How to Make Bootable USB for macOS Monterey on Windows 10 PC and Mac

When a new version of macOS comes out, even in Beta release, tech enthusiast, app developers and tester are always the ones who want to try them out first to see how it works and the differences from previous versions.

To have a first-hand experience with latest macOS Monterey (Version 12), you have to make a bootable USB first. It will let you install macOS Monterey Beta on a compatible device. In this tutorial, we will show you how to make a bootable macOS Monterey install USB on a Windows 10 PC and Mac. Please stay tuned!

MacOS Monterey Compatible Devices

From what we have learnt, macOS has more strict requirements for hardware. Hence, a handful of devices that are compatible with macOS Big Sur, are no longer supported by macOS 12 Monterey. So before getting started, you have to know what kind of devices macOS Monterey supports. Here is a list of compatible devices:

macOS Monterey Download

To make a bootable macOS USB, there are two types of install media you can use. One is macOS install app obtained from Apple software update or App Store. The other is a bootable DMG file.

How to download macOS Monterey install app: As far as we know, there are four ways to get macOS Monterey installation app. The first one is from Mac App Store. However, only stable release is applicable for this way. The second one is via Apple Beta Software Program, which needs an Apple Developer account to get the Mac enrolled. You can also download both stable and beta release from MDS and gibMacOS app.

For the first three methods, please check out our previous tutorial for downloading macOS Monterey Beta. In here, we will focus on gibMacOS, a brand new way to download macOS install media we found recently.

Please click here to download gibMacOS Zip file from GitHub. Now, unzip the file and go into the folder (gibMacOS-master). You will find a file named gibMacOS.command and double click it to open it in Terminal. After that, this command-line utility tries to fetch all stable release of macOS from Apple server. Here is an example:

We can see macOS Monterey is not listed in above because it is in public beta. Please type [c] to change the current catalog. There are four options available: customer, publicrelease, public and developer.

Please type [4] to get developer release of all macOS versions. At this time, you will see macOS Monterey beta 12.0 listed in second position. Type [2] to stat macOS Monterey download. It will download a file called InstallAssistant.pkg for macOS 12 Monterey! The downloaded file will be saved in macOS Downloads folder, the sub folder of gibMacOS-master. Don't forget to copy Install macOS 12 Beta app to Application after download!

How to download macOS Monterey DMG file: macOS install app won't be able to work on Windows PC. To create a macOS bootable USB on Windows 10 PC, you have to use dmg file instead. Please click this link to download macOS Monterey dmg file.

 

Make Bootable USB for macOS Monterey on Windows 10

There is no built-in app for creating macOS bootable USB on Windows 10. And there are less 3rd-party programs capable of doing this kind of task. UUByte DMG Editor is the most popular one. As you can see from the below steps, it is super easy to make a bootable macOS Monterey USB with this powerful program.

First, download UUByte DMG Editor on a Windows 10 PC and install it on the computer. After that, insert a USB drive into the same computer and make sure it can be seen in Windows Explorer.

 

Now, open UUByte DMG Editor and you will be present with two options on the welcome screen.

 

Next, click Browse button to import macOS Monterey DMG file into the program. Then, click Select button to choose the USB flash drive you just plugged in.

 

Finally, click Burn button to start burning macOS DMG file to USB drive. Usually, you have to wait about 10 minutes before the task is completed.

 

Create a bootable macOS USB installer with DMG Editor is not difficult, right? In fact, you can also use this app on Mac for the same purpose if you dislike using commands.

Make Bootable USB for macOS Monterey on Mac

You might not be aware that there is a built-in command line utility (createinstallmedia) in macOS for making bootable Mac USB. That means you don't need to install other apps to get this task done. The only problem is that there is no graphics user interface with it. Please be noted!

First, you should connect a USB drive into Mac and format it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with Disk Utility app, which is also free software that comes with macOS. In our example, the volume name of USB drive is UNTITLED. This information will be used in later step.

Next, locate the macOS Monterey install app. Usually, it is saved into Application folder.

 

Now fire up Terminal app on your Mac and input the following command to make a bootable macOS Monterey USB drive:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ 12\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/UNTITLED

 

The above step will first erase the USB drive and then making the disk bootable by copying content from Install macOS Monterey app. ou will see a notification when the task is completed. Also, The USB drive was renamed to Install macOS Monterey Beta. However, you have to wait at least 10 minutes before the install media is ready for use!

 

Start installing macOS Monterey on a Mac

Now, you have a macOS Monterey bootable USB at hand. The next move is to install macOS 12 on a compatible device. Don't worry! This process is straightforward.

Please connect the bootable USB into the target Mac where macOS Monterey will be installed. After that, reboot the Mac and hold Option key for a while. Release the key when you see Startup Manager on the screen. From here, you can pick up a bootable device (Install macOS Monterey Beta) from available drives. And you will see the installation screen. Before proceeding, you need to input the password for current user to grant the permission.

Click the USB drive name and follow the prompt to install macOS Monterey on your Mac. When this task is completed, macOS Monterey will be installed on your Mac.

Conclusion

With new software emerged, making bootable macOS USB on Windows 10 PC is no longer an issue. UUByte DMG Editr is quite effecive for that. For Mac users, the default createinstallmedia command is fairly enough to create macOS bootable USB on Mac. However, you should learn how command works before taking action.