What happens when Apple pulls the plug on Bootcamp?

[Willie Heckaslyke]

Just so I understand how Bootcamp works, can someone enlighten me a bit on it.?

At the moment I've just got macOS on my newly-acquired MBA (but will soon be putting Win10 on too). When Apple eventually drops Bootcamp, does that mean that, unless I update to the new version of macOS that will no longer support BC, my existing dual-boot setup will still be OK?

Thx

 

[quagmire]

The last MacOS that supports Boot Camp will probably be the last version of MacOS that supports an Intel Mac.

 

[Willie Heckaslyke]

The last MacOS that supports Boot Camp will probably be the last version of MacOS that supports an Intel Mac.

Thanks for that quick reply.....but what happens then? As I ask, if I don't update the macOS to that version...will everything still work? Will my windows installation be able to get security updates etc, or will BOTH be stuck with WYHIWYG?

 

[StuAff]

You misunderstand. You will always be able to use Windows on an Intel Mac. Windows updates will always work (until/unless Microsoft ends them…). There will be no Boot Camp option for the new Apple Silicon Macs, because of the processor incompatibility.

 

[Willie Heckaslyke]

You misunderstand. You will always be able to use Windows on an Intel Mac. Windows updates will always work (until/unless Microsoft ends them…). There will be no Boot Camp option for the new Apple Silicon Macs, because of the processor incompatibility.

Thank you...that's was what I was unsure about and wanted to know...(new mac user you see )

cheers 👍

 

[DeltaMac]

What happens on your Mac (that dual-boots to Windows) if Apple no longer provides the boot camp assistant as a default part of your Mac operating system?
Asking again -- If that happens, what happens to the Windows software that you already have on your Mac?
No change whatsoever. You can even upgrade to that "Boot Camp-less" macOS 11 (or 12, whatever), and your existing Windows system is affected not-at-all.

 

[Apple_Robert]

There will be a lot of PFC’s walking around aimlessly, looking for a new DI to guide them safely back to the promised (Apple) land.

 

[quagmire]

What happens on your Mac (that dual-boots to Windows) if Apple no longer provides the boot camp assistant as a default part of your Mac operating system?
Asking again -- If that happens, what happens to the Windows software that you already have on your Mac?
No change whatsoever. You can even upgrade to that "Boot Camp-less" macOS 11 (or 12, whatever), and your existing Windows system is affected not-at-all.

If Apple drops Boot Camp from MacOS in a version that still supports an Intel Mac, that would be a valid concern. As sure the windows side will be unaffected when upgrading to that boot campless MacOS, but what if the HD craps out? Can’t get windows set back up unless you self-partition the drive and hopefully still have the drivers on a USB drive to install on the windows installation.

 

[DeltaMac]

You are assuming that Apple will absolutely drop Boot Camp.
Lots of "if's" here, and I can't foretell the future. Apple may decide that they need to provide a method to run Windows on the new Apple silicon. That's probably not too much of challenge to do that in a VM.
Booting and running Windows natively would only need some help from Microsoft.
Well, I can't see that actually happening, but Apple may not share my opinion.

 

[psingh01]

Boot camp is just apple’s tools to help you partition the drive and install windows. I seriously doubt they will drop those from any intel version of macos. Once you have windows installed you will be able to update it like any other windows laptop.

Now what could happen, is that once your intel Mac is listed as obsolete (like 6 years), then it’s possible that Apple won’t make the windows drivers for it available anymore. So many years down the road if for whatever reason you want to do a fresh install of everything, then it might not work. Hopefully the drivers will be archived somewhere else if that is the case or alternatives exist.

 

[Willie Heckaslyke]

Good points. There's a utility called Driver Detective (or something like that)....which can extract all the Windows & 3rd part drivers for any future re-installs. <goes off to find it....>

 

[velocityg4]

You are assuming that Apple will absolutely drop Boot Camp.
Lots of "if's" here, and I can't foretell the future. Apple may decide that they need to provide a method to run Windows on the new Apple silicon. That's probably not too much of challenge to do that in a VM.
Booting and running Windows natively would only need some help from Microsoft.
Well, I can't see that actually happening, but Apple may not share my opinion.

Really, MS would just need to make the ARM version of Windows available for purchase. It's Apple with the most work to do. By making drivers available. Also making sure their custom EFI works with Windows to allow booting.

