How can I install Windows 7 on Macbook Air 11" 2015 without Bootcamp?

Question

How can I install Windows 7 on Macbook Air 11" 2015 without Bootcamp?

My company has been using Macbook Air 11" for employees who have to travel frequently due to its portability. Both OS X and Windows 7 are the environments supported in the company but however, many still use Windows 7 (Pro 64 bit). Long term wise, the company is likely to skip Windows 8 and move to Windows 10 but that is still many years (at least 3-4 years) to come.

Macbook Air (Early 2015) does not support Bootcamp Assistant installation for Windows 7 and virtualization is not something we can consider due to varies reasons.

So far, we could create a FAT32 partition for installing Windows but when we used a EFI bootable USB drive, it booted up to a black screen. We were using an USB 2.0 thumb drive and we tried both side of the USB port with the same result.

Is there a way to install Windows 7 Pro 64-bit on a Macbook Air 11" 2015 without Bootcamp?

Please help.

MACBOOK AIR (11-INCH, EARLY 2015), Windows 7, null

Posted on May 6, 2015 10:33 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 6, 2015 10:38 PM in response to cloudstardust5

If you could install Win7 without using Boot Camp, then you could install it using Boot Camp. Win7 is simply not compatible with the new hardware and Apple does not have drivers that are backward compatible with Win7.

Reply

Answer 2

May 6, 2015 10:50 PM in response to Kappy

That is the saddest thing to know and going to disappoint a few thousands employees in the company

Reply

Answer 3

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

May 6, 2015 11:09 PM in response to cloudstardust5

Either don't get new MBAs or upgrade to Win8 or both.

Reply

Answer 4

Rudegar

Level 10

170,886 points

May 7, 2015 9:59 AM in response to cloudstardust5

just get the free virtual machine virtual box and run windows in that tI just installed windows 10 in it yesterday to check out if the new ms browser was better then poor old IE

Reply

Answer 5

May 8, 2015 11:41 PM in response to Rudegar

I had the VMWare Fusion 7 installed on a Macbook Air 11" (i7 core and 8GB RAM) yesterday and had been trying it out the whole of yesterday and today. It just isn't the same as having Windows 7 on its own partition and booting up straight into it. There are some limitations with visualization.

1) The VM Windows 7 feels slow (maybe due to the inefficient virtual graphics drivers)

2) Some software like Microsoft Office cannot be installed via our company own "software installer" which pull the software from a server.

3) USB DVD drive cannot be connected and prompted for drivers which the VM did not have (maybe because it is a USB 3.0 drive?),

4) Magic mouse is slow in VM but okay in OS X.

5) Cannot see the Wireless Network list because the VM Wireless driver is not available (maybe no 802ac drivers), so have to toggle to OS X connect to the Wireless each time you need to connect to different Wireless location.

Overall, it feels like the VM is not taking full use of the i7 Core, 8GB RAM or the Intel H6000 graphics making the system feels slow. Not good at all.

Reply