- How To Upgrade My Macbook
- How To Update Your Mac Os
- How To Update An Old Macbook 2006
- Update My Mac Os 10.6.8
- How To Update An Old Macbook Air
- Quick tutorial on how update to High Sierra Os from later model mac pro 2011-2012 with pre-installed Lion X 10.7.5.
- The update can take some time but do not unplug, shutdown, restart or disturb you mac Pro while the update takes place. The machine should display a grey screen with the Apple logo while it updates. It will automatically reboot to the login screen when completed.
Upgrade the RAM to 4 GB Note: Not all of the RAM will be accessible to the OS (only 3 GB). But its best to use two 2 GB modules (matched pair) Vs a mix of one 1 GB and one 2 GB module. Upgrade your EFI firmware follow this Apple TN EFI & SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs.
With the recent release of Windows 10, I embarked on a fun weekend project to convert my old MacBook Pro laptop (late 2013 model) into a new Windows 10 laptop. The process was surprisingly straight-forward, and the machine runs extremely well with all hardware features fully supported, including the high-resolution screen ('Retina display'), integrated camera ('iSight'), WiFi, Bluetooth, and all external ports. In fact, startup times, as well as time to wake from sleep, are slightly better than under MacOS, and all of the software, including Office, Adobe Creative Suite, etc., appears to perform better as well. I'm very happy with the result and this is now going to be my main laptop for all my business trips (and vacations) going forward.
You may ask why anybody would want to convert a MacBook Pro into a Windows 10 laptop in the first place. So let me explain my motivation…
Background
I've been using both Windows and MacOS devices essentially in parallel for the last 15+ years. For work I used mostly Windows machines and at home it was mostly Macs. And what I noticed over the past few years is that the built-in software for Mail and Calendar and Contacts in MacOS X got less useful with every iteration of the operating system from Mountain Lion (10.8) to Mavericks (10.9) to Yosemite (10.10). At the same time, the UI design got cutesier and more candy-colored — but that didn't translate to any productivity increase for me.
Since I wasn't using Apple's own iCloud offering as a sole repository, the integrated MacOS apps just didn't play well with either my office email system on an Exchange server or with my personal email on Google Apps (i.e., GMail, calendar, and contacts on own personal domain).
So I ended up mostly using my browser of choice (Chrome) to access my personal email and calendar, and using Remote Desktop to my office machine for working with my office email/calendar/contacts. For photos I had been using Lightroom instead of iPhoto for many years already, so I wasn't tied into the iCloud/iPhoto platform. The bottom-line is that I found I hadn't been using any MacOS-specific apps for a long time…
In terms of software that I actually use all the time, the list is fairly concise:
- Adobe Creative Cloud (mostly Lightroom, Photoshop, and Illustrator)
- Microsoft Office 365 (mostly Outlook, Word, and Excel)
- Sublime Text 3 (my go-to programmer's text editor for development purposes)
- Altova MobileTogether (for developing mobile apps on all platforms)
- Altova MissionKit (mostly XMLSpy, MapForce, DatabaseSpy, and DiffDog)
- MobaXTerm (for all my terminal/ssh needs to connect to Linux boxes, Raspberry Pis, etc.)
- Evernote (for sharing of notes and travel documents across all devices)
- Google Drive (for synchronizing my main file storage across all devices)
- Boxcryptor (for encrypting sensitive information that I store in Google Drive)
- 1Password (for generating and keeping track of randomly generated passwords)
- Fidelity Active Trader Pro
So I came to the conclusion that switching back and forth between using MacOS at home and Windows in the office was no longer giving me any tangible benefits. In fact, I expect this migration to produce some productivity increases due to keyboard shortcuts finally being the same across all my devices.
While I began to realize that I didn't need to use MacOS anymore, I still wasn't ready to give up my favorite laptop hardware. Looking at the available options for new Windows laptops, I found that they were not really superior to the laptop I already had, so I wanted to see if I could use Windows 10 on my MacBook Pro instead.
