BootCamp Drivers – Direct Download of BootCampESD.pkg for Macs to Run Windows 7 or Windows 8

Do you find that BootCamp assistant download is stuck or or fails or could not continue?

The brute force solution: it's a darned large download, so physically take your machine to somewhere with a very fast internet connection that can download 600MB - 1GB in a couple of minutes. There, you're done.

For the rest of us, there are 2 options:

The simple solution – recommended – is to use this list of Windows driver download links for Macs with OS X Mountain Lion (which includes all retina display macs) or Lion, Snow Leopard or Leopard. That's about everything back to 2007.
There are also older links here, but they appear to be redundant -- the Mountain Lion file covers Mac models going back to Leopard.

Finally, the DIY solution: Work out for yourself which download link you need.

The DIY way to find your BootCampESD.pkg download link from the sucatalog

Not for the faint-hearted.

  • Apple software update uses an sucatalog file, which contains a link to a BootCampESD.pkg file which contains the drivers. The sucatalog file in question contains several different links to bootcampesd.pkg, fordifferent Mac models. How to find the right one for your machine?
  • Tim Valenta did instructions in Nov 2011 that nearly worked for me in June 2012 at http://blog.timvalenta.com/2011/11/19/boot-camp-driver-downloads/ except that again, 6 months on, the catalog file seems to be laid out everso slightly differently; and the file downloaded is now in an easier to use format.

    • My steps to download the Lion or Mountain Lion drivers were as follows:

    How to Manually Download Windows Drivers for Macs Running BootCamp 4 or BootCamp 5

    1. Download from apple the http://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog file. Don't double-click it, that won't help.
    2. Instead, open it in a text editor or word processor.
    3. Search for each occurrence -- as at August 2012 there were 6 -- of BootCampESD.pkg. For instance, the one I needed is http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/33/54/041-2011/pRtCDYcWShMLxFggy3TzFzmfnnWQNFQBfJ/BootCampESD.pkg
    4. Notice in each such URL, the /041-2011/ or similar /041-XXXXX/ bit of it.
    5. Below each such occurrence, notice a URL for a file with the same 041-XXXXX in it and ending in English.dist, e.g. 041-2011.English.dist
    6. Paste the URL for each such English.dist file into your browser and open the Url. Here's a list of them:
    7. Search for the Model Identifier for your Mac. For instance MacBookPro5,2 or Macmini4,1 or whatever
      • For instance the 041-2011 file contains these models: MacBook2,1 MacBook3,1 MacBook4,1 MacBook5,1 MacBook5,2 MacBook5,3 MacBook6,1 MacBook7,1 MacBookAir1,1 MacBookAir2,1 MacBookAir3,1 MacBookAir3,2 MacBookPro2,1 MacBookPro2,2 MacBookPro3,1 MacBookPro4,1 MacBookPro5,1 MacBookPro5,2 MacBookPro5,3 MacBookPro5,4 MacBookPro5,5 MacBookPro6,1 MacBookPro6,2 MacBookPro7,1 MacBookPro8,1 MacBookPro8,2 MacBookPro8,3 MacPro1,1 MacPro2,1 MacPro3,1 MacPro4,1 MacPro5,1 Macmini2,1 Macmini3,1 Macmini4,1 iMac5,1 iMac6,1 iMac7,1 iMac8,1 iMac9,1 iMac10,1 iMac11,1 iMac11,2 iMac11,3 iMac12,1 iMac12,2
      • How do you know your Model Identifier? Open System Information, and look in the Hardware Overview section. i.e. click Apple menu -> About this Mac -> More Info… -> Report -> Hardware -> and now read down the Hardware Overview looking for "Model Identifier:"
    8. Having found your 041-XXXXX number, download the BootCampESD.pkg url that has your number in it. I try to keep the page at bootcamp-driver-download up to date with all the pkg download URLs.
    9. Be patient as it's probably 600MB.
    10. Once your pkg is downloaded, double click it and install to a folder on your hard drive so you know where to find it.
    11. The folder contains a nest of folders, the last of which contains a dmg disk image file. Double click to open. Voila. Here are your Windows installer files. Again, the page at bootcamp-driver-download has pictures to help.
    12. Copy them to a thumb drive or a burnable CD or something. The point here is that you need the somewhere that a new install of windows with only minimal drivers can read them. NB, it's still 660MB or more, so it's a full CDs worth of burning time.
    13. You can now proceed with Boot Camp assistant Windows installation, which will eventually reboot your machine for startup in Windows.
    14. Once you're in Windows, run the installer that you saved to CD or thumb drive.
    15. Done. Marvel as all your Apple hardware now works nearly as well as it does in Mac OS X.

