Is there any way windows 8.1 can be installed on an early 2008 iMac?

Boot Camp- System requirements for Microsoft Windows operating systems

rtayek wrote:

...I have finally gone out and purchased windows 8.1 from my local best buy to be run alongside Yosemite...

While I'm not entirely clear what you mean by "run alongside Yosemite" there's more than just Boot Camp which lets you do that. You can run Windows 8.1 (or pretty much any other version of Windows) as a Virtual Machine by using VMware Fusion, Parallels, or Virtual Box. It'd probably work better with more RAM on your Mac (yours can take up to 6GB of RAM), but, as a VM, you can run your Mac OS and Windows at the same time, and use a lot less disk space in the process. And you don't have to worry about changes in Boot Camp software as Apple offers new versions of Mac OS X over the years (I can still run Windows 95 if I wish to).

I use Parallels to run Windows Vista Ultimate on my old Macbook Pro from early 2008. And inside of Windows Vista, I run another virtual environment, Virtual PC 2007 to run WordPerfect Dos 5.1! Runs fine. I do not use Boot Camp for anything.

You may also want to check out VirtualBox. It's open Source (and free). You could save some money vs. purchasing Parallels or VMWare Fusion. I run VMs of Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 (also have one for Windows 10 technical preview, but haven't messed with it much). It works well for me.

Don't use a virtual machine, it's kinda cpu intensive. You CAN install windows 8.1 on your 2008 iMac. I know this because just a couple weeks ago I installed an official windows 8.1 disk on my 2009 iMac. You do NOT need to use bootcamp for it although you WILL need the boot camp drivers. Just put the drivers onto a thumb drive. You will need to install them manually, it's really easy though, so don't get discouraged. The only thing you need bootcamp for is to download the drivers onto the thumb drive. You can also download drivers for bootcamp version 5 from the apple website.

Here is how you do it: Go to disk utility inside applications folder and then utilities folder. Add a second partition to your mac and format it as FAT32.

Put the windows disk in your computer and reboot your computer. Hold down the OPTION key and then choose the "windows" disk then hit enter. Follow the instructions.

In the beginning there will be a screen asking you to select which partition you want to install windows on, highlight it, and then click on "format" because it is then going to reformat the partition as NTFS. It only takes a second. Just follow the installation instructions, it's pretty straight forward from there. And just to forewarn you, apple doesn't care to update the drivers for SOUND, people with iMac's running windows don't have sound so you will need a third party sound card adapter with a headphone and microphone jack and use either headphones or an external speaker. I got a cheap one from ebay for just a few bucks. I use the "Syba" brand and it works, it even plays that pretty windows startup sound. All sounds work, even youtube.

Thank me later! By the way, I think you will find that windows 8.1 runs way faster and smoother than mavericks or yosemite. The mac os's have gotten pretty buggy and bloated over the years and so I think we are making a switch to windows at the right time. Everyone is saying how much better microsoft has gotten and I can tell. I have everything pretty much set up how I like it in my windows 8.1 partition and it's pretty fast. Also, it is WORTH IT to pay for the MacDrive software. Just google it. It will enable you to view and change any apple formatted disk/drive, including your mac osx partition on your internal hard drive. This is important for me because all of my music is on my mac partition in itunes and I need it to add music to my iPod classic 160gb but with macdrive I can listen to the music in vlc player or windows media player. I don't think I will install itunes on windows because everyone says the windows version is buggy.

I got around the boot camp 4 limitation on my old Mac Pro 1,1 by installing windows 7 (using boot camp) then upgrading to windows 8 like you would on a normal windows computer. That is the only way I know of installing windows 8 on an older Mac's.

Hi I had windows 7 32 bit on the boot camp partition which worked fine. 6 months ago I upgrade to 8.1 and selected do not keep files (clean install). There after inserted boot camp 4 cd (already downloaded from apple). An message will come up saying this version of boot camp is for windows 7, however I still selected install and it works fine. Since then I had not problems at all and It's very fast. I seen on threads that i should try 64 bit, but to be honest the installation is a lot more complexed. To be honest I not seen any difference between 32 bit or 64 bit.

Windows 8.1 32 bit does work on the IMAC early 2008 as long you use boot camp 4.

I forgot to mention that you will initially have issues with the micro-phone, this is due to outdated driver from Realtek. To solve this you need to install realteck via the control panel/ programs. Then after rebooting your computer goto the realtek website download the last software and install. Restart computer and you will see that the microphone will work plus better still the sound from the speakers is a lot clear as there is no distortion.

******** UPDATE *************

After further investigation. I decided to reinstall windows 8.1 this time using 64 bit version, but for some reason boot camp 4 does not work. I then decided to use the snow leapord disk and install boot-camp 3. The way to do this is that you have to open up the CD directory and look for bootcamp 64 set up within the directory. You will find this under directory apple / drivers. Right click the bootcamp set 64 and select troubleshoot compalbitly. Then click onto try recommend setting and applied to older version of windows where in my case windows xp. click on start the program and then next then bootcamp will fully install.

when you restart the computer after installation you will find that sound dont work, so you need to follow instructions in my previous post to get the lastest realtek driver.

