Install Windows 10 on MacBook Pro 8.1

Question

I want to install Windows 10 on a MacBook Pro 13" 2011. I don't nessearly need macOS installed on the machine. Win10 single boot would be fine.

I have a bootable WIN10 USB Installer. I tried to partition the drive via diskutil and the Win10 Installer disk tool. Everytime I get the message I can't install it on this partion.

Answer 1

The easiest solution was, to install Windows 8.1 and then upgrade to Windows 10.

Answer 2

Your Mac does not officially support Windows 10. However, this does not mean Windows 10 can not be installed on your model Mac. Here are some points to be aware of.

• With the newer versions of macOS, you can download the Windows Support Software for your Mac by using the Boot Camp Assistant application. This may be the same as the Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621.
• Make sure the Windows Support Software have beed copied to the Windows 10 installer flash drive before installing Windows 10.
• You want to have first installed the latest version of High Sierra. This will insure you have the latest firmware updates. (Firmware updates are included in the latest versions of macOS.)
• You would be better off installing Windows 10 to BIOS boot. Most likely the Windows Support Software for you model Mac was designed for BIOS booting and may not work properly if you install Windows to EFI boot.
• The Windows Support Software for your Mac may contain a BootCamp.msi file that is to old to be used with the latest versions of Windows 10. See the question WDF VIOLATION Blue Screen after Upgrading Mac to Windows 10 May 2019 Update (1903) Edition.

If you do not want or need macOS installed on your Mac, then you can just have Windows 10 installed. However, you would be better off first installing Windows 10 for a dual boot with macOS. One possible procedure which might work with your Mac is given as the answer to the question How to install Windows 10 into a 2011 iMac without using the Boot Camp Assistant, an optical (DVD) drive or third party tools?. Once you have booted to a working Windows 10, you can use the Windows 10 flash drive installer to reinstall Windows 10. This time you will need to erase all partitions to remove macOS before installing.

Answer 3

On my MacBook Pro (8,1 early 2011, MacOS 10.13) I first installed Win 7 via BootCamp and Win 7 install DVD. In Win 7 I installed the Win 7 drivers supplied by BootCamp. Then I downloaded MediaCretionTool from MS and with it I installed Win 10 over Win 7. After booting Win 10 Hardware Manager showed a few missing drivers. From https://www.driverscape.com/manufacturers/apple/laptops-desktops/macbookpro8%2C1/1927 I downloaded and installed the following missing drivers:

• apple_broadcom_bluetooth_5040_win64
• apple_broadcom_cardreader_100243_win64 => BroadcomCardReader64.exe
• apple_cirrus_logic_hd_audio_win64 => CirrusAudioCS4206x64.exe
• FaceTime HD camera
• Intel_hd_graphics_win64_153332 => DisplayAudio
• intel_mei_10.0.27.1012 => PCI

After that I updated some of the drivers via Windows Update. Now everything works fine.