Opening a BootCamp Drivers download or other pkg or dmg file on Windows 7 or 8 with 7-Zip

If you've downloaded bootcamp drivers for Macs to run Windows 7 or 8, but have done the download in Windows, you may be stuck on how to open the downloaded BootCampESD.pkg file you've now got.

The answer is to get a copy of 7-zip, which is free, and which is your 'Swiss army knife' to open the Apple .pkg and .dmg files and the ISO file inside.

  1. Launch 7-zip
  2. In 7-zip, open the BootCampESD.pkg. Inside you'll find a Payload file and a few other files. Double click the Payload file.
  3. Inside is a folder, which you double click. Inside that another folder, which you double click. Inside that ... just keep clicking down the levels of nested folders.
  4. Eventually, several levels down, you'll get to a file called 0.Apple_ISO or some such.
  5. Now, extract this o.Apple_ISO to the desktop (or somewhere) and rename it to Apple.ISO.
  6. Now, either: Mount it by double clicking it—should work in Windows 7—or else by getting hold of PowerISO or similar; OR use 7-zip again to open this ISO file, and extract the contents to a folder.
  7. These are you driver installers. Create an empty folder on your desktop, and drag them out into it.
  8. Finally, open the folder you just created, and run the setup.exe

99 thoughts on “Opening a BootCamp Drivers download or other pkg or dmg file on Windows 7 or 8 with 7-Zip”

  1. Is there a way I can download on Windows and Copy it to my MacBook ? If Macs could read fat 32 drives this could be possible, but wondering if it would affect the PKG/DMG files

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

  3. This is fantastic. Thank you for such clear, detailed instructions.
    Trying to set up bootcamp without a network connection is impossible without this.

  4. Hi Chris, today I did instal with boot camp on my Mac, Windows 7. During the instalation I did click on “download the latest version of windows support from apple”, but did not choose storage place on my usb driver :-(. then the instalation continue, finish and windows works, but can not get next step – instal the apple drivers (setup – application). now, I do not know what to do. I tried to read your advises on this web page, but I am not very good in english, so I ve got trouble :-). Also I can get back to my mac, because during booting always windows starts, although I press and hold backspace button. There is no possibility to choose other boot driver. So can you help me also sending mi solution on my email: [email protected] ? Thank you very much!

    1. Hi Peter, If you don’t specify where the download goes, I think it goes into /Library/ somewhere. The simple thing is just to start again from OS X and remember to choose a location.

      To get back into Mac: as the computer starts up, hold down the alt key.

  5. Thanks for this post! I recently wiped my oct 2009 13″ macbook hdd clean and did a fresh install of windows 7. There are no traces of OSX on the laptop as of now. I downloaded these drivers and picked them out in 7zip and have them on my desktop. However, in the folder I see VISTAXP2K, si32.exe, si64.exe, ssetup.exe and a couple other files. When I click setup, not much happens except for a successful install of Motorola SM56 drivers. Still no functionality of trackpad or function keys. Any thoughts?

      1. I had exactly the same situation than James G. I’have early 2009 Mac Mini (3.1) with only Windows 7 installed, no OS X.

        Top level folder did not look like the picture you linked. Setup file was named ssetup.exe and for me too it installed (?) Motorola SM56 drivers. Any help is appreciated.

  7. My Macbook is Unibody Macbook late 2009, macbook 6.1 . I downloaded 632MB 23 May 2012 and I installed boot camp 4.0 (Windows drivers) from WindowsSupport.dmg. I don’t think book camp 4.0 doesn’t work in windows 8 pro.
    Can this drivers work in windows 8 pro? If this is true, I will install windows 8 pro into my boot camp (windows 7). Please answer my question.

    1. Hi, Windows 8 is working fine for me on a 2009 MacBook Pro, and for others. It is not yet officially supported by Apple. So there is no guarantee but you should be okay… Cheers, Chris

  8. Daniel, Mikko H, James G, I’m pretty sure I’ve experienced the same thing that you desceribe last year a couple of times. But when I downloaded the link that Daniel pasted in his reply using iGetter, and opened it up what I now see is the same as I posted in the pictures on /p682/download-bootcamp-drivers with the full set of drivers.
    Grasping at straws here but I wonder if it’s possible that Apple has multiple servers for the url, and one of them’s got the wrong thing on it? I don’t know how else to account for it.
    Try doing the download 1 or 2 more times with a download manager and see what you get?

