Installing Windows 10 on a Mac with Boot Camp Assistant

Use this guide to install Windows 10 on your Mac, so you can install Solidworks, GrabCAD, and any other software that may be required for contributing to the team. Back up your computer fully before doing this (and in general, back up your computer!). There's a low chance of something going wrong, but we won't take responsibility if you lose data stored locally on your computer because of something in this guide.

Important notes:

• While Windows 8.1 is still supported until 2023, it is quickly being deprecated and we don't recommend it. Windows 7 is end-of-life and should not be used on any computer connected to the internet. Windows 10 is recommended because, going forward, it is the only version of Windows that will be supported by most major software.

• This guide will generally work on any Intel Mac that supports USB booting (anything from the last ~15 years). It will not work on Macs that use Apple's own "Apple Silicon" processors. These started releasing in late 2020 and cannot run Windows or Solidworks. If you have an Apple Silicon Mac and want to use Solidworks, contact your onboarding instructor or a team admin for help. The team may be able to provide you with a loaner computer or remote access to a Windows computer.

Getting a copy of Windows:

UCSC provides free licenses for Windows 10 Education through OnTheHub. The Education edition is identical to Windows 10 Enterprise, and functions the same as any normal version of Windows. The license is perpetual.

To sign up, go to ucsc.onthehub.com and click "Register".

Enter your UCSC email address, and continue to the next page where you enter your details. Make sure to list yourself as part of the "Students" group.

You will be sent a verification email. After clicking the link on that email to confirm your account, click on this link to go to the OnTheHub product page for Windows 10 Education. Click "Add to Cart" then "check out". You will be provided with a product key for Windows 10 Education. Save this somewhere.

2. Boot Camp Assistant will check if you have enough free disk space to install Windows.

3. Choose how you want to partition your internal storage for macOS and Windows with the slider boxes. You will need at least 64 GB allocated to Windows, but it's strongly recommended to allocate more if possible. If you have multiple internal disks, you will be asked to select which one you want to install Windows on.

4. Click "Choose" and navigate to the Windows .ISO disk image that you downloaded, and click "Open".

5. Click "Install".

6. Boot Camp Assistant will partition the disk and automatically reboot to install Windows 10.

7. When the computer boots into the Windows 10 installation environment, select your preferred language and click "Install now".

8. Enter the product key that you obtained from OnTheHub or elsewhere. If you do not have a product key, just click "I do not have a product key".

9. If you did not enter a product key, you will have the option to select an edition of Windows. You can choose whichever you want and use it with no penalties, except you won't be able to change your desktop wallpaper or system theme colors, and there will be a watermark on the desktop indicating that Windows isn't activated. You can also enter a product key later in settings.

10. Accept the terms and conditions.

11. Click "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).

12. Select the partition named BOOTCAMP. Note that it may be a different partition number than shown in this screenshot.

13. Windows will finish installation and reboot into the Windows setup process. You will be given the option to sign in with a Microsoft account and configure some settings. After it is over, you will land on the Windows desktop and a Boot Camp drivers installer will open.

14. Follow the instructions and install Boot Camp Software with the default settings.

15. You now have Windows installed on your Mac. You can switch between macOS and Windows by holding the ⌥ Option key while turning on the computer. You will be presented with a screen where you can choose to boot either Windows or macOS. You can also change the default operating system in macOS System Preferences.

16. If you want to remove the Windows Installation, just re-run Boot Camp Assistant.

If your Mac is older than 2015

You can still install Windows, but the process is more involved and has a greater chance of failure.

Requirements

• .ISO file for 64-bit Windows 10 (can be downloaded here)

• At least 64 GB free disk space. (External storage devices are not supported. It is technically possible, but difficult and volatile.)

• 16 GB or larger USB flash drive formatted as MS-DOS (FAT).

Steps

1. Open Boot Camp Assistant.

2. Boot Camp Assistant will check if you have enough free disk space to install Windows.

3. Check all 3 checkboxes on the next page.

4. Click "Choose" and navigate to the Windows .ISO disk image that you downloaded, and click "Open"

5. Plug in your MS-DOS (FAT) formatted flash drive and select it under "Destination disk"

6. Click "Continue".

7. Boot Camp Assistant will download the Boot Camp Support software and copy it to the flash drive, as well as making the flash drive a bootable Windows installer. This will take a long time, 20+ minutes.

8. When it finishes, choose how you want to partition your internal storage for macOS and Windows with the slider boxes. You will need at least 64 GB allocated to Windows, but it's strongly recommended to allocate more if possible. If you have multiple internal disks, you will be asked to select which one you want to install Windows on.

9. Click "Install" and enter your password.

10. Boot Camp Assistant will partition the disk and automatically reboot to install Windows 10.

11. When the computer boots into the Windows 10 installation environment, select your preferred language and click "Install now".

12. Enter the product key that you obtained from OnTheHub or elsewhere. If you do not have a product key, just click "I do not have a product key".

13. If you did not enter a product key, you will have the option to select an edition of Windows. You can choose whichever you want and use it with no penalties, except you won't be able to change your desktop wallpaper or system theme colors, and there will be a watermark on the desktop indicating that Windows isn't activated. You can also enter a product key later in settings.

14. Accept the terms and conditions.

15. Click "Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).

16. Select the partition named BOOTCAMP. Note that it may be a different partition number than shown in this screenshot.

17. Windows will finish installation and reboot into the Windows setup process. You will be given the option to sign in with a Microsoft account and configure some settings. After it is over, you will land on the Windows desktop and a Boot Camp drivers installer will open.

18. Follow the instructions and install Boot Camp Software with the default settings.

19. You now have Windows installed on your Mac. You can switch between macOS and Windows by holding the ⌥ Option key while turning on the computer. You will be presented with a screen where you can choose to boot either Windows or macOS. You can also change the default operating system in macOS System Preferences.

20. If you want to remove the Windows Installation, just re-run Boot Camp Assistant.

Last updated 2020-11-16 by Theo Kell

Changes: reflect incompatibility with Apple Silicon Macs.