I had previously been using VMWare Fusion to occasionally run Windows applications on my Mac in a virtual machine, and that had worked really well for casual usage from time to time. However, once I realized I wasn't using any MacOS-specific software anymore, I decided to instead use BootCamp to do a clean, native install of Windows as my primary OS on the machine.
BootCamp comes preinstalled in MacOS and allows you to partition your hard-drive and install Windows in parallel to MacOS as a native OS (rather than inside a VM). You can then decide which partition you want to boot from by default, and you can also switch the partition to boot from upon startup by holding down the 'Option' key. I know of many people who divide their hard disk into equal partitions to be able to switch back and forth between MacOS and Windows as needed. However, if you need both OSs all the time, I find the VM approach to be easier to use.
For my purpose BootCamp was ideal: I decided to use Windows as my primary OS and so my goal was to partition the hard disk into a minimal MacOS partition (60GB) and use the rest of my 1TB SSD drive for Windows 10.
Getting started
Before you do anything else, make sure you have a complete backup of all your data. This process is potentially destructive to all the data on your hard disk!
So here are all the ingredients you will need for this upgrade process:
- An old MacBook laptop (mine was a Pro with Retina display from 2013, but this same process should work fine for any 2009 or younger MacBook Pro or Air)
- A Windows 10 license & product-key, which you can buy directly from the Microsoft Store
- A USB flash drive with at least 4GB capacity
- A large empty external USB hard drive, if you want to preserve a large amount of data from your old Mac hard disk and then copy it on your new Windows hard disk later
Please note that I actually did a 2-step upgrade process, because I began the migration a week before the final version of Windows 10 was released. So I bought and installed Windows 8.1 first and then upgraded to Windows 10 (for free) a week later. But you can do the exact same process straight to Windows 10 now by buying and installing a Windows 10 license directly.
Did I already mention that you should make a complete backup of all your data before proceeding?
The upgrade process
Here's the sequence of actions to upgrade your MacBook Pro laptop to become a Window 10 machine:
- If you want to move a large amount of data from your old Mac laptop to your new Windows machine:
- You could either use Google Drive or DropBox or some other cloud provider to sync the data from one machine to the other (if you have a fast Internet connection).
- Or you could use an external USB hard drive. In this case, the important thing to do is to make sure that the external USB disk is formatted in the ExFAT file system, since that is the only file system that can be read/written to properly by both MacOS and Windows. Do not format it as HFS+ (Mac only) or NTFS (Windows only). On the Mac you can use Disk Utility to format the USB drive as ExFAT, or you can also do the same on a separate Windows PC. Once you have made sure the drive is ExFAT, copy all your files from the Mac hard disk to the external drive.
- Once all your data is secured, disconnect the external drive and put it away in a safe spot (or uninstall the cloud provider software). It is now time to clean up your Mac to minimize the disk space that the small MacOS partition will occupy in the future.
- You can either do that by starting from the Recovery partition on your Mac (hold down Command-R while your Mac boots) and then reinstalling MacOS from scratch and formatting the drive in the process. WARNING: This is destructive to all the data on your disk. Make sure you have a backup!
- Or you can use an app like DaisyDisk to identify what is using a large amount of space on your Mac and delete it from there. That, too, is destructive to your data, so make sure you have a backup!
- Even though you are trying to minimize the future size of your Mac partition, don't actually try to repartition the drive manually. Instead, you want the full drive to be assigned to one Mac partition and you will later repartition it using the BootCamp Assistant as part of the installation process.
- When you are happy with the amount of space that MacOS now occupies, it is necessary to ensure that you've upgraded your MacOS to Yosemite (10.10) and have installed all the latest updates and security patches. I've found that the BootCamp version that is included with Mavericks (10.9) will not accept the Windows 10 installation disk and will not work. You have to first upgrade your MacOS to Yosemite before you proceed, which happens to be a free upgrade.
