Mac Boot Camp Assistant Alternative

If you own a Mac and would like to run Windows on your device, you will need to create a Windows 10 bootable USB. You can use your Mac, even if it is running Mac OS to create this. It can also be useful if you want to install Windows on a new PC that you have built or if you have replaced the hard drive on your PC and you need to reinstall Windows 10. There is a range of other reasons as to why you may need to create a Windows 10 bootable USB. This article will show you how to create a Windows 10 bootable USB in 4 different ways.

Boot Camp Assistant Alternative

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Method 1: Use Boot Camp Assistant on Mac

In order to create a bootable USB using Boot Camp, you will require a USB that has 16GB of storage, or more. Please note that Boot Camp is not supported in macOS Mojave and later.

Insert a USB drive into your Mac.
Open Bootcamp Assistant on your Mac.
Tick the box for 'create a Windows 7 or later version install disk' and uncheck the 'Install Windows 7 or later version' option. Then click on continue.
Download a Windows 10 .iso file from the Microsoft website or another reliable site. Keep this in a location that is easily found (such as the Downloads folder).
Bootcamp will locate the downloaded iso file automatically however if it is not found, you can use the'choose' button to locate it manually.
Click on Continue and wait until the USB is formatted and set up to become a bootable drive.
Once the process has been completed by the Bootcamp Assistant, the USB will have been renamed. You can now quit Bootcamp and then Eject the USB to safely remove it.

This will have created a Windows 10 bootable USB using a Mac that can now be used on your PC.

Method 2: Use Disk Utility on Mac

If you are running an older version of Mac, you can use the built-in Disk Utility app to create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive. As this is only compatible with older versions of Mac OS, it is recommended that you use an alternative method.

Plug in your USB and open the disk utility tool.
Right-click on your USB drive on the left and format the drive (which will remove all the data) with MS-DOS (FAT).
Drag the Windows ISO file to the USB drive and the ISO file will begin to write on the USB.

Method 3: Use UNetbootin on Mac

UNetbootin is free to use and allows you to make a bootable USB drive for Windows 10 using your Mac. Again, like the first method, you will need a USB drive (with a capacity of 16GB as a minimum recommendation) and you will also need to download the .iso file and keep it in a memorable location.

Plug in your USB drive into your Mac.
Open Disk Utility and select your USB drive on the left. Click on the info button and write down the device name.
Download and install the UNetbootin utility.
Choose the 'Diskimage' button and then click on the '…' button to select the iso file that you have downloaded.
Set the Type as USB Drive and select the device name of your USB drive that you have noted down earlier.
Click OK and wait for the USB to be formatted to a bootable drive.

Method 4: Use Terminal on Mac

The Terminal app is more complicated to use than other methods however it does not require you to use a third-party application in order to create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive. Again, you will need a USB drive.

Connect your USB drive to the Mac and then launch Terminal.
Type 'diskutil list' and hit the enter/return key to see a list of all connected drives.
Identify your USB drive and note down the name, such as disk3.
Run the command 'diskutil eraseDisk MS-DOS 'WINDOWS10' GPT disk3' without the quotation marks and you can replace the '3' at the end with the correct number.
Download the iso file for Windows 10 and save it in the Downloads folder if it hasn’t been saved there already.
Mount the .iso image by using the command 'hdiutil mount ~/Downloads/WINDOWS10IMAGE.iso' where you can replace the 'WINDOWS10IMAGE with the name of your downloaded file. Note the name of the mounted iso, which can be found by looking at the terminal. It will be similar to /Volumes/MOUNTED-NAME.
Next, run the command 'cp -rp /Volumes/MOUNTED-ISO/* /Volumes/WINDOWS10/' where you can replace MOUNTED with the name of your mounted ISO.
Once the command has finished and your files have been moved over to the USB drive, you will need to run the command 'hdiutil unmount /Volumes/MOUNTED-ISO', again replacing the word MOUNTED with the correct name.
Close the terminal and eject your USB drive. This can now be used as a bootable drive.