  10. To all those with the motorola issue,

    extract o.Apple_ISO using 7-zip to the desktop (or somewhere)
    rename it to Apple.ISO
    mount it using PowerISO or simply extract the contents to a folder using 7zip.

    You’ll find that the rest of the drivers appear alongside the Moto ones. I guessed they were hidden or something because the size of 0.Apple_ISO was much larger than the sum of the moto drivers, turned out to be correct.

    Cheers!

  13. Hi there,
    I screwed up my Mac OSx. I dont have any CD either. I had to install windows 7 ultimate 32 bit and now i needed drivers for audio, blutooth etc. I found this. Everything makes sense goes to open the pkg but when I double click payload, it asks for using the related program to open this file. Which program i should use to open this payload? What extension is it? Or I am stuck at that point.

    Or Can you refer to a website where I could find the Apple.iso thingy. I am on Macbook pro

  14. Nevermind. I have got it but these files i already had. Its not ISO image. Or I have make an ISO image out of it and then setup drive in PowerISO and then install?……

    Its just stupid packaging. Typical apple a*** holes!

    1. Hi Leo, If you downloaded 7-zip that one program should be all you need to open the pkg file and to open the ISO file you get inside it. Yes you could also use powerISO or something to mount it. Chris

  15. Can u help me install windows 7 on my macbook2,1 os 10.4.11 . since it is an old macbook i am not able to install windows staightforward through bootcamp. Also my superdrive does not work. I have a windows bootable usb drive , which I am able to use to install windows on a pc. i have so far installed refit on my mac and when i try to boot into my windows usb pen drive , I get a message : Not found from local deveice path ..the firmware refused to boot … blah blah . Also I had copied the entire drivers folder using the method u stated above to the usb drive. I dont understand how these drivers would help me boot into my usb drive( as they are exe files – exe files run on windows as per my knowledge) .. …. Please help

    1. Hi Rachit,
      Sorry, the drivers linked from my pages help you get all the apple hardware working properly AFTER you have got Windows up and running.

      Getting Windows installed without your superdrive working sounds difficult. Possibly harder than getting the superdrive fixed. Can you beg or borrow a USB DVD drive and a Windows installer DVD?

      Best I can do is refer you to https://discussions.apple.com and to http://apple.stackexchange.com – if you post a question there you have a good chance of getting help.

      I take it you got as far as the instructions on this page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1948 ?
      “To start from a USB storage device that meets the above requirements, connect the device, then select it in Startup Disk preferences. Or, connect the device, restart, and immediately press and hold the Option key to access Startup Manager.
      If you’re using a MacBook or MacBook Pro, try using a different USB port if you cannot startup from the external USB storage device.
      If you use Boot Camp, you may not be able to boot natively into supported versions of Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems installed on external USB hard drive.”

      Chris

  17. Hi

    Many thanks for this tutorial but after doing all of that when i run .setup it says “bookcamp x64 is not supported……”

    Guess my macbook model is just too old to handle windows 7? (2008-9 model) =/

  18. after I run “setup.exe” in windows8 64 bit (no OSX), a window comes up saying it has installed correctly, and that is it. I restarted and attempted to update drivers in device manager which didn’t work, I am stuck on how to instal the drivers. please help.

  19. This doesn’t work for me, I follow the instructions to the “t” and I get a message saying it installed correctly and that is the last action it runs.I will continue my quest somewhere else for answers. I’m running macbookpro8,1 with only Win8; mouse, keyboard lights, Bluetooth, and wi-fi does not work, some keyboard functions don’t properly work and it becomes excessively warm. boot time is very slow even with Intel i7 and 80% free SSD.

  20. These Instructions worked like a charm and solved every driver issue I had Thank you!

  22. unfortunately, I can not open payload in Windows7. it gives me suggestions that I should open it, but nothing works….

Comments are closed.

Apple Boot Camp Problems

Opening a BootCamp Drivers download or o…

by Chris F Carroll read it in 1 min
Code VS2010 Command Prompt Here on the Windows Explorer…
Apple Boot Camp Problems BootCamp Drivers – Direct Download of BootCampES…
99