The computer checks your disk space and clears out iCloud-cached files and old Time Machine backups to create space. Launch the Boot Camp utility by clicking the Finder icon (not Finder in the pulldown menu) | Applications | the Utilities folder | Boot Camp Assistant.Ĭlick Continue on the introduction screen. Then insert the formatted USB drive into the computer. If you’re using a notebook, plug it in to ensure you have power throughout the process. That’s the default, so if you haven’t messed with this before you should be good to go. Make sure the Secure Boot setting on the Mac is set up for Full Security. You’ll eventually need a Windows activation key license from Microsoft, generally $139 for Windows 10 Home software or $199 for Windows 10 Pro though you may find cheaper options elsewhere.

You also need a full-installation 64-bit copy of Windows, not an upgrade, via disk or other installation media or through what’s known as a disk image or ISO file, which you can download from Microsoft. That means you must restart the Mac each time to switch operating systems. Here are two main ways to turn your Mac into a Windows PC, at least some of the time.īoot Camp has a critical limitation: You can only boot up one operating system at a time, either the native macOS operating system or Windows. The bad news for Mac users is that the options for running Windows are generally not for the technologically timid. a little more than 1 in 4 for macOS, according to Dublin-based Statcounter GlobalStats, chances are good that Windows users will find a Windows version of their favorite Mac applications that's easy to install. But because Windows runs on more than 3 in 5 laptop and desktop computers in the United States vs. It's also possible to run the Mac operating system on a Windows machine, if you were curious. The good news is you can run the Windows operating system and thus Windows programs on your Mac. Or maybe you prefer the Windows edition of a program such as Quicken personal finance software to the version produced for the Mac. Yet, while Microsoft recently pushed out Windows 11 and Apple released macOS Monterey, less enmity seems to surround PC-Mac clashes, perhaps because so much attention is focused on smartphones, where Apple is matched against the Google/Android folks.Įven if your PC is a Mac, you may still have occasion to employ Windows software, perhaps for work because Microsoft's Access relational database is available only for Windows, or to play a Windows-only game. Apple’s corner brags about the Mac’s popularity among the creative types and cool kids, reinforced in the late 2000s by Apple’s famous Mac Guy vs. Microsoft’s camp crows about Windows’ market share dominance. The long-running Macintosh-Windows rivalry is the Ali-Frazier battle of personal computers.

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