- Next purchase a Windows 10 license from the Microsoft Store and download the installation media. You will need to do that on a separate Windows machine, as the download from the Microsoft Store is a program called 'MediaCreationTool', which will in turn download the actual OS image and help you create the right installation media. Now it depends on whether you Mac has a CD/DVD drive or not. If you have a drive, you can simply use the MediaCreationTool to burn an installation disk. Otherwise, use it to create an ISO disk image file. If you are using an ISO disk image file, use the USB flash drive, your external USB hard drive, or a network drive to copy the ISO disk image to your Mac and put it somewhere in your Documents folder.
- Now it is time to actually install Windows using Boot Camp. To do so, open the Boot Camp Assistant, which you can find in the Utilities folder under Applications.
The information available about the necessary installation steps on the Apple website is only the most basic sequence of events, so I recommend that you continue following the steps I've outlined here instead. - Leave all the checkboxes in BootCamp Assistant turned on (i.e., allow it to download the latest Windows drivers for your hardware). BootCamp Assistant will then ask you to plug in a USB drive (which is where it will store those drivers for later installing them after the main Windows installation has completed).
- The software will then allow you to decide how much space to allocate to Windows and how much space to allocate to the MacOS partition.
In my case I dragged the slider all the way to the left to give MacOS only 60GB and have 940GB available for Windows. Your specific requirements may be different, so pick a size that most closely matches how much time you expect to spend in each OS. - Once you click the 'Partition' button, your Mac partition will be resized and a new partition will be created for Windows.
- There is a small caveat here – other people have reported not being able to resize their MacOS paritions under Yosemite, and I've had a similar issue in DiskUtility in the past. This can potentially be related to the Core Storage file system virtualization layer under Yosemite. If you run into a problem at this step or whenever you try to resize a partition under Yosemite, check out this blog post and follow the instructions there to revert from Core Storage to a regular partition table.
- Next the BootCamp Assistant may end up asking you to either insert the Windows installation media (if you have a DVD drive) or will ask you to locate the IOS image file that you copied to your hard disk earlier.
- Now all the pieces are in place for the actual Windows 10 installer to take over. Your computer will reboot several times throughout the process.
- In the first cycle, you will get the familiar Windows setup screen that lest you pick an installation language and keyboard.
- Next you will need to decide which partition you want to install Windows into. This is an extremely important step – make sure you find the partition named BOOTCAMP in the list, select it, and then click the 'Format' button underneath the list. Once formatting is completed, the 'Next' button will become enabled and you click that to proceed with installing into the new partition you created in step 9 above.
- Now let the Windows 10 installer run through, including 2 potential reboots of the machine. Once you are logged into Windows 10 after the entire Windows 10 installation sequence has completed, another installer should pop up for installing device drivers from the UBS stick. These are Windows-drivers from Apple that are specific to the particular hardware of your Mac. Make sure you install these! If the installer doesn't start on its own, go to the USB drive and launch the setup.exe you will find there.
- Sometimes you may find that the screen resolution is not yet optimal at this point and you may need to do one more restart for all the Windows drivers to load correctly.
- Voilà! At this point you should have a clean install of a Windows 10 laptop in front of you and are ready to install whichever software you need on it.
- You can now also reconnect your external USB hard disk to copy all the necessary data files to your Windows partition. Since you formatted that hard drive in ExFAT it should be nicely readable from Windows.
- Last, but not least, I found the original Apple-supplied Windows driver for the trackpad on my MacBook Pro to not be as responsive and configurable as I would want. I found a 3rd party driver for the Trackpad that works much better – it is called Trackpad++.
Conclusion
While the installation process might seem a bit daunting at first, it is actually pretty smooth sailing once you know what to do. And the performance of the laptop with a fresh clean OS install is just wonderful. Windows 10 has essentially rejuvenated my laptop! Prior to this upgrade adventure I had also looked at various potential Windows laptop hardware from different manufacturers, and I found the MacBook Pro hardware to actually be superior to many Windows laptops being offered today, both in terms of performance to weight ratio, battery life, screen resolution, sturdiness of the case, and other factors.
