Apple's move to Apple Silicon paid off big-time, because the company's in-house systems-on-a-chips are industry leaders in power efficiency. Leaving behind Intel was the obvious choice following a few rough years when the chipmaker failed to innovate. However, we did lose a handful useful features following the Apple Silicon transition, such as Boot Camp. It was a built-in feature on Intel Macs that could painlessly partition your computer's drive and allow for dual-booting macOS and Windows. Most people use Boot Camp for just that — switching between Windows and macOS interchangeably as needed. But my favorite use for Boot Camp is to revive old Macs that can't run newer versions of macOS, or seemingly have hardware limitations.

Unlike Windows, macOS is built around yearly software upgrades. When support runs out, a MacBook or desktop Mac can quickly become unusable. That's what happened to my 12-inch MacBook, which Apple officially declared "obsolete" in June 2023. With a meager Intel m3 processor and integrated graphics, that MacBook's last supported OS version — macOS Monterey — was released in 2021. And to call it supported is quite the stretch. It was slow, froze frequently, and now supports newer versions of only a few apps just years later. The thing is, when a MacBook reaches this decrepit state, it isn't time to toss it aside and buy a new Mac. It's time to install Windows.

Windows 10, even though it is nearing end-of-life status, is still a very capable operating system. Since Microsoft first released Windows 10 way back in 2015, it can run on hardware that would be considered old by today's standards. Every single Intel MacBook supports some version of Windows via Boot Camp, and many support Windows 10. If you're considering upgrading your Mac due to slower speeds or a lack of macOS support, give Windows a try first.

This MacBook couldn't survive on macOS

The legacy-Metal GPU doomed my 12-inch MacBook

Before finding some stability with Apple Silicon, the company's history with GPUs on the Mac was nothing short of absolute chaos. There were MacBooks released with integrated Intel graphics, discrete Nvidia graphics, and later discrete AMD graphics. Compounding the issue was the transition to Metal, which is the software that powers hardware-accelerated graphics on supported GPU models for Apple computers. Apple found itself in a predicament where it had non-Metal, legacy-Metal, and Metal GPUs from three manufacturers (not including Apple itself with Apple Silicon), and it made software support impossible. Some MacBooks were cut off from new macOS versions due to their reliance on Metal, and others were poorly optimized or experienced slow speeds.

Metal is still an obstacle today, as it's one of the biggest barriers that prevent developers from offering their apps and games on macOS. Apple basically fixed this issue with the Game Porting Toolkit, but the hardware issues persist. Essentially, just because your MacBook doesn't run well on macOS, doesn't mean it's ready to be replaced. A system around a decade old, give or take a few years, could be performing badly due to having a non-Metal or legacy-Metal GPU.

That was the case with my 12-inch MacBook. It used integrated Intel Skylake graphics, specifically Intel HD Graphics 515. While this is a Metal GPU, it's considered "legacy Metal," which means you still may run into issues. On my MacBook, equipped with macOS Monterey, some apps completely refused to render graphics and the operating system slowed to a crawl. Others simply weren't supported on the 2021 operating system anymore, and the MacBook's legacy Metal GPU meant using the OpenCore Legacy Patcher to hack a newer version of macOS onto it wasn't a great option. While it is possible, there are some major stability and usability issues. That left one option: installing Windows.

Windows 10 saved this MacBook

Overall stability, speed, and app support improved immediately

As I mentioned earlier, Windows 10 is uniquely positioned to save old MacBooks that can't keep up with modern versions of macOS. It runs on anything, and if you don't believe me, just take a look at Microsoft's minimum system requirements for Windows 10:

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
• Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS or 20 GB for 64-bit OS
• Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
• Display: 800 x 600

Almost any MacBook you'll find supports Windows 10 due to these forgiving system requirements. I was able to use Boot Camp to install Windows 10 and all its necessary drivers onto my 12-inch MacBook in under a half hour with no issues at all. After installing it, my MacBook felt faster immediately. Apps that didn't work on macOS Monterey, like Slack, ran perfectly fine on Windows 10. Plenty of the same programs that refused to support the three-year-old macOS Monterey still had great Windows 10 support. That's not surprising, since Windows 10 still covers more than double the market share of Windows 11, even in 2024. However, it does mean that your unsupported MacBook will perform better with greater support on Windows 10 than an older version of macOS.

Wait, what about Windows 11?

It's possible to install Windows 11, but it's a complete mess

You might be wondering about why I chose to go with Windows 10 instead of the newer Windows 11, especially since Windows 10 support is dwindling. That's because Windows 11 isn't officially supported through Boot Camp, and this limitation makes installing it on older MacBooks tricky. Technically, there are no Macs that support Windows 11. The operating system comes with hardware requirements, like a TPM 2.0 chip, that Mac computers do not meet. Although Apple did release 11 Mac models containing a TPM 2.0 module, it has never been enabled, and thus Windows 11 is unsupported. You can install Windows 11 on most Intel Macs using the Rufus tool, which we have a guide on below. However, you'll still have to hunt for the right Windows 11 drivers for your components — and hope they exist at all.

Aside from that horrific period from 2016 to 2019, Apple has made great MacBooks that can last a long time. Just because Apple says your system is obsolete doesn't mean it's time to throw it away and buy a new one. I've personally kept and used MacBooks as old as from 2009 up-and-running in usable form by being a bit creative, like choosing Windows when macOS no longer gets the job done. If you find your aging MacBook is starting to get frustratingly slow, I implore you to give Windows 10 (or Windows 11, if you dare) a shot before getting rid of it.