The next thing you need to do is run apple update to get the later version of boot camp with is 3.2.

I did extentive test there after and the window8 is running very smoothly without any issues at all. Happy I'm able to install the 64 bit version as this will make full use of the 4GB ram unlike the 32 bit which is limited to 2.9GB.

Hi Neil, just want to clarify a few of the steps you described in your message. I have a 24" 8,1 early 2008 iMac and am trying to install either x86 or x64 on it somehow, directly or with bootcamp.

>I then decided to use the snow leapord disk and install boot-camp 3. The way to do this is that you have to open up the CD directory and look for bootcamp 64 set up within the directory. You will find this under directory apple / drivers.

So you didn't actually install SL on your hard drive, you just located the bootcamp 64 set up on the DVD and installed that on your iMac, overwriting the more recent version of bootcamp? Would you be able to better describe where exactly this bootcampt64 set up file is on the OS X 10.6.3 install DVD please? After opening up the package contents of 'Install Mac OS X', I can't find any file named 'bootcamp'. Where is this 'apple' directory?

I have created installation USB drives for both Win 8.1 Pro x86 and x64, and an install DVD for Win 8.1 Pro x86, and the computer will not boot from either of these (in normal boot manager or rEFIt). I have an existing XP bootcamp partition (I had to regress to the original OS 10.5.4 to be able to install it) and I can't run the Win 8.1 Pro x86 installer from there either as I get a dll error.

I've just installed Windows 8.1 Pro onto my iMac6,1 (iMac "Core 2 Duo" 2.16 24-Inch, late 2006) without using Bootcamp. Just partitioned my Mac drive myself, then ran the Windows install DVD and let it rip. Whatever bluetooth devices you already have connected (keyboard, mouse, etc.) work without using special drivers, but they work through the Boot Rom connections that look like USB connections to Windows. These bluetooth connections are maintained until another bluetooth controller attempts to take over. This is how a Mac can recognize boot option keys on a wireless keyboard prior to booting. Since Windows doesn't load a bluetooth controller, the devices continue to work.

I wouldn't bother trying to get a bluetooth driver to work. Every time I did, the bluetooth connections were broken and stayed broken. I never could get the devices to pair with Windows. But if someone figures it out, I'd love to hear about it.

The display works great, including hi-def 3D live rendering. Everything else seems to be okay using the built-in Windows drivers as well. I didn't bother loading anything from Bootcamp in the way of custom drivers, because everything I needed was there and working with Windows alone.

It's worth noting that the Windows 8.1 Pro I installed is a 64-bit OS. It's funny that Apple claims that the iMac6,1 isn't capable of running 64-bit, but Microsoft works just fine. As far as I can see, the iMac6,1 makes a great 64-bit Windows machine. Fast too! Ironic that it takes Microsoft to breathe new life into an Apple computer.

I've made this sound a lot simpler than it was. There are a lot of obstacles that seem to be purposefully placed in the way to thwart such a conversion. But it's very doable without any goofy 3rd-party software, hacks, or "secret handshakes". If you're thinking about tossing your old iMac because it won't run the latest OSX version, let me know. I could use another Windows machine. 🙂

Does Windows msconfig show a BIOS installation? What GPU and Audio drivers are in use?

The C2D is a 64-bit machine. You can check using the following Terminal command.

sysctl hw.cpu64bit_capable

hw.cpu64bit_capable: 1

Yes, of course it's a x64 processor to everyone but Apple. Windows 8.1 Pro x64 "PC Info" reports that it is running 64-bit. I have seen on the web that others have had success running 64-bit versions of Unix, Linux, and Ubuntu OSes as well.

Windows also shows that it is running its own NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics and High Definition Audio drivers. I couldn't tell you what specific GPU or Audio drivers are being used, other than whatever Windows provides as part of the above descriptions.

This is a standard iMac6,1. I didn't change any hardware, firmware, or add any software shims. Just loaded the Windows 8.1 Pro x64 DVD and installed Windows. As far as I can tell, there is no special "BIOS installation".

What type of installation does msconfig show Windows to be? Type msconfig in Start -> Run.

As I said, "PC Info" on Windows reports a 64-bit machine running a 64-bit OS. Control Panel>System and Security>System reports the same thing. msconfig doesn't show anything about what kind of operating system is running. As far as I know, my Windows 8 installation disk will only install on a 64-bit system. It was ordered as an x64 version and doesn't have an x86 alternative installation library.

I suggest you try the installation yourself if you need further confirmation that it's a "true" 64-bit installation. I'm satisfied that it is.