The only thing I dearly miss on my new Windows 10 laptop is an actual 'Delete' key on the keyboard. In true Apple purity the MacBook Pro keyboard only has a 'Backspace' key…
Since this process worked so well on the old laptop, I've now begun the next project and am in the process of trying to also breathe some new life into my old Mac Pro tower, which is my main home office machine – and essentially my main photo editing station – and is a mid-2010 aluminum tower model with a 12-core Intel Xeon X5670 CPU running at 2.93GHz, 32GB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon HD 5800 graphics card, so the CPU and RAM are still highly performant and totally adequate for my average workload. I had previously posted (on my old blog) about removing the old Apple RAID card from that machine in 2014, so it already has a SSD drive as its primary boot disk. As you can see, I'm not afraid to tinker with hardware…
For this new project I have already installed Windows 10 on it (this time as a direct install rather than via a Windows 8.1 detour mentioned above) and it is working beautifully. As a next step I now have a new graphics card on order and will also be adding USB 3.0 ports to that machine to make it compatible with various external USB 3.0 hard disks.
The bottom-line is that Windows 10 performs beautifully on Apple hardware, such as the MacBook Pro or the old Mac Pro and can give a new life to these old machines. Of course, I'm not trying to tell you that Windows is better than MacOS. That is always a very personal choice, and if you like working with MacOS or are used to a lot of MacOS-specific applications, such as iPhoto, GarageBand, etc., or are tied into the iCloud ecosystem, then keeping these machines running on Yosemite might be the right thing for you.
But if you're in a similar situation as I was, where you find yourself switching between Windows and MacOS machines all the time, and you are not actually using any MacOS-specific apps anymore or you just long for a unified UI experience, then installing Windows 10 on your old Apple hardware might work really well for you.
Tablet Sales Have Plateaued – And Why You Shouldn't Care5 Mobile Strategy Secrets that Your Competitors Don't Want You to Know Get an ultimate backup appRunning the latest software is not always the best decision. There are plenty of reasons you might want to downgrade or run an older version of macOS on your computer.
You may find that after the latest update your computer runs slower, your apps don't function, or that the programs you need to run are not yet compatible with the upgrade. Maybe as a developer, you want to create a test environment to ensure your software runs properly in all available versions of OS X - check out the infographic below. Or you may simply like the look of the old version better (no judgement) and not want to upgrade until absolutely necessary.
Keep your apps while downgrading
Get Setapp, a collection of Mac apps that strengthen your macOS. Whenever you decide to downgrade, your apps will travel with you.
How to Install Old OS X on Your Mac
Although you might think that going back to the old macOS is not possible by looking at the App Store Updates tab, it's actually quite easy to do. In this article, we'll take you through everything you need to download and install an old OS X on your Mac.
Prepare your Mac first
Make sure you are ready to downgrade your operating system by checking in with what version of OS X you already have and ensuring you have enough hard drive room to download the older version. Clicking the apple in the top left corner of your desktop and selecting About This Mac will allow you to see what OS X version you are currently running. Tabbing over to Storage will let you know how much disk space you have available. You'll need around around eight gigabytes free depending on which macOS you downgrade to.
Even if you do have enough space, it's a good idea to clean your computer before installing the desired operating system. You can, of course, do so manually by deleting unused files and uninstalling old software to free up disk space. Depending on how tidy you are, this might take quite a bit of time.
To make things easy, use a specialized app like CleanMyMac, which will quickly free up space by detecting unused apps and large files, and offering to completely delete them, with all their hidden corresponding files, in one quick click.
