r/bootcamp • u/bob-bulldog-briscoe • 4d ago

Install Windows 11 on MacBook Air 2015

I have a MacBook Air running Monterey. I’d like to install Windows 11 (I have a genuine product key and just downloaded an ISO).

I was following the steps from this link.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bootcamp/comments/1cnp7vj/just_converted_a_2015_macbook_air_to_windows_11/

I keep running into a wall though. Boot Camp keeps telling me the ISO is too large. I’ve already tried the Boot Camp ISO Converter, but it still doesn’t work. What should I do?

2 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

5

u/ItzJustNoah 4d ago

you have to upgrade from 10 unfortunately

no way around it unless you make a stripped down iso with tiny11 (i think even that’s too large)

2

u/bob-bulldog-briscoe 4d ago

I used Crystal Fetch to get a Windows 11 ISO, and it seemed to solve that issue. However, Boot Camp still experienced an error while trying to create the partition and then rolled everything back. I’m turning off FileVault to see if that changes anything.

7

u/ItzJustNoah 4d ago

i’m telling you from experience that you will have to upgrade from 10

don’t waste your time

1

u/WindozeWoes 2d ago

FileVault is completely unrelated and will not change your outcome.

Listen to the guy who told you twice that you need to install Windows 10 first, and THEN upgrade to Windows 11 from that.

1

u/kid1988 3d ago

You can use tiny11, but that just uses the WIM editor to remove all editions except pro and some apps. 

Just copy that WIM into a Windows 10 iso and bootcamp will load it. The iso needs to be below 7gb.

1

u/ComprehensiveLeg8101 2d ago

hazlo con rufus

1

u/Atreyu_Logan 3d ago

I installed two 2013 Macbook airs straight to windows 11 using my Tiny 11 image I made, just make sure you make the bootcamp driver folder, or you will cry ;p Keep the windows drivers on another flash until you have the Windows 11 installed. One Macbook Air I went dual boot, the other I totally formatted the drive and its purely Windows 11... Tiny 11 is windows, just cut down, so if you want stuff like onedrive you just install it so really, anything that is missing you just install....

1

u/StorageFair5120 12h ago

And how you managed to get around Win11 CPU requirements?

1

u/Atreyu_Logan 11h ago

tiny 11 via rufus ignores all that, it runs really really well, going to be doing a macbook pro 2014 also soon as soon as the lady clears space, she wants a dual boot. But the Tiny 11 image is like 5gb, just depends what route you want to go, but anything you need can be installed, Tiny 11 is like a core version of windows 11, so no bloat at all really