    46 thoughts on “BootCamp Drivers – Direct Download of BootCampESD.pkg for Macs to Run Windows 7 or Windows 8”

    1. Pingback: Download BootCamp Drivers for Macs running Mountain Lion including 2012 Retina Display Macs | Chris F Carroll
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    3. Pingback: Mac OS X Lion, Snow Leopard, Leopard : Download Bootcamp Drivers | Chris F Carroll

    4. Thank you so much for this post! It’s exactly what I was looking for: accurated and detailed.

    5. thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu verryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy much. it was very very very helpful.
      God Bless

    6. maybe stupid question but 041-xxxx – 041 is the version 4.1 for Bootcamp? Got 4.0 running with Windows 8 but still got issues with the sound and function keys.. worth giving it a try and upgrade to 4.1?

      1. Yes, I would definitely go with the very latest version drivers for Win 8. If you think about, Windows drivers shouldn’t depend on what version of OS X you’ve got. But note that the latest catalog file describes itself as ‘Mountain Lion Lion Snow Leopard Leopard merged’ so that sounds good to me for BootCamp 4.0 too.

    7. Thanks, this was SUPER helpful. Everything went smoothly until the Windows installation was complete, then it rebooted and just hung on a black screen. Powered it down & restarted it, same thing.

      As is usually the case, I wasn’t the only one with this problem, so I looked around. Just hold down the eject key while it’s booting up & kick out the disk, then it boots into OS X. Power down and restart holding the ‘option’ key, and boot into Windows. It’ll be a little clunky b/c it’s not set up properly for the hardware, but in my experience, it’s at least serviceable. For instance, I had the BootCamp files on a USB flash drive, and Win 7 was able to mount the device just fine. (If the drivers aren’t working at least that well, one could boot into OS X and drop the files into an easy-to-find folder in the Windows partition.)

      Drag the BootCamp files to the hard drive, then run the ‘setup’ file. A reboot later, I’m running Win 7. The OS updates are downloading as I type this.

      Thanks again! This was really, really helpful.

    8. Hi Chris,

      Great Post – all going well until I run the setup.exe in Windows 7 Pro.

      Error – This Software is incompatible with this version of windows, check to see if you need x86 (32Bit) or x64 (64bit)

      any suggestions ??

      The install of Win 7 is 64bit …. that I have installed…

      Thanks in advance

      1. Hi Richard,
        First, check your model is listed on this page http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1846?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
        Not all models support 64 bit.
        If your model is listed there; and you got the right download link; then your installer should, I think, automatically install the 64 bit drivers. If desperate you could open the ‘drivers’ folder and then manually choose the 64 bit drivers in each subdirectory and see what happens.
        Or give up, and re-install 32 bit windows?

        1. Hi Chris,

          The exe, does not even run, so not sure if thats a model based prob. Its seems like the setup.exe I have from the ESD, only supports 32bit.

          I’ll try another ESD package…

    9. Everything is fine for me except this part:

      “You can now proceed with Boot Camp assistant Windows installation, which will eventually reboot your machine for startup in Windows.
      Once you’re in Windows, run the installer that you saved to CD or thumb drive.”

      After finishing with Boot Camp Assistant, and rebooting, I can’t even install Windows because all I see is scrambled or corrupted video when the system boots off the Windows USB. It feels like my Win7 from 2009 doesn’t have a video driver for my MBA 2012 with Intel 4000 graphics. Comments?

      1. Hmm. I though that Windows without drivers would default to some lo-res SVGA screen mode which pretty much all graphics cards could handle. Could you plug in a external monitor and see if that helps?
        How about : http://www.google.com/search?q=start+windows+7+in+safe+mode+or+command+line — if you can get to a visible command line you should be able to run the driver setup file?
        Second thought: If you’ve got a new MBA you should be able to get help from Apple since they officially support Windows 7 under bootcamp?

    10. Thanks a lot for the post, I have been looking for this more than one Month.
      In the last few steps are not really clear, took about 10 minutes to figure it out.
      btw really appreciate of this post

    13. Just likes Damián says:

      Thank you so much for this post!
      but, I’m not find bootcamp driver for MacBookPro10,1 15″ 2.6Ghz Retina.
      I’m planning to install wind764bit. Please help this one, Thank you

    14. Hi ChrisHaving downloaded and saved to a folder in downloads how do iI unpackage the package ,which has resisted your advice?
      Thanks in advance
      Mal

    15. Pingback: Download BootCamp Drivers for Macs to run Windows 7 or 8

    16. Hi Chris…
      I installed windows 7 on my macbook the other day using bootcamp.. but i cant connect to the internet and i cant play games on windows 7.. my friend told me i need the 64 bit bootcamp drivers for os mountain lion… do u know where i can get that? or do you know a solution so i can play games on my windows 7.. pls help me out thx

      1. Hi fauzan, first try the ordinary bootcamp assistant again which is bound to get you the right drivers. The links above include both 64 and 32 bit for models that need it so they should work too. If you have a very new Mac, it may only work with 64 bit windows, so if you installed 32 bit that won’t work.

