Windows support software not available

Here is what you do, if you intend to use BootCamp to install Windows on your Mac:

Boot to your Mac side - click "Go" (up top on toolbar), then Applications, then Utilities, then open Boot Camp Assistant, click "Continue" (bottom right).

Next select the option that says "I have the OSX installation disk that came with my Mac or I have… etc" and hit "Continue".

Next click "Start the Windows installer" and follow the directions to install Windows. Once Windows has been installed, Windows will not be able to go online for updates or downloads as the Boot Camp Drivers for Windows need to be supplied (software that will activate Apple hardware - especially the Wireless).

These drivers were supposed to be downloaded "fresh" but Apple has a slight problem there. What we are doing now to work around that problem is we are going to use older drivers that are present on the OSX DVD that came with your Mac.

For Air owners, these (I believe) are on the OSX install stick (not a DVD).

SO - WHEN you boot in to Windows for the first time, put your Snow Leopard OSX DVD into the slot, and the Auto-Run should play and offer to install the drivers software. Do what it says, and you're done. You can now access the internet. Install antivirus and firewall. Update Windows *using Windows Updates*. When THAT is done, activate Apple Updates (see: Programs, Apple Updates).

NOTE: *+if it fails to AutoRun, then click open the DVD and look inside for the BootCamp part, and click icons until it runs - that's it.+* Apple Boot Camp Drivers has it's own Updater, so your machine will be obtaining fresher drivers pretty much as you need them (it will ask your permission).

SUMMARY: don't get the drivers up front (from your Apple OSX side) - instead of that - "lie" to the software and INSTALL THE DRIVERS ALREADY ON YOUR OSX DISK WHILE IN WINDOWS.

Ok, I lost my disk a while ago, so using the old drivers isn't an option, and I'm not about to shell out the cash to fix something Apple needs to have fixed already. All you guys have been beating a dead horse by saying the same obvious thing over and over again. What I need is Apple to stop being a bunch of rich idiots and either A) fix this issue already, or B) offer the download online instead of a broken link. Anyone who knows how to fix this without spending hundreds on software cds will have my thanks.

Your only hope is to borrow a disk.

FYI

a.) Apple doesn't read user forums - try here http://www.apple.com/feedback/
b.) "hundreds"? $29 for a new disk.

Apple supplies drivers two ways - by Apple Automatic Updates (in Windows / Start / All Programs / Apple) and by Apple Website Manual Download. (Just Google: Apple Boot Camp Software Update).

HOWEVER

The first file (3.0) MUST come from your Disk / Stick. Then the updater can do the rest (even though it is not entirely necessary - the first drivers are really pretty good).

APPLE INTENDED A (3.0) DOWNLOAD to work, but as our dissatisfied friend Al3x92 has stated, has been non-functional from the start and remains so. Until Apple fixes this, using a Disk is what we all have to do.

Hello, when answering a question it's good 'net manners to realize that people will always find every post that says, "This has already been discussed." when Googling. In fact saying "you should search first" is a ridiculously ironic thing to say because that is how most people will have found this post, by searching.

In fact you look really, really silly when you say something like that so you'd be better off keeping those kinds of comments to yourself until you've used the Internet for a little while and realize how it actually works.

Good day.

Silly is a polite word for how my posts look - more like fumbling, rambling, inarticulate, redundant, inexperienced. I'm fine with it.

If you had been here the moment this thread started, there were like 3 threads on the same exact thing all right on page 1 of Boot Camp. In full view. It is thoughtless and wasteful on any forum to not even read the headlines, and just plow through. The recommendation isn't to search the internet. The recommendation is to read this forum - simply read it. This thread is a perfect example in that the issue has been addressed numerous ways, and people still ask the same query. Either they don't comprehend, or they can't accept the situation they are in. Fine - let's go over it another way. Not a problem.

All of this would be mute if Apple would post a simple fix, place a Hot Topics in Apple Support Boot Camp (that I should have in my sig!) and a patch/update to address and render the