Using Boot Camp to install Windows 7 on a Mac: The Complete Walkthrough

This guide will take you each and every step of the way through setting up and installing Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp.

2022 Update: this is a bit more complicated now. Boot Camp no longer supports Windows 7 and only works with a 64-bit version of Windows 10 Home edition or Windows 10 Professional edition. If you’re using an older version of OS X (macOS High Sierra version 10.13 and earlier) you can still install Windows 7, anything newer means you have to use Windows 10. Fortunately, we have a guide that takes you each and every step of the way through installing Windows 10 on your Mac :)


Requirements:

  1. All firmware updates installed on your Mac (use Apple Button -> Software Update… to check)
  2. A Windows 7 installation DVD
  3. Your OS X installation DVD
  4. Around 30GB of empty hard drive space on your Mac. You can probably get away allocating less than 30GB to Windows 7, but it will leave very little room to install anything in Windows.
  5. An hour if all goes well, up to 5 hours if not
  6. Though not absolutely required, it’s a VERY good idea to have a complete and up to date Time Machine backup of OS X – it really came in handy for me. Because part of the process involves partitioning your drive, there’s always the distinct chance something will go wrong and everything will be wiped out.
  7. Patience, possibly a great deal of it. Having a book handy will also help kill time during the partitioning, installing etc).

Installing Windows 7 via Boot Camp

  1. Here goes. First thing – close absolutely every open program you can. That includes those things running in the Apple Menu that you always forget about. Don’t worry about killing the Dock or Dashboard – having those running is fine.
  2. Now open a Finder and navigate to Applications -> Utilities and double-click Boot Camp Assistant.
  3. finder displaying the boot camp utility
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  4. Click Continue on the initial Introduction screen. Ignore the fact that it doesn’t mention Windows 7 as a possible OS to install.
  5. Now you have to decide how much space you want to allocate to Windows 7. You might be able to get away with going as low as 10GB, but I would highly advise against it. You’ll have almost no space left over to install software, and your page file in Windows might cause frequent crashes. I opted for 20GB, which left me with just a bit over 16GB to use after installing Windows 7.

    To change the amount of space to dedicate to Windows 7, click the small divider between Mac OS X and Windows, and drag it to the left.


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  7. Once you’ve determined how much space you want to allocate to Windows 7, click the Partition button.

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  9. The partitioning itself doesn’t take particularly long. If you receive an error, proceed to step 10 of the “How to install Vista with Boot Camp” tutorial. It provides all the troubleshooting info you need to resolve partitioning issues. Once you’ve cleared up any problems, or if everything just goes smoothly, proceed with the next step in this tutorial.

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  11. Once completed you’ll notice a new BOOTCAMP drive on your desktop.
  12. Now insert your Windows 7 DVD and click the Start Installation button.

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  14. Your Mac will restart, and Windows 7 will boot. You’ll be prompted with a window asking you which partition you want to install Windows on. Select the one with BOOTCAMP in the Name column. Selecting anything else may wipe out OS X or cause serious problems. Then select the Drive options (advanced) link.

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  16. With the BOOTCAMP volume still selected, click the Format link.

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  18. Click OK.

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  20. And Windows 7 will begin to install. It’s a fairly boring process, so you may want to grab yourself a cup of coffee or your beverage of choice. But don’t go too far away, because when your system reboots, you’ll need to remove the Windows 7 DVD.

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  22. With the Windows 7 DVD removed, your Mac will automatically boot back into Windows 7, and the installation will complete. You’ll be prompted to select your language, keyboard layout etc. The rest of the Windows 7 installation process is very straight forward.
  23. Once the installation has completed and your Mac has restarted again, you’ll be able to use Windows 7. WiFi will work immediately (no drivers to install) so connect to the Internet. Windows 7 will then begin to download updates, including the proper video card driver. Let it do its thing.
  24. Once completed, you’ll be prompted to reboot yet again. Do so.

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  26. Once Windows 7 boots back up again, you’ll notice the resolution is much better, and you can enable the advanced graphics features.

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  28. But if you check for sound, you’ll notice there are no sound drivers installed.
  29. Insert your OS X DVD. When prompted, select Run setup.exe. Note: If you’re using Snow Leopard and a message pops up saying “Remote Install Mac OS X”, close that window and eject the CD. Put the CD in again and this time select “Open folder to view files”, navigate to the Bootcamp folder, and run setup.exe.
  30. The Boot Camp installer will launch. Click Next to begin.

