#For apple instal Windows 8 how to#

If you decide to purchase an external optical drive, skip to the next step. Expect to pay $25 to $50 if you buy from an online retailer, or $79 if you buy Apple’s own version. These are not hard to find, but they’re also not free. The easiest solution is to use an external optical drive that connects to your Mac via USB. You’ll need to use an alternative method of installation. To make matters worse, Microsoft doesn’t offer an online install of Windows 8 OEM. Owning a Windows 8 disk isn’t helpful if your Mac doesn’t have an optical drive. Create a bootable USB drive (for Macs with no optical drive) That partition will also be used to store any software you install while using Windows 8. Free space is needed because Windows 8 will be installed on a partition of your Mac’s hard drive reserved specifically for it.

You’ll also need to make sure your Mac has OS X Mountain Lion (so you have the latest version of Boot Camp) and at least 20GB of empty hard disk space. A regular copy of Windows 8 OEM is $99 and Windows 8 Pro OEM is $139. You can also find it at online stores like Amazon and Newegg. This isn’t carried by most brick-and-mortar retailers, but speciality computer retailers might have it. Since the retail version is gone, you’ll instead have to buy an OEM copy. Owners who have Windows 7 can follow the steps in this guide, install that version of Windows, and then install Windows 8 Upgrade.

The upgrade version will work if you’ve already installed Windows on your Mac with a valid key. This is one of my favorite Windows laptops.

#For apple instal Windows 8 how to#

How to use your iPad as a second monitor for your Mac Why the Mac Studio offers something Windows PCs can’t compete with