installing windows 7 on imac 5k

[andriasl]

Hi guys, how do I install windows 7 64 bit using bootcamp on the new imac 5k?

the bootcamp states it only supports windows 10 and later.

Appreciate your input! thanks in advance!

 

[casperes1996]

Hi guys, how do I install windows 7 64 bit using bootcamp on the new imac 5k?

the bootcamp states it only supports windows 10 and later.

Appreciate your input! thanks in advance!

Pretty sure it'll work normally even if it says it only supports 10 and up. If not, just get the drivers from BootCamp, but install without Boot Camp. That way you can get an EFI install too.

 

[andriasl]

Pretty sure it'll work normally even if it says it only supports 10 and up. If not, just get the drivers from BootCamp, but install without Boot Camp. That way you can get an EFI install too.

Sorry, could you elaborate further?

This is the message I get when I tried to install win7

 

[casperes1996]

Sorry, could you elaborate further?

This is the message I get when I tried to install win7 View attachment 704415

Guess Boot Camp does enforce that rule then.

Get the necessary drivers from Boot Camp. I.e. tell Boot Camp you won't be installing Windows through Boot Camp, but you just want to get the drivers.
Partition your disk with Disk Utility, not Boot Camp.
Hold alt whilst booting, and boot into a Windows install media, and install Windows onto the partition, all without Boot Camp. Boot Camp isn't necessary really

 

[andriasl]

Guess Boot Camp does enforce that rule then.

Get the necessary drivers from Boot Camp. I.e. tell Boot Camp you won't be installing Windows through Boot Camp, but you just want to get the drivers.
Partition your disk with Disk Utility, not Boot Camp.
Hold alt whilst booting, and boot into a Windows install media, and install Windows onto the partition, all without Boot Camp. Boot Camp isn't necessary really

Thanks! I saw this article which mentioned Bootcamp has dropped support for Win 7:

Apple's newly refreshed MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro models no longer support running Windows 7 with Boot Camp, according to Apple's Boot Camp support document. Boot Camp on the new notebooks only works with Windows 8 or later, so it is impossible to use Boot Camp to install Windows 7 on the machines.

For those unfamiliar with Boot Camp, it is Apple's software designed to allow Mac users to install Microsoft Windows on their machines.

Apple also dropped Windows 7 Boot Camp support in the 2013 Mac Pro, suggesting the software would cease to be supported by future Macs, but Macs released in 2014 continued to offer Windows 7 installations. The 2014 MacBook Air and the 2014 MacBook Pro will be the last Apple notebooks that support Windows 7.

Though Boot Camp no longer supports Windows 7, the operating system can continue to be used on these newer machines with virtualization software like VMware Fusion and Parallels.

It is not surprising that Apple has opted to phase out support for Windows 7, given its advanced age. Windows 7 first became available to the public in 2009 and was followed by Windows 8 in 2012. Despite being six years old, Windows 7 continues to be the most heavily used Windows-based operating system.

Mac users were not happy with Apple's decision to cease Windows 7 support in the Mac Pro, and it's likely the dropped support in the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro will also be met with resistance. Windows users have not yet embraced Windows 8 due to both its cost and its interface, which deviated significantly from the design of Windows 7.

Windows 10, coming later this year, may encourage stalwart Windows 7 users to upgrade, as it melds Windows 7 design elements with Windows 8 design elements for a happy medium that might satisfy a wide range of tastes. Windows 10 pricing has not been unveiled, but it will be a free upgrade for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 users.

Does your method allow for installation of Win7?

 

[johnnyapples33d]

Upgrade to windows 10.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

 

[andriasl]

Upgrade to windows 10.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

Thanks for the heads-up!

But that would require me to have a pre-installed win 7 in order to upgrade right?

 

[casperes1996]

Does your method allow for installation of Win7?

Yes, but driver support might not be there, so the device might not perform properly under Windows 7

Thanks for the heads-up!

But that would require me to have a pre-installed win 7 in order to upgrade right?

I don't believe so, no. If you download the Win 10 ISO and use your Win 7 product key, it should upgrade the product key

 

[velocityg4]

The new iMac uses the Kaby Lake CPU. Kaby Lake is only supported on Windows 10. There are no official drivers from Intel and MS disabled updates. So, you will have to use a third party hack to get updates to work and try to get the Windows 10 drivers for Kaby Lake to work in Windows 7 or try to use older drivers not made for Kaby Lake and generic drivers.

 

[redheeler]

The new iMac uses the Kaby Lake CPU. Kaby Lake is only supported on Windows 10. There are no official drivers from Intel and MS disabled updates. So, you will have to use a third party hack to get updates to work and try to get the Windows 10 drivers for Kaby Lake to work in Windows 7 or try to use older drivers not made for Kaby Lake and generic drivers.

On top of that, HiDPI support in Windows 7 is next-to-none meaning it will look terrible on the 5K Retina Display (either everything very tiny or very pixelated).

So, definitely a better idea to go with Windows 10 (although HiDPI support in any version of Windows is still not as good as MacOS and probably never will be).

 

[imacken]

So, definitely a better idea to go with Windows 10 (although HiDPI support in any version of Windows is still not as good as MacOS and probably never will be).

My late 2015 5K is fine on Windows 10, res set to 5120x2880 and scaling to 200%.

 

[andriasl]

Thanks everyone. An update to this thread. I was able to download and use win 10 pro using my win7 license key.

 

[Andrews133]

Pretty sure it'll work normally even if it says it only supports 10 and up. If not, just get the drivers from BootCamp, but install without Boot Camp. That way you can get an EFI install too.

Please get detailed instructions on how to install Win7 on iMac 5K Retina