Converting a Macbook pro to Windows

The Apple Installer is a bit illogical, in how it handles partitioning.

I had three Macs, the first one was a Quadra 650.

A user does not know, by some act of intuition, how many partitions and what type are required for an OS installation.

The installer starts in an installer screen, and you would assume you are ready to go. When you aren't. On several occasions, I would go "oh yeah, what did I forget ? I forgot to partition". Because it isn't a logical part of the sequence.

There are various other installers out there, and they present an interface with an "automation" option or a "custom partitioning" option. This allows noobs to have "first time success" and for people who actually took notes and knew what the partitioning requirements were (they Googled it), they can do a Custom if they want. And because it's an unavoidable part of the install sequence and is "right in your face", you can't really miss it, and there is no "oh, yeah" moment.

I had hoped over the years, that Apple would change that, and they were still doing it that way on my Mac G4 Quad Nostril (my journey ended with the PowerPC generation).

This is the kind of question that arises, when you don't offer guided help to your users. But this is also a multiboot, so not really a fair comparison. At least there are enough bread crumbs here, if I googled enough, I could probably decode this into some useful multibooter info,.

Paul

All done and working fine. Maybe give bootcamp another whirl tomorrow and see how it goes this time.

Thanks for all your help.

Tim

There will be some sort of partitioning step.

It doesn't usually show you a partitioning UI, it just asks you how much space you want for Windows and it does the rest.

When in the Windows installer it may ask you which partition to install to, but apparently Boot Camp should handle that for you:

Theo

Windows SDVD is a hybrid installer. It can install in BIOS mode or it can install in UEFI mode. It is context sensitive. If you convince it to *boot* in the desired mode, that's the mode of installation it does.

You could try a Windows 7 installation (which could do the BIOS version). Then do a Windows 10 Upgrade Install over top (W10-over-W7). You load the ISO, right click the ISO, select "Mount", run Setup.exe off the Windows virtual DVD drive. And it will install over top. And more importantly, it will install in the mode of the running copy of windows 7. If you installed Windows 7 x86, you'd end up with the same SKU as Windows 10 x86. Windows 10 is the last windows for example, that supports 32-bit OS installation. W11 is all x64.

So even if BootCamp does not handle the Hybrid Win10 DVD well, you might be able to prime the pump with W7 and do an Upgrade install over top. The "grace period" on a Windows 7 is 30 days times three, whereas the grace period of Windows 10 is infinite (don't need a license). If you run Windows Update in the Windows 10, you might be able to barely see the water mark in the lower right corner regarding license status.

Paul