How to: Install Windows 8 In Bootcamp (Mac)

For those of you who have been living under a rock the last few days, the Windows 8 Developers preview was recently released to the public. Since Windows 8 is such a radical change from previous operating systems (screenshots), it’s obviously something everyone, including Mac users, want to try. That being said, if you’re on a Mac and want to try out Windows 8, you might be wondering out how to do that.

You have two ways to go about the Windows 8 install, you can use a Virtual Machine or Bootcamp. If you install it on a Virtual Machine, you obviously have a much smaller chance of affecting your overall drive, but it will not be the most ideal installation performance wise. Bootcamp is definitely the better option if you want the most performance out of your mac running Windows 8, so that’s the one I’ll be covering.

Typically doing installations in bootcamp is pretty straight forward, but since this is a new operating system that’s still in beta, it can be a bit tedious to install.

Downloads

• Windows 8 Beta

Burning the image

1. Insert a blank DVD into your dvd drive.
2. From the pop up, select “Open Disk Utility” from the Actions dropdown menu.
3. In Disk Utility, select “SuperDrive” from the list of devices in the leftbar.
4. Click on the burn icon at the top.
5. In the finder window, select the Windows 8 beta .iso you downloaded earlier and click burn.
6. Hit burn again.

This process should take anywhere between 10-20 minutes.

Installation process

Make sure you have a backup of your hdd before continuing!

1. Open “Bootcamp Assistant from Applications/Utilities
2. Follow the steps on screen until you reach the “Download Windows Support Software” step.
3. Select “I have already downloaded… for this mac” and hit continue.
4. Follow the on screen steps, for the remainder of bootcamp assistant.
5. When finished with bootcamp assistant, your computer will restart into Windows installation, follow the on screen steps until you reach “Which type of installation do you want?”.
6. Select “Custom (advanced)”, select the “BOOTCAMP” partition, and hit “Drive options (advanced)”
7. Hit “format” and select OK at the popup, then hit next
8. Wait for Windows 8 to install (takes roughly 20-40 minutes).
9. After it finishes installing, your mac should automatically restart twice and take you to the Account setup wizard.

Installing Bootcamp Drivers

You’ll have to follow these steps, otherwise you’ll come across an Unknown version of Windows error.

1. Download the latest bootcamp drivers.
2. Plug in a mouse (that has a right click) into your computer.
3. Click the desktop tile.
4. Go to the drive which has your bootcamp drivers.
5. Right click the Setup.exe and select “Troubleshoot compatibility”
6. Windows will detect an error, click “Troubleshoot Problem”
7. Check “The program worked in earlier versions of Windows but won’t install or run now” and hit next.
8. Choose “Windows 7” and hit next
9. You will now be able to install the drivers using the Bootcamp Wizard.

After the drivers are installed, don’t forget to enable two-finger click in the bootcamp control panel!