Additional Tip: One Click to Create Windows 10 Bootable USB to Reset Password

If you want to create Windows 10 bootable USB to reset the login password, we recommend a very easy to use tool to you. It is Passper WinSenior. This is only compatible with Windows however it is much easier than using the above methods which require you to complete most of the work. WinSenior automatically completes the process for you so there is a much lower risk of failing when trying to create a Windows 10 bootable USB drive. This is the recommended method when using third-party software. As this tool is extremely easy to use, it can be used by anyone. This is because you do not need any expert knowledge in how Windows works in order to reset a password.

Check more details here to know how to use Passper WinSenior.

Installing Windows on a Mac should be a piece of cake with Bootcamp, but thatrarely is the case. In fact, I would personally say that Boot Camp Assistantis one of the worst apps that comes with OS X and unlike the rest, it doesn’twork seamlessly.

A few of its drawbacks:

It only supports a drive with a single partition.
It often throws very obscure error messages with limited detail.
It re-downloads 1.6 GB Windows drivers every single time it runs. These areplaced under /Library/Application Support/BootCamp/WindowsSupport.dmg anddeleted and re-downloaded each time Boot Camp Assistant starts processing.

This post did take a lot of work to complie and I did bone my hard drive afew times while trying certain ideas, so please throw out a thanks if ithelped you out :)

Disclaimer: This guide below contains procedures which can potentiallydestroy your partitions and data. I accept no responsibility for such loss soplease proceed at your own risk.

Update (2016-07-20): I have updated this post with further improvementsrelating to downloading of Boot Camp drivers and ensuring that a Hybrid MBR isnot used (which would cause issues when installing Windows).

An 8 GB or larger USB stick
A copy of the Windows 10 ISO
A valid Windows 10 license
A downloaded copy of unetbootin

Start Boot Camp Assistant
Select Action / Download Windows Support Software
Choose your Downloads directory, enter your password and then clickSave

This will be the only step that we will use Boot Camp Assistant for.

Formatting Your USB Stick

Attach your USB stick and start Disk Utility, select your USB drive in theleft panel under External, click Erase and set the options as follows(exactly) and click Erase:

Name: FAT32
Format: MS-DOS (FAT)
Scheme: Master Boot Record

Turning Your USB Stick into a Windows Installer

Open unetbootin, enter your password, set the options as follows andclick OK:

Diskimage: checked, set to ISO and browse to your Windows 10 ISO
Type: USB Drive
Drive: Your USB drive (you should only see one entry here)

If you see more than one drive listed, you may confirm which is your USB driveby opening the Terminal and typing:

You’ll see your USB drive in the output and it should look something like this:

Once you have kicked off unetbootin, grab a snack while the Windows ISO iscopied to the USB stick. This process takes around 15 minutes to complete.

Finishing Up

When this has completed, you may right click on the USB stick in Finder,select Rename “FAT32” and rename it as you like (I’ll call mine“WINDOWS 10”).

Finally, copy the WindowsSupport in your Downloads directory tothe Windows 10 USB stick so it’s easy to get to after our installation.

In Disk Utility, select your internal hard drive on the left panel, andclick on Partition.

Click the + button and create a new partition of your desired size for yourWindows installation and name it as you wish (I’ll call mine “BOOTCAMP”). Ensure that the Format is set to MS-DOS (FAT) and click on Apply.

Huge thanks to Rod’s post from the superuser post titledWindows detects GPT disk as MBR in EFI boot.

Once you add a FAT32 partition with either Boot Camp Assistant or Disk Utility,your disk is converted into a hybrid GPT / MBR disk which is actually notsupported by newer versions of Windows. In this step, we revert thisadditional change made by Disk Utility by switching back to a pure GPTpartition table.

Dowload the latest version ofGPT fdiskby browsing to the version, then gdisk-binaries and clicking the filewith the *.pkg extension (e.g. gdisk-1.0.1.pkg).
Install GPT fdisk by running the installer you downloaded
Open a Terminal and check the state of your MBR
If your MBR partition is set to hybrid, please continue with step 4,otherwise if it is set to protective, you may skip the rest of thissection. Simply type q and hit return to exit GPT fdisk.
Type p to view the existing partition table and verify you’re workingon the correct disk
Type x to enter the expert menu
Type n to create a fresh protective MBR
Type w to save your changes and confirm the change when asked
Type q to exit GPT fdisk
Run GPT fdisk to show your disk layout:
Your partition table should look something like this:

Disconnecting All Devices From USB Ports

This step is critical as I have had rather serious problems during Windowsinstallation when certain external drives are connected.

