If you've downloaded bootcamp drivers for Macs to run Windows 7 or 8, but still have problems, here's my summary of the main issues and solutions I know of:
- The download file won't open; or it doesn't seem to work somehow; or doesn't contain all the drivers you expect Do the download again using a download manager because sometimes the download appears to finish but hasn't really. There are a couple of download managers I know of for OS X:
Folx by Eltima, who have been doing Mac software for years iGetter has been working well for a decade - You get an error message saying that the drivers can't be installed on this computer model.In this case you may have one of 3 problems:
- You clicked the wrong download link. Check the instructions on finding your ModelIdentifier again carefully, and try again.
- Some Macs only get drivers for 32-bit versions of Windows and some only get drivers for 64-bit versions of Windows so if you install the wrong one, you'll have to start again.
- Older models don't support 64 bit Windows.
- Consult Apple's list at this page from Apple from June 2012.
- See if this page helps: Michael Anastasiou : BootCamp x64 is unsupported on this computer model.
- Late 2012 Macs appear to only get drivers for 64 bit Windows, in spite of the Apple website not saying that. In this case, you'll have to re-install a 64-bit Windows version.
- Try the Everymac page for a summary of which computers run 32/64 bit windows
- Older models don't support 64 bit Windows.
- Back to item one – your download didn't work properly. Get a download manager and try it again
- If you no longer have OS X on your machine, or if you did the download in Windows anyway, then opening-a-bootcamp-driver-download-on-windows-7-or-8-with-7-zip is the page that explains how to open the pkg file and the dmg file in Windows
- And finally the really obscure one: All you get in your download is drivers for a Motoral modem. I'm not sure what's going on here, so I'm grasping at straws but you could try this: in the download URL, replace the http://swcdn.apple.com/ by using nslookup to to see if you can change which server is 'really' serving your download, for instance:
http://apple.vo.llnwd.net/ http://swcdn.apple.com.akadns.net/ http://95.140.227.134/
Hi
I have the iMac 13,2 – 3.4 i7 with 680MX 2GB and 3TB Fusion Drive.
I’m following a tutorial on how to install Windows 8 onto an external Thunderbolt drive, but the whole process has stopped because I can’t find the BootCamp Drivers for this iMac. Basically, I’m looking for the 1TB Fusion drive model with the otherwise exact same spec iMac.
Do you know how/where I can find them please?
You’re site’s really, really helpful, but I’m afraid that this version isn’t yet mentioned in your list.
Thanks so much
Zoe
Hi Zoe, if you follow the link at the top of this page /p682/download-bootcamp-drivers then iMac13,2 is on the list on that page?
Oh my gosh!
I’m so sorry, I was looking at the large list at the bottom and saw that it went to 12,2.
I’m so sorry.
😉
Hi Chris
Well i install Windows 7 32bit, but the drivers are in 64bit and i could not find the 32bit drivers, i need help please (ihave osx mountain lion)
Hi Chris i have the iMac10.1 is all hope lost? 🙁
It’s on the list 😉 Search for iMac10,1 with a comma and no spaces
Hi Chris I’m if I’m not sure if I’m missing something here; I see the iMac10,1 on the table but there is no link to click on next to it? there are links further up the list but not next to mine?
Yes it’s the one further up. That’s just the table layout — it’s at the bottom of the very long list in the table cell all of which require the same download
Hi Chris
Thank you i worked it out 🙂 , it seems to work
the only thing is it is crashing sometimes its seems especially when I’m on the internet or leave my safari open any ideas? it just crashes and restarts again in windows
“Startup Disk” in System preferences or Boot Camp in Control Panel lets you set it back to start up into OS X. Sorry I don’t have any thoughts on Safari crashing
hi carroll
i have a macbook pro bought last month 13inch .. 2.9ghz i7.. the problem is i downloaded the 9.2 boot camp as u uploaded .. but when i install on mac os x i stuck in the step 5 which i cant locate the ‘window support.dmg’ file in order for me to complete install the driver .. i cant u many main function in my windows 7 on mac .. help pls thanks
Hi Terry, can you see the pictures on the main post which show where click buttons during install to choose where the dmg file will go?
yes i just saw it .. but can i install all software just a single click ? or do i need to choose the suitable 1 between all the drivers ?
another things .. if i spot the windowssupport.dmg file and double click it inside will
have many drivers right ..? so i have to swith to the windows ? or on mac os itself ?
thanks for kind help
i m new to mac ..:)
Double-click the dmg when still in Mac. Copy everything inside it to a usb thumb drive. Then restart in windows. Then plug in the thumb drive and double click the installer.
If you’re new to Mac — did you first run BootCamp assistant? That’s Apple’s kind-of idiot-proof tool for all this which is much simpler. You only need the help here if BootCamp Assistant failed somehow.
thanks for the advise ..
hi carroll
i install windows 8 on my MacBookPro8,2, and i install my bootcamp, but it not complete for example i cant use hole brightness of my monitor and….
can you help me ?
and last night apple officially release 10,8,3 and it had bootcamp 5, when you upload in your site?
Hi Shahriar, I’ll probably update for bootcamp 5 next week. Sorry I don’t think I can help with the incomplete driver support — all my bootcamp page can do is help you get the drivers downloaded when bootcamp assistant fails.
