Upgrading from Windows 7 or 8 on Macbook’s Boot Camp to Windows 10

I decided to share my experience of upgrading to Windows 10 so that in case any of you out there who are thinking about upgrading your BootCamp hosted windows to the latest version can be prepared before hand.

Don’t panic!

First of all know in advanced that the upgrade process went smoothly and you’ll still be able to boot either to your OSX or Windows by holding the option (alt) key during startup, so go ahead get busy while reading this.

Where to start? Download, Windows Update or Download

Technically you have two options. First option is to upgrade through Windows Update channel:

picture is taken from here: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/07/windows-10-is-on-windows-update-now-the-free-upgrades-start-today/

And the second option is to download the installation image and mount it (right click and select Mount in File Explorer) or write it to a DVD. Microsoft has provided a tool called Windows 10 Media Creation Tool. The 32bit edition can be found here and the 64bit edition can be found here. Another option is to directly download the ISO file from this page if you are currently viewing this page in a Mac. MSDN subscribers can download through their MSDN subscriber downloads page.

You can pick the edition you want I leave the researching to you, but it’s more likely that you stay with the similar edition you currently have on your machine.

Setup process

There’s not much to say here. The process couldn’t be easier, everything is done automatically and after the last restart (yes there are a few) you’ll need to pick your wireless if your computer is not connected through a wired link and that’t it. If you are interested in more pictures and description head here.

The after math

So far the experience was not different that a normal PC, but after you log in to your brand new Windows, you’ll discover that not all features of your touchpad is working and because not all the drivers are installed automatically and you’ll have to reinstall all the BootCamp drivers again. You might (like me) think about downloading the drivers manually but according to Apple you won’t get the latest even if you download “Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5640” you need to download the latest drivers by using Boot Camp Assistant that is already preinstalled in your OSX, it will give you an option to copy all you need to a USB Flash Drive. Then you can reboot to your Windows drive and install the driver package and everything will be back to normal.

Well, that’s about it. How was your experience during and after installation? don’t hesitate to share with in the comments.