If you don't already have one, various Mac-compatible external hard drives function well, and we strongly recommend going with a Solid State Drive (SSD), which is far faster than a traditional hard drive. Consider buying an External Hard Drive:Īn external hard drive is the first item you'll need to install Windows without Boot Camp. With that in mind, here's how to simply and for free install Windows on a Mac without Boot Camp. You may, however, use Parallels to install Windows on an M1 Mac without needing Boot Camp. Unfortunately, the methods for installing Windows on a Mac without Boot Camp work exclusively on Intel Macs.Īpple Silicon M1 and M2 Macs include extensive security features that prevent you from booting from an external disc. Is it Possible to install Windows on an M1 or M2 Mac without Boot Camp? If you want to remove a little watermark and personalize Windows 10 or Windows 11, you need to purchase an activation key.

It also has the advantage of not taking up any hard drive space on your Mac's hard drive because everything is saved and operated on an external disc.Īnother fantastic feature is that you can now install Windows on a Mac for free. However, if you want to keep your Mac and Windows data separate or don't have enough hard drive space on your Mac's internal hard drive, utilizing an external hard drive to run Windows is a better option to run Windows on a Mac. You can't run them both at a time as you can with a virtual machine.Īnother significant issue is that the newest M1 chip Macs do not support Boot Camp, which means you cannot install Windows on an M1 Mac with it. One of them is that you can only use Boot Camp to boot your Mac into Windows on macOS. Boot Camp was one of the most common ways to install Windows on a Macbook Pro until the advent of Apple Silicon M1 Macs.

Macbook air m1 windows bootcamp