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veehbJ
Level 1 (28 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Can I upgrade a MBPro Late 2011 to Windows 10?

I have a late 2011 MBPro with High Resolution Display.  I am running Windows 7 under Parallels 10.  Want to upgrade it to Windows 10 under Boot Camp.  Documentation says earlies version of MBPro that can be upgraded to Windows 10 is MBPro 2012.

 

I think the late 2011 is about the same as the 2012.

 

Parallels 10 won't support Windows 10.  Can I use my exisiting Windows 7 license and install Windows 10 directly using Boot Camp, or do I need to install Windows 7 with Boot Camp and then update it (many times) to current Windows 7, then upgrade to 10??

 

Any help in this?

 

Thanks

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 8 GBytes, 750 GByte disk, Early 2011, i7 quad core

Posted on Jul 24, 2016 4:49 PM

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veehbJ

Q: Can I upgrade a MBPro Late 2011 to Windows 10?

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  • by Starr.C,

    Starr.C Starr.C Jul 25, 2016 10:25 AM in response to veehbJ
    Community Specialists
    Jul 25, 2016 10:25 AM in response to veehbJ

    Hello veehbJ,

     

    Thanks for bringing up your question here in the Apple Support Communities. I'm happy to offer some info about Windows 10 and Bootcamp on your Mac.

     

    The official documentation from Apple about Windows 10 is this help article: Use Windows 10 on your Mac with Boot Camp. It seems that only the 2012 models of MacBook Pros are capable of running Windows 10.

     

    • MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
    • MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012)

     

    If the documentation you read says otherwise, the only possible solution from the same official documentation provided above states "You can upgrade existing 64-bit installations of Windows 7, or 8.1 to Windows 10". This means, you will need to install a 64-bit version of Windows using Bootcamp first. If your hard drive does not have enough space on the drive to do this, you will have to backup all the Windows information first, then remove Parallels. When you restart the Mac, then open Bootcamp, and start with the installation of Windows 7 in 64-bit. I must stress that this would not officially be supported by Apple, since you will be installing a version of Windows to a Mac model that is outside the supported models released in their official documentation.

     

    Thank you again for checking with the Apple Support Communities for help with this. Have a great rest of your day.