Hi, I would like to create a Windows10 environment on my late 2009 iMac using VMWare Fusion 8.5. Does anyone know whether this is possible or not, and if so whether there are alternative approaches that might work, like Bootcamp or Parallels for instance.
Thanks
Windows 10 can be installed via Bootcamp with one caveat. You will
need to install Windows 7 first, then upgrade to Windows 10. There
is apparently some driver that is installed in Windows 7 on older
machines that is not available in any Windows 10. installer that needs
to be "grandfathered into" Windows 10. Even though the Win10 installer
seems to work, on "final reboot" (there are so many) it never proceeds
to the user setup stage.
I speak from experience on this doing Win10 installs on an early 2009
iMac as well as 2011 vintage MacMini and MacBook Pro. As a matter of fact,
I have Windows10/1809 running as a sole OS on a 2011 MacMini Server
that I am using as an entertainment center.
In terms of a virtual machine environment, if you want to do anything
truly useful in Win10 and macOS simultaneously, 8GB RAM is an absolute bare
minimum and really suggest 12-16 GB for a good experience.
I don't know what issue you ran into but Woodmeister50 was referring to problems installing Windows 10 using Boot Camp on older Macs. I had no trouble installing Windows 10 on VirtualBox 6.0.4 this morning on a Mid-2011 iMac running Yosemite which is the oldest Mac in the house. You should be able to as well.
According to the VMWare website, you can install Windows 10 in Fusion 8.x running OSX 10.9.x or better. You should probably have 8GB RAM or better to do so.
you can likely also use VirtualBox
but you can't use Bootcamp that require iMac (2012 and later)*
I should think by now, one can direct install Windows 10 from its .iso straight into a virtual machine guest. Yes, two years ago, it was a royal PITA to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10.
Presently, I have Win 10 (1809) as a 50GB guest with 8GB RAM allocated using one core (two-threads). This is in VirtualBox 6.0.4. This is on a 2011 Mac mini with 16GB RAM.
I was referring to Bootcamp if you noticed my first line:
"Windows 10 can be installed via Bootcamp with one caveat. ..."
In terms of a VM, yes, any OS can be installed directly, even Win10.
The only time an upgrade was required for a VM was if one wanted
to take an advantage of the free Win7/Win8.1 upgrade to Win10.
You're welcome. I used the April iso and installed the 32bit Home version. I don't think it makes a difference if you install the 64bit version. The only setting I changed was increasing the RAM to 2GB instead of the default 1GB.
The VirtualBox 6.0.4 installer has a PDF User Manual that is worth reading — especially the topic of how to install Windows guests and guest additions. VirtualBox only provides a 128MB Video Memory, and this can be doubled at the UNIX command-line to 256 MB (max).
VBoxManage modifyvm <vmname> --vram=256
where <vmname> is the name string that appears in the VirtualBox Guest panel list. The change is immediate.
It does not surprise me that you are having issues installing Win10
on Fusion 8.5, considering the most current version is 11.0.2, especially
if you are installing the current Win10/1809.
Thankyou for all the very prompt replies. I have now tried VMware Fusion 8.5 and Virtualbox 6.0 and have had no joy with either solution. The result in both cases seems to be the same as outlined by Woodmeister50, ie the install never gets to the user setup stage. Difficult to be sure but I wonder if the same approach outlined above might work.
Thanks
Thanks, Can I ask was this an iso image and what version was it. I am using the October version. Would you mind letting me know what the VIrtualbox settings were set to so that I can compare.
Thanks
Surprises me.
Windows10, VMWare Fusion and iMac (late 2009)