    17. 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 ? thanks ..

    18. Meus parabens ao Postador e ao Administrador deste site. durante quese 6 meses andava loucamente atrás dos drivers para o meu macboo 1.1. Filizmente consegui e para Win8 Pro. Mais uma vez meus parabens.

    19. Hi Chris,

      your Blog saved my day! Thank you very much. Shame on Apple for srcewing up there BootCamp service!

      Christian

    20. Hello Chris,

      I have a MacBook Pro 17-inch (Late 2011 – Model Identifier MacBookPro8,3). I had OS X Lion and I was able to install Windows 7 Pro via Boot Camp (v.4) without any problems. I recently installed OS X Mountain Lion and wanted to install the BC 5 drivers. I tried running the BC assistant and I downloaded the drivers several times. I downloaded the drivers directly from Apple, but nothing seems to work. I continue getting the following error: “The installer encountered errors before Boot Camp could be configured. To retry these operations at a later time, please run the installer again.”
      Do you have any ideas as to what the problem might be?

      Thank you,

      Maxim

    21. Thanks! This was super helpful, I’m currently downloading the latest package for my Mac (You’re list hasn’t updated with the 2013 rMBP yet, it’s 091-9354 by the way).

      My Windows install, sans drivers, currently can’t seem to read USB at all though, so I’m not sure if this will work if I can’t even see the USB drive. Any ideas? I can’t download directly to Windows because the machine shows not Network adapters, due to lack of drivers.

      1. Cheers Jacob.
        For newer Macs for Windows 8, Apple now provide a direct download link themselves.
        The initial USB & network drivers should work out of the box as part of the Windows installation, without needing Apple’s drivers. Not sure why they wouldn’t, I take it your model is 2013 retina MBP?

    22. Hi Chris,

      we are trying here to deploy Bootcamp image on a MacBook5.1.

      We create a bootcamp Macbook that works perfectly fine. We create the bootcamp image as they explain it here :http://wiki.afp548.com/index.php/Create_a_Boot_Camp_image

      This page lead us to your very great blog !!

      So, I tryied to deploy the bootcamp image on a MacBook5.1, but the result ends with a message from Windows boot manager : “Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. … ”

      When I install our Windows DVD and click “Repair’, Windows boot and works fine. But we want to deploy this bootcamp image on many MacBook5.1; and we dont want to insert the windows dvd each time we have to create a bootcamp computer.

      Do you have any idea what would be the problem ?

      We download the good drivers, we use the script mentionned in this page http://wiki.afp548.com/index.php/Create_a_Boot_Camp_image

      There’s something we miss…Maybe you could help us.

      Thank you

      Nicolas

      1. Hi Nicolas, I’m afraid I don’t have much to offer you, I’ve never had to solve the problem of creating a re-usable boot image. I would guess that you might get more help by ignoring the fact you’re doing it on Macs, and google for similar errors / help from people creating boot images for other PCs? I know most companies have some kind of solution for imaging PCs.

        My first guess would be, after you have created the image and run the repair process, can you then create a new image from that?

    23. Pingback: Resolved: How to download Bootcamp drivers without Bootcamp assistant? #answer #fix #solution | InfoBot

    24. October 2015 – the quickest solution to get your BootCampESD package file is now (using OSX 10.10.*) :

      Step 1) Launch BootCamp Assistant and let it begin the download of the Windows Support Software
      Step 2) While the download is running, navigate your Finder to /System/Library/Updates/
      Step 3) There, check the present folders. Such as ./031-24514/ in my case. Therein you will find an .extraInfo file, such as 031-24514.English.extraInfo
      Step 4) Open that file in a text or XML editor and look for the tag in (the file is small, a few lines only => easy to find)
      Step 5) Quit or Force Quit Bootcamp Assistant, while citing a dark, destructive spell out of the Necronomicon
      Step 6) Copy the URL you found in the .extraInfo file, which ends in .smd, and paste the link in your browser or download manager, but change .smd to .esd
      Step 7) Enjoy your independent, personalized download

    25. Dear Chris,
      I need 041-2011 as well, but obviously Apple has removed it from their download site. Is there any other place I can get it?
      Dave

      1. Hi Dave,
        Well so they have. Hmmm. How about this:
        Option 1: Try https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204048 where Apple now offer downloads for BootCamp drivers.
        Option 2: I have a copy of 041-2011 on my laptop. It’s just over 600MB. Which I guess would fit on DropBox. Let me know if option 1 doesn’t work out (And if not, then what model do you have / what Windows version are you hoping to install) and I’ll try putting it on DropBox.
        Cheers
        Chris

        1. Dear Chris, I have the same problem, I would like to install a Win 8.1 on my MacBook identifier 7,1 but I cant find bootcamp drivers for this model, where can I find them?
          Regards
          Arturo de los Santos

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