Installed Windows 8 on Windows 7 Boot Camp (as an Upgrade) and all is well&

By kevpan815
in Apple (macOS)

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kevpan815

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For those of you who are looking for a way to get Windows 8 installed (with out any Device Driver issues) I think I may have a solution for you. What you first want to do is install Windows 7 on Boot Camp. Then Install Boot Camp 4.0 Software. Next install Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 (if it did not come with your Windows disk). Now connect to the Internet and download all Windows Updates for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and from Apple Software Update for Boot Camp. Finally, install Windows 8 as an Upgrade. If everything goes well all of you devices should have copied over their Device Drivers from Windows 7. Your Done.

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Gotenks98

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For those of you who are looking for a way to get Windows 8 installed (with out any Device Driver issues) I think I may have a solution for you. What you first want to do is install Windows 7 on Boot Camp. Then Install Boot Camp 4.0 Software. Next install Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 (if it did not come with your Windows disk). Now connect to the Internet and download all Windows Updates for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and from Apple Software Update for Boot Camp. Finally, install Windows 8 as an Upgrade. If everything goes well all of you devices should have copied over their Device Drivers from Windows 7. Your Done.

You dont even have to do that, just install Windows 7 then install 8. The bootcamp drivers for 7 work for 8. If you install the boot camp drivers before you install 8 its going to error out because it tries to setup temp files on the mac partition which it cant write to. You must skip the boot camp drivers until then. If you are install from boot then it does not matter you can just install 8 without installing 7.
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RottGutt

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I installed Windows 8 fresh on both a 27" late-2009 iMac and a 21.5" mid-2010 iMac with no issues. The only change I made after installing the Boot Camp drivers (which I downloaded fresh in the hopes that there would be newer drivers for Windows 8 by now) was to roll-back the Video driver on both machines, since Windows 8 installed a much newer driver. Everything is working sweet! No issues whatsoever.

Tim

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kevpan815

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You dont even have to do that, just install Windows 7 then install 8. The bootcamp drivers for 7 work for 8. If you install the boot camp drivers before you install 8 its going to error out because it tries to setup temp files on the mac partition which it cant write to. You must skip the boot camp drivers until then. If you are install from boot then it does not matter you can just install 8 without installing 7.

I am glad that worked for you, however for me on my Mid Year 2010 Mac Mini: Boot Camp 4.0 will only install correctly on Windows 7 or Windows 7 Service Pack 1, NOT Windows 8. I will also note that there are Updates Available to the Windows 8 Installer that you need to be connected to the Internet during the install process in order to take advantage of those updates and you also need to be connected to then Internet in order to run the Windows 8 Upgrade Advisor before the install. Just FYI.

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kevpan815

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I am glad that worked for you, however for me on my Mid Year 2010 Mac Mini: Boot Camp 4.0 will only install correctly on Windows 7 or Windows 7 Service Pack 1, NOT Windows 8. I will also note that there are Updates Available to the Windows 8 Installer that you need to be connected to the Internet during the install process in order to take advantage of those updates and you also need to be connected to then Internet in order to run the Windows 8 Upgrade Advisor before the install. Just FYI.

P.S. What I am talking about is installing Windows 8 Pro Edition as an UPGRADE, NOT as a CLEAN INSTALL which is PROHIBITED UNDER MICROSOFT'S WINDOWS 8 PRO EDITION RETAIL UPGRADE EULA, WINDOWS 8 PRO EDITION VLK EULA, AND WINDOWS 8 ENTERPRISE EDITION VLK EULA!

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kevpan815

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Further P.S. All NON-OEM Copies of Windows 8 are UPGRADE ONLY and MAY NOT be used to CLEAN INSTALL Windows 8 just to clarify my previous post for those of you planning to install Windows 8 on Apple Boot Camp. It's in Microsoft's Windows 8 EULA! Just FYI!

  • 3 weeks later...
Experienced

NeoWind

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You dont even have to do that, just install Windows 7 then install 8. The bootcamp drivers for 7 work for 8. If you install the boot camp drivers before you install 8 its going to error out because it tries to setup temp files on the mac partition which it cant write to. You must skip the boot camp drivers until then. If you are install from boot then it does not matter you can just install 8 without installing 7.

if you currently running windows 7 SP 1 on boot camp 4.0 then you must uninstall boot camp before upgrading to windows 8?
Community Regular

neuroticdave

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I installed Windows (Both 7 and 8) on my MacBook and I don't think it liked it very much. It ran very hot after a while, and forget trying to run any games. They ran smooth for the most part, but the machine felt like it was about to have a nuclear meltdown.

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kevpan815

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Update: Yesterday I installed Windows 8 on Apple Boot Camp as a Clean Install and found that if you have access to a MSDN or Microsoft Tech Net Subscriber Downloads Windows 8 Product Key, you can skip installing Windows 7 all together and go straight for Windows 8 after setting up the Windows Partition on the Hard Drive. Then run Boot Camp 4.0 after installing Windows 8. Your done.

  • 3 months later...
Neowinian

romenick

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Update: Yesterday I installed Windows 8 on Apple Boot Camp as a Clean Install and found that if you have access to a MSDN or Microsoft Tech Net Subscriber Downloads Windows 8 Product Key, you can skip installing Windows 7 all together and go straight for Windows 8 after setting up the Windows Partition on the Hard Drive. Then run Boot Camp 4.0 after installing Windows 8. Your done.

Hello kevpan,

I am going to install Win8 MSDN ... which partitions do i need to create? Can you please also specify the smallest size usable as I have a MBAir with 128GB only.

Thank you again for your help.

Nick

  • 3 weeks later...
Grand Master

Gotenks98

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Since apple has now released official boot camp support for Windows 8 you might want to update it by just updating the bootcamp drivers. If your mac can not download them there is a link for that on their site for bootcamp 5.0 drivers. If it says it wont install, just go to a command prompt as admin and go to the apple folder and run the bootcamp wizard from there.

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