But http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5639 says that BootCamp 5 covers Windows 8, so you should be able to go back to Apple for support?
hi caroll
i look up that link and i find bootcamp 5, tanx for your help i download it and install it on my windows 8, its work fine, but i still had my brightness problem, i google it finally i fount it. in windows 8 setting we have option that say atuo adjust brightness and we should turn it off, every think back to normal, again tanx for your help
Chris,
Just want to start off by saying thank you. This problem of downloading windows support software seems to be endless but you might have a solution here. I have a macbook7,1 and I am running 10.8 mountain lion with 4GB ram. I want to install windows 7 64 bit. I have seen your list of drivers for different macs but there is no link next to the macbook 7,1. Am I out of luck?
Thanks
Yo Ho! No not out of luck — search the page for macbook7 with no space and you’ll find it in the table. Cheers Chris
Can I just say – thank you!?! You provided the best answers I have found on the web. As a newbie to using Bootcamp, you provided better answers than the hundreds of pages of info from the Apple Support pages.
Thank you!
Cheers Matt! One does one’s best, Chris
i install win7 on my macbook pro 8.1 but cant fine the drivers and secondly don’t the if i need bootcamp4 or 5. Please i need your help on what to do
Hi Johnson, did you try the instructions on http://www.cafe-encounter.net/p682/download-bootcamp-drivers first?
You don’t need to choose a BootCamp version at all. You just get what you get with OS X and it works
Cheers, Chris
I have just formated my partition to make more space… however now that i have installed windows 7 again, it keep getting the 32/64bit problem, in either download i chose to install, or the model isnt correct, i dunno how to get past this issue.
Hi Tommy. I’m not sure I’ve understood what your problem is. You’ve got Windows 7 running on your machine have you? Did you follow the instructions at /p682/download-bootcamp-drivers ?
Hello. How about bootcamp 5 drivers? I want to use white macbook 4,1 with w8 64bit but I don’t know about bootcamp 5. Does it have drivers for 4,1 or not? Thank you.
Hi tema,
The Windows drivers for bootcamp 5 are the same as those for bootcamp 4 — I didn’t see any new download links for bootcamp 5. I think you should be fine.
Hey Chris, first let me say Thanks! After searching long and hard for even one of these drivers, your site has been the absolute most help and success. That being said, I’m running a MacBookPro1,1 with OS 10.6.8, booting windows 7 sp1 in bootcamp. I didn’t see my model listed on your drivers so downloaded the closest one and manually installed some drivers. Any advice for a more complete installation? Thanks.
Morning Josh,
Alas, Apple didn’t publish Win7 drivers for models earlier than the ones I’ve listed — they only did WinXP drivers. You could try your luck with downloading the MacBookPro2,1 drivers but … MacBookPro2,1 was a different processor (Core 2 Duo) and might completely crash the machine.
I guess the main things not working would be keyboard layout/backlit keyboard/screen brightness controls?
If you’re feeling brave and do it anyway, I’d try it this way: Do the download as per /p682/download-bootcamp-drivers, but instead of running setup.exe, double click the drivers directory and run just the installer in the ‘Apple’ folder. See if that fixes anything. If still feeling lucky, you might try the video drivers too
Hey Chris, thanks for the prompt response. Typical Apple developers… oh well, I downloaded the drivers and manually installed everything that would install. A definite improvement is evident. Still trying out various things to see what works and what doesn’t. I appreciate your help.
Glad to hear you had some some success. If you’ve got a moment to post what worked / didn’t work at the end of that would be great.
i cant find md761 driver plaese email me tnx
Hi podyg, I’m not sure what md761 is?
Thanks for this information. After understanding the whole process I can now run Windows 7 on my MacBook4,1. In my case, I was able to install x64 version, but as explained on the above apple’s link, this version was not supported by boot camp support. I reinstalled x86 (32-bit) version and could then run the apple support software. I now have Win 7 x32 and Apple Support 4.0.
I downloaded the BootCampESD.pkg file from an alternative source, above. This may help others looking for the file.
https://stoomkracht.wordpress.com/2015/05/13/direct-links-to-apple-drivers-for-windows/
how about macbook pro 1,1 do you have any solutions for the drivers? i couldn’t find it anywhere im trying to run windows 7 32 bit without mac os. Any thoughts ? 🙂
Hi Devin. Hmm. Apple don’t officially support that, you’re stuck with doing the best you can. If you have an install disk for Win7, you may be able to ‘just run’ the installer. You may need to hold down the alt ⌥ key while the computer is starting up, then you can choose boot from DVD.
For the drivers, I would then choose the oldest download which is https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1630.
You then probably need to open the pkg using 7-zip or similar, (see cafe-encounter.net/p860/opening-a-bootcamp-driver-download-on-windows-7-or-8-with-7-zip
If the main installer doesn’t work on your machine, then you can drill down and click on the individual component driver files. Some will work, some won’t. But I think that’s the best I can help.
I have see Win8 running on a first model of MacBook Pro Core Duo, so I fairly sure that most of the drivers work.
Chris
My macbook air 13 inch is a 2014 model and I can’t seem to find any drivers for windows 10 with it. I currently have windows 10 on this computer but no drivers are installed so I cant use my network adapter, etc. may I know where I can find drivers for this? Thanks