Optimizing your Mac with CleanMyMac is effortless:
- Launch CleanMyMac
- Select the Smart Scan tab and click Scan
- Review Details to see the list of suggested optimizations
- Click Clean
To uninstall certain apps, find the Uninstaller tab and select the apps you haven't been using for a while.
Download CMM X to prepare for Big Sur
The only solution that will free up disk space, remove duplicates, and solve tons of problems to prepare your Mac for a new macOS
The final preparation step is to make sure you back up all your important files to cloud storage or an external drive. A proper backup app like Get Backup Pro can save you a lot of headache here.
To create a new backup with Get Backup Pro:
- Connect your external hard drive
- Click the plus icon in the bottom left corner
- Type in the name for your backup
- Choose your external drive as a destination
- Adjust all the settings according to your preference and click OK
- Tap the play button once you ready to perform the backup
Grab an old macOS with Setapp
Downgrading to previous operating systems on Mac gets easier. To put it shortly, Setapp has your back here.
Download the OS X you want
Once you have space on your computer, figure out what version of OS X you would like to install. You can see all previous versions of OS X your Mac has installed by opening up the App Store and clicking the icon in Applications. Tab to the Purchase page of the menu and scroll down to find the line for previous operating systems. Clicking the install button of the macOS you want will begin downloading the file.
What if I can't find the version I want in the app store?
If your goal is to download a version of macOS that you have not already used, or, that was not available as an update from the App Store after you bought your Mac, you may need to purchase it. The earliest versions, OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion are available on the Apple Store's website and arrive to you via email for download. OS X Snow Leopard ships as a boxed version and requires a disk drive to install.
It could be helpful to know where you sit on the timeline of macOS X updates. Below is a chronological list of all the updates beginning with the most recent update, High Sierra, released in 2017:
- OS X High Sierra 10.13
- OS X Sierra 10.12
- OS X ElCapitan 10.11
- OS X Yosemite 10.10
- OS X Mavericks 10.9
- OS X Mountain Lion 10.8
- OS X Lion 10.7, released in 2011
Visiting the Apple Support's Downloads page makes it easy to search for any version of macOS you might need, and most are available for free. Downloads for previous versions of OS X are linked below and include:
Alternative sources for downloading macOS
If you can't find the version you want from Apple, ask a friend who is running the macOS you're looking for to make a copy of the installer file for you. Downloading a .dmg file from a torrent site may seem a quick solution, but it means risking your security. Alternatively, you could hit up your nearest Apple Store. They will likely have image files of all the different versions of the software and help you install it right there as well.
Install the macOS
If you download the file from the App Store, the installer will start immediately. Follow the prompts and be prepared to restart your computer. If you acquire the installer from another source, just downloading the file will not install the OS X right away on your Mac, you'll need to find the file in your Downloads or Applications folder, then open and run the installer from the downloaded file.
I can't download an old version of Mac OS X
A downgrade is different than an upgrade. When you try to downgrade macOS, the installer may not launch right away depending on which versions of macOS you are moving between. If your installer does not launch, or you get an error message that reads: 'This copy of the ‘Install OS X' application is too old to be opened on this version of OS X,' you'll need to use a bootable USB or external drive to work around this problem.
How To Upgrade My Macbook
Get a bootable drive with OS X
Creating a bootable USB or a bootable drive is not complicated. You'll need an external drive with enough space to hold your desired OS X on it and a basic familiarity with Terminal, Apple's command line interface.
If you're uncomfortable using Terminal to execute basic commands, use an app like Disk Drill to help create a boot drive. Whether you use Terminal or Disk Drill, our guide on creating a bootable installer will walk you through all the necessary steps.
Remove the old OS X
Once your drive is prepared with your bootable version of OS X, erase the unwanted version. After you restart your computer, press and hold Command + R. When you enter the macOS Utilities screen, navigate to Disk Utility, click continue, and find your Startup Disk. Tab to the Erase page and name the file you want erased (e.g. macOS High Sierra). Then select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) from the dropdown menu. Hit Erase and quit out of Disk Utility. This will return you to the OS X Utilities selector.