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  32. Select I accept the terms in the license agreement and then click Next again.

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  34. Make sure that Apple Software Update for Windows is checked, and click Install.

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  36. The Boot Camp installer will do its thing, and install all the required drivers.

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  38. Notifications will pop up with each driver that gets installed.
  39. Once completed, click Finish.

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  41. And yet again you’ll be prompted to reboot. Remove your OS X Leopard DVD from the drive, and click Yes to restart.
  42. At this point most of the hardware on your Mac should be working in Windows. However, some iMacs and MacBook Pro’s will have to update to the 3.1 version of Boot Camp for Windows. To do so, just follow the few steps in this tutorial.
  43. Note: If you still have problems with sound not working, you’ll need to install the Realtek drivers. This tutorial will explain what to do.
  44. That’s it, you’re done! When your Mac boots, hold down the Option key to select which Operating System you want to boot into.
  45. do you want to boot into OS X or Windows I choose OS X


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30 thoughts on “Using Boot Camp to install Windows 7 on a Mac: The Complete Walkthrough”

  1. I wish I found these steps before starting. These are so much more clear & all in one place. Very helpful.

  2. Angie Verhaegen

    They told me installing windows on my mac would go very easily when using bootcamp… the truth was the opposite :) troubles troubles troubles, until I found this guide,

    thank you so much, you saved my mac! LOVE YOU!!

  3. Thank you so much!! This helped me through the (long and tedious) process. Much appreciated!!!!

  4. THANKS A TONNE !!!!!!!!

    Very easy step by step documentation…

    since I was new to Apple Mac..I struggled to get the windows 7 dvd ejected out of system… after some search found that holding two fingers on trackpad while reboot will eject the dvd out.

    all in all very nice experience..

    Thanks again..
    Eesan

  5. This tutorial worked perfect for me, I’ve been doing research for days about this dang hell bootcamp, now it’s a full success :)

  6. Perfect. Followed steps exactly as you laid out and was done in about 1 hour. Very glad I found this. Thanks very much.

  7. Thank you so much for this useful and informative step-by-step guide! I don’t know what I would’ve done without it!!!

  8. Thanks for the post. it helped a lot for installing windows on one of my friends system

    Thumbs up……………….

  9. Hey,

    Thanks a lot, u basically saved my christmas with this tutorial of yours.
    Keep up the good work, thumbs up..
    Greetings from Finland..

  10. 5 STAR TUTORIAL
    I have a Mac OS X Snow Leopard with Boot Camp enebaling me to use both Mac and Windows with one computer. I updated Windows from XP to 7 on my Mac. When I was done the audio on Windows did not work at all. I found this link and Voula! I have sound. Thank you.

  11. I am amazed with your clarity! Thank you, I really wish some Apple fellows were like you.

  12. All Intel-based Macintosh computers support Windows 7 using Boot Camp 3.1 except these:

    iMac (17-inch, Early 2006)
    iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
    iMac (20-inch, Early 2006)
    iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
    MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2006)
    MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2006)
    MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2006)
    MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2006)
    Mac Pro (Mid 2006, Intel Xeon Dual-core 2.66GHz or 3GHz)

  13. A+ guide. Installed and fully operational in less than an hour on my 13” unibody MBP.
    Great for playing games, runs most valve games flawlessly, fallout 3 looks gorgeous on it, and i was even able to play crysis! (with reduced graphics of course)

  14. Thanks a lot for this lovely article…..This helped me a lot and I installed windows 7 ultimate on my new macbook pro perfectly, without any problems and almost in half the time which was told above. thanks again……

  15. Performed the install on my mac mini, went according to plan. Thank you for a thoroughly accurate walkthorugh.

  16. I would like to take this time and thank you for this tutorial….it takes alot of time to create a tutorial of what you did and you have pictures for almost everything. Great stuff keep it up!!!!!!!1

  17. Just wanted to say thank you so much for the awesome Tutorial – we just installed Bootcamp & Win 7 on our Macbook Pro with no issues whatsoever! Brilliant. =)

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