Q: Boot Camp missing option on El Capitan. MacBook Pro 17" late 2011

Macs with a built-in Optical drive do not allow Windows installation from USB (there are a few exceptions to this rule, for example a 2012 MBP), hence the option to create a USB installer is missing. You will need a fully functional Optical drive and a physical DVD containing the Windows Installer.

Please start at How to install Windows using Boot Camp - Apple Support. This link - http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ - has some helpful documentation.

There is a work around. This is a mind boggingly stupid restriction that is entirely artificial. Here is how to fix it.

1. Turn off Rootless System Integrity.
   • Restart your Mac and hold down CMD + R to boot into Recovery Mode.
   • Once booted, click the Utilities menu at the top of the screen and select Terminal.
   • Enter: "csrutil disable; reboot" without quotes and hit enter.
2. Look up your Model Identifier and Boot ROM Version:
   • Go to the Apple Menu in the upper left and click "About This Mac"
   • Click "System Report..."
   • The MI and BRV are in the "Hardware Overview" of System Information
3. Alter the Boot Camp Assistant plist (make sure BCA is closed before you do this)
   • Go to the Utilities folder in the Finder, right click on Boot Camp Assistant, and click "Show Package Contents"
   • Click Contents
   • Click Info.plist and go to File->Duplicate to make a backup (requires username / password)
   • Right click it and select 'Copy "Info.plist"'
   • Paste a copy onto your Desktop
   • Open the file with TextEdit
   • Add your Model Identifier under 32BitSupportedModels
     • Formatting is important. It's safer to copy and paste a line, then edit it. Mine is <string>iMac12,2</string>
   • Add your Boot ROM Version under DARequiredROMVersions
     • Formatting is important. It's safer to copy and paste a line, then edit it. Mine is <string>IM121.0047.B23</string>
   • Remove your Model Identifier under PreUSBBootSupportedModels
     • Formatting is important. Remove the entire line.
   • Save the file
   • Copy it back to the Contents folder under Boot Camp Assistant (requires username / password)
4. Start Boot Camp Assistant. You should now have all 3 install options and be able to select your ISO image. Make sure the ISO image is on your desktop but is NOT open as a disk image. If so, eject it before running BCA.

For some people, BCA may fail to work after the plist change. You can fix this by going to the terminal and entering the following command:

sudo codesign -fs - /Applications/Utilities/Boot\ Camp\ Assistant.app

After all this is done, you can re-enable Rootless System Integrity if you want by booting back into Recovery Mode, opening the Terminal, and entering "csrutil enable; reboot" without quotes, then hit enter.

Just as information and hope it helps someone:

The BootCamp mod (listed in other posts) worked for me to get Windows 10 on my mid-2011 iMac 21.5. However, I had to start with a Win 7 install, then upgrade to Win 8.1 and finally to Win 10 via internet. This was because Win 8.1 would not install directly on my BC partition saying it could not use it because it had to be GPT for EFI machines, but Win 7 had no such trouble.

After installing Win 7 in the normal BC way. I used the Win 8.1 install USB, made with the mod'd BC, to boot the iMac from it via the (option key selection) firmware boot selector and did the 8.1 upgrade. The 10 upgrade was via the MS free online process after activating 8.1. Note, an 8.1 key used for a free upgrade is invalidated by the upgrade.

I use a wireless keyboard and mouse and do not have a USB keyboard so there were some delays from re-pairing to do the many restarts to Windows during the process - it also seems the Apple Windows Support drivers for wireless keyboard and mouse are less stable than the Windows 8.1 and 10 built-in drivers. However, all seems to work fine now after a couple Win 10 update cycles. There is one Blue Tooth device driver that I have not found a good driver for yet, but I am not sure yet what it is and not seeing any non-functioning items.

To make the BC mod, I used a plist editor (pref setter) on a copy of BC pasted to my desktop, This avoids permissions hassles and you have a modified BC that can be saved in Utilities alongside the original BC (after changing its name some of course) and run from there too. I think pref setter tool is free.

thanks man. it really helped me.. Keep up the good work.