Unplug everything from your Mac except your keyboard (if wired) and yourbootable Windows USB stick (which we prepared earlier).

If your Mac contains multiple physical drives, you will need to disconnectall disks except the one which you intend to install Windows on or you mayencounter the following error:

Windows could not prepare the computer to boot into the next phase of installation. To install Windows, restart the installation.

Booting From the USB Stick

Ensure that the USB stick containing the Windows installer is inserted andthen restart your Mac while holding down the option (alt) key.

You should now be presented with a list of bootable drives. Select the USBdrive (usually titled “EFI Boot”) to begin installing Windows.

Correcting Your Windows Hard Disk Partition

When you are asked Where do you want to install Windows?, select theWindows partition created earlier (which I called “BOOTCAMP”) and clickDelete.

Next, select the chunk of Unallocated Space and click on New to createa proper Windows NTFS partition.

Note: OS X only supports creation of FAT filesystems, so this is why we needto re-create the partition ourselves during install.

Completing the Installation

Allow the installer to complete and boot into Windows.

Installing Boot Camp Support Software

Once Windows is up and running, install the Boot Camp Support software runningWindowsSupport/BootCamp/Setup.exe on your USB stick.

Note: The installer takes a little while to show up, so please be patient.

You may encounter a known issue whereby the Boot Camp Support Softwareinstaller locks up while installing Realtek audio.

If this occurs, you will need to open Task Manager and kill theRealtekSetup.exe process.

After the installer has completed, answer No when prompted to rebootand install the Realtek drivers manually by running%USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalTempRarSFX0BootCampDriversRealTekRealtekSetup.exe.If you can’t find this file, check any other directories starting withRARSFX under %USERPROFILE%AppDataLocalTemp.

Once complete, reboot Windows.

The latest version of SharpKeys
The flipflop-windows-sheel binary (see README for a download link)

Mapping Your Mac Keyboard

Install and run SharpKeys and then configure the following mappings tocorrect your Mac keyboard so that it behaves like a regular Windows keyboard:

Function: F13 -> Special: PrtSc
Special: Left Alt => Special: Left Windows
Special: Left Windows => Special: Left Alt
Special: Right Alt => Special: Right Windows
Special: Right Windows => Special: Right Alt

Mac Boot Camp Assistant Alternative Free

Note: for F13, you’ll need to select Press a key and click F13 on yourkeyboard.

Switching to Natural Scrolling

If you wish to flip scrolling direction to match that on OS X, runFlipWheel.exe and then click on Flip All.

Enabling Num Lock on Boot

Paste the following into a file named Enable NumLock on Boot.reg thenimport this into the registry to enable NumLock when Windows boots up(it doesn’t by default).

Completing Configuration

That’s it, give your machine one last reboot and you’ll have a fully workingWindows 10 installation.

Note: I have found Apple’s Magic Mouse to be extremely unreliable usingthe Boot Camp drivers from Apple. As such, I recommend purchasing a Logitech(or similar) mouse for use in Windows. I have no trouble plugging thewireless receiver for my Logitech mouse into one of the USB ports of my wiredApple Keyboard and it’s so tiny that you can’t see it at all.

Removing the Windows Partitions

If you decide to remove Windows, you may find that Disk Utility doesn’t allowyou to delete the two partitions that have been created by the Windowsinstaller.

This happens due to the fact that the first small partition created is of atype called Microsoft Reserved which OS X’s Disk Utility doesn’t support.

The safest way to delete these partitions is through the Windows installer. Sosimply boot from your USB stick as we did before and when you reach theWhere do you want to install Windows? question, you may delete your“BOOTCAMP” partition and the small 16 MB partition of type MSR (Reserved)just above the BOOTCAMP partition.

Once done, simply quit the installer by clicking the X in the top right cornerof each Window and reboot back into OS X.

Run Windows On Mac

Removing the Boot Entry

Mac Boot Camp Assistant Alternative Job

Even though we have removed the Windows partition, a boot entry will still bepresent when holding down option (alt) during boot.

Mac Boot Camp Guide

You may remove these items by running the following in your Terminal:

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