 

[Alex W.]

Heres whats going to happen in two years MS will have an ARM windows version provided publically-- and apple will allow bootcamp this way.

 

[Arctic Moose]

In case it isn’t entirely clear from the previous posts, you do not actually need Boot Camp to install and run Windows.

Sure, it does make it simpler to partition the drive, install Windows and get the correct drivers, but it is absolutely not necessary.

You don’t actually need to have macOS installed at all, and I very much doubt this will ever change for any Intel Mac, including those that have not been released yet.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Just so I understand how Bootcamp works, can someone enlighten me a bit on it.?

At the moment I've just got macOS on my newly-acquired MBA (but will soon be putting Win10 on too). When Apple eventually drops Bootcamp, does that mean that, unless I update to the new version of macOS that will no longer support BC, my existing dual-boot setup will still be OK?

Thx

Thanks for that quick reply.....but what happens then? As I ask, if I don't update the macOS to that version...will everything still work? Will my windows installation be able to get security updates etc, or will BOTH be stuck with WYHIWYG?

Boot Camp is really just two things:

1. Dynamic repartitioning of your APFS (if 10.14 or later [10.13 or later if on an SSD boot drive]) or HFS+ (if 10.13 or earlier [10.12 or earlier if on an SSD boot drive]) boot volume such that a FAT32 volume can be put there with the label of "BOOT CAMP"

2. Drivers and hardware support for your Mac in Windows

This gets a little complicated with Macs introduced in 2015 and later and even more so with Macs that have the T2 chip. But it's largely the same thing. I'm a little confused myself on some of the more specific T2-isms regarding Boot Camp (and have made a thread to ask about them in that section of these forums), but the short of it is that Apple is not going to take away Boot Camp from you on that Mac in the middle of the night with a surprise update to whatever operating system you have installed on your Mac. They might remove it in a major release of macOS (which is still very doubtful, but possible); but you'd likely hear news about it in advance on here or other tech news sites. Apple is only definitely dropping it on Apple Silicon Macs (at least for the time being). It is still in the Intel version of macOS Big Sur and will presumably also be in its successor release as well. WORST case scenario, so long as you have the Boot Camp software for Windows, nothing SHOULD be stopping you from installing Windows on your Mac. as the #2 point above does not require macOS. Dual-booting may become difficult if Apple prematurely removes Boot Camp from Intel Macs, but I can't imagine a third party utility won't still be able to do that for you; even on a T2 Mac.

 

[LEOMODE]

So say next version of Big Sur OS does not include Boot Camp software at all, then how will you be able to re-install Boot Camp with that OS if you still have Intel Mac?

Perhaps just like old Mac Pro which had an optical drive, and you can see that option under Option, perhaps Intel Mac will still be able to see Boot Camp install option?

 

[Arctic Moose]

So say next version of Big Sur OS does not include Boot Camp software at all, then how will you be able to re-install Boot Camp with that OS if you still have Intel Mac?

Perhaps just like old Mac Pro which had an optical drive, and you can see that option under Option, perhaps Intel Mac will still be able to see Boot Camp install option?

You do not need Boot Camp (or macOS at all) to install Windows (or Linux or whatever) on your Intel Mac. Simply dd the installer .iso to a thumb drive, boot from it, partition your internal drive as you see fit and install the operating system of your choice.

 

[LEOMODE]

You do not need Boot Camp (or macOS at all) to install Windows (or Linux or whatever) on your Intel Mac. Simply dd the installer .iso to a thumb drive, boot from it, partition your internal drive as you see fit and install the operating system of your choice.

Right, but wouldn't Boot Camp give you a kind of like a white-glove service ensuring all drivers are installed prior to logging in for the first time? Can you install Windows without Boot Camp application and get all the drivers necessary?

 

[Arctic Moose]

Right, but wouldn't Boot Camp give you a kind of like a white-glove service ensuring all drivers are installed prior to logging in for the first time? Can you install Windows without Boot Camp application and get all the drivers necessary?

Boot Camp does make installing Windows a very smooth process, there’s no denying that.

So far it has been possible to get all the necessary drivers. I guess it is possible, but unlikely, that Apple could release a Mac for which essential Windows drivers are missing.