting a system to boot;
• setting up the keyboard operation;
• setting up the trackpad.

The first partition will allow you to boot one of two operating systems. Using the second section, you can control the functions of the F1 - F12 keys. In the third section, choose familiar gestures for working in any OS.

Starting Windows

On a Macbook Air 11 or Macbook Pro there is no choice of operating system when booting, so to work in Windows 7, press Alt. A menu will appear in which you select the right system and download. If you do not press the Alt button when turning on, MacOS will start loading.

Uninstalling Windows

To uninstall, simply launch Boot Camp in OS X and select "Delete"". After removal OS X will take up all the space. It will take less than a minute for a previously installed operating system to be completely removed.

Software updates

Use the program App Store to check for updates on your laptop. Select Update from the Updates section. In the application settings, set the parameters “Download recently released updates to background" Then updates will be carried out automatically. When it was established Last update, you can start installing Windows.

If you have an update disc, follow these steps:

• Boot your MacBook into MacOS.
• Connect the Windows update disk.
• Unzip and transfer the files to a USB drive.
• Reboot your laptop and turn it on installed version Windows.
• Perform the update using the installation program.

Driver

Some users have a question: “What is a driver?” A driver is a program without which the connected device will not work with the computer. At least once in their life, everyone has installed a laptop driver to operate a scanner or printer. Usually the OS already has drivers for different devices, but sometimes updates are needed, so check for updates. For example, for correct operation of audio systems, download for free realtek driver from the Internet.

Apple does not provide technical support for installing or restoring Windows OS. Consultation can be obtained by phone about the special Boot Camp assistant, its installation or recovery.