Boot Camp Assistant app hidden and barely launches on Apple Silicon. Any way to force it to run SOLELY for purging disk space?

[izzy0242mr]

This is NOT a post about how to dual boot Windows on an Apple Silicon Mac. I realize that is not possible at this time.

However, one cool thing that not everyone knows about the Boot Camp Assistant app is that when it first starts up and you click Next/Continue and advance to the next stage (i.e., before you choose any options for partitioning your disk), it runs some disk cleanup functions. Ever seen that parenthetical next to your hard drive storage saying "100 GB free (20 GB purgeable)"? Starting the Boot Camp Assistant purges that purgeable data.

The Boot Camp Assistant.app IS included with Apple Silicon Macs…but it's just hidden. If you set Finder to view hidden files, it shows up in Utilities. But it will refuse to launch at all initially. If you check "Rosetta" in the Get Info page, it will open with an error.

My question is whether there's a way to bypass that error, just for curiosity's sake? Perhaps some .xml / config / plist file that will force it to run?

Alternatively, is there a simple, single Terminal command or something that one can run to instantly clear purgeable space?

 

[Bigwaff]

Alternatively, is there a simple, single Terminal command or something that one can run to instantly clear purgeable space?

Boot Safe Mode to clear caches and use Disk Utility to delete snapshots.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Safe Mode will do what you ask. But my question is, why do you want to do that? These caches don’t exist just to annoy you - they improve the overall performance of macOS. The reason Boot Camp Assistant clears them, is to ensure adequate space for your Windows partition, which as you note is irrelevant on Apple Silicon.

 

[izzy0242mr]

Safe Mode will do what you ask. But my question is, why do you want to do that? These caches don’t exist just to annoy you - they improve the overall performance of macOS. The reason Boot Camp Assistant clears them, is to ensure adequate space for your Windows partition, which as you note is irrelevant on Apple Silicon.

In this specific case, I was reselling my old Mac. Even after deleting my old user account and making a new one (I was intentionally not erasing the whole drive so that various valuable apps I had would be available for the buyer), there was still a ton of "used space" which I wanted to clear out.

So in this case these caches were truly useless and probably contained some personal info which I didn't want included anyways.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

There's an old principle - KISS.

Erase the drive. Let the buyer get their own "valuable apps" - they're either not yours to sell, or you can sell the rights & they can reinstall them.

 

[izzy0242mr]

There's an old principle - KISS.

Erase the drive. Let the buyer get their own "valuable apps" - they're either not yours to sell, or you can sell the rights & they can reinstall them.

Nah, that's part of what makes it attractive. If I have Microsoft Office beta 2011 installed on a computer (no license required), or if I have Microsoft Office 2019 licensed to a computer and I no longer need it nor want the license, including that as coming with the computer makes it more attractive for buyers who may not want to shell out another $100 for Microsoft apps.

It's the equivalent of selling someone a school backpack that already has books in it that I don't want. I'm not copying the books. I'm not going to burn the books just to sell an empty backpack. If the buyer doesn't want them, they can toss them (or delete the apps). But chances are they might want to keep the books (or in this case the apps).

And let's be real: 95% of consumers can daily drive Microsoft Office 2011 in 2025 without any issues. If you're the 5% who needs a 365 subscription, or part of a different group who uses a business license, you won't be buying my old cheap Macs online anyways.