Install the bootable version of OS X
If you used Disk Drill for creating your bootable drive, a window will prompt your actions for using the install disk you made. But if you created your own using Terminal, use OS X Utilities Selector and find Reinstall OS X. Find and select your install disk with your bootable version of your preferred macOS, and click continue through to the license agreement. Once you agree, you should be prompted by the installer. Once the installation is completed, your computer should restart. If it does not restart itself, make sure you restart it normally. The downgrade should be complete!
As you can see, downgrading your OS X is not as dreadful as you might think, especially if you use helper apps like CleanMyMac, Get Backup Pro, and Disk Drill — all of which are available for a free trial on Setapp. So downgrade away!
How To Update Your Mac Os
macOS evolution inforgaphic
Cheetah OS X 10.0 March 24, 2001 https://site-3932367-2284-3491.mystrikingly.com/blog/who-accepts-boku-payments. 'When you saw it, you wanted to lick it,' said Steve Jobs about Aqua – the brand new UI born with the release of Cheetah. Preview, Mail, QuickTime, and TextEdit make debut at this point. |
September 25, 2001 No big functionality updates, the focus is shifted to performance instead. From improved file management to CD and DVD burning, Puma just makes it work better. |
Jaguar OS X 10.2 August 23, 2002 A large grey Apple logo appears for the first time, replacing Happy Mac at startup. Optimized search functionality of Finder and the first release of Accessibility API – Universal Access. App arrivals: iChat and Address Book. |
October 24, 2003 Panther release introduces Exposé, a feature for seamless management of open applications. Safari officially becomes the default web browser. |
Tiger OS X 10.4 April 29, 2005 A rich harvest for Mac, Tiger marks the launch of 200+ new features. Spotlight search and Dashboard are the top stars, with Apple TV, Automator, and VoiceOver joining the crowd. |
October 26, 2007 Long-awaited and Mac-changing. Leopard gives a spectacular leap, introducing Time Machine, Boot Camp, QuickLook, and full support for 64-bit software. |
Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 August 28, 2009 While Leopard did a great job, Snow Leopard arrives to refine it even more. Mainly, it comes with apps rewritten in 64 bit and OpenCL. The 2009 OS X release is also known for Mac App Store launch. |
July 20, 2011 iCloud arrives. How can i lock my macbook pro. Apart from that, lots of iOS advancements find reflection in OS X Lion, covering Launchpad, multi-touch gestures, and more. |
Mountain Lion OS X 10.8 July 25, 2012 Mountain Lion adds new integrations and further iOS perks like Reminders, Notes, and Messages. It gets easier to track app updates via the Notification Center. |
October 22, 2013 Maps, iBooks, and Tags debut in the first inanimate OS X – Mavericks. To enable secure password encryption and storage, iCloud Keychain in introduced. |
Yosemite OS X 10.10 October 16, 2014 A completely new sleek design is what Yosemite is remembered for. Continuity and Handoff integrated into the new OS strengthen bonds between iOS and OS X devices. |
September 30, 2015 El Capitan features Split Views – dual-window functionality for arranging and managing app windows. Plus, OS X 10.11 comes with improved Safari, Mail, and Spotlight. |
Sierra macOS 10.12 September 20, 2016 24 audio download. With Sierra, OS X dies and macOS is born. The renamed system introduces even more iOS perks like Siri and unlocking Mac with Apple Watch. How to download photoshop for pc free. |
September 25, 2017 Major improvements go unnoticed for a user, but the overall performance skyrockets, due to embracing Apple File System and a new video standard, HEVC. |
Mojave macOS 10.14 September 24, 2018 Visual refinements introduced via Dark Mode and Dynamic Desktop take central stage in Mojave. The new apps migrating from iOS include Stocks, News, Home, and Voice Memos. |
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
How To Update An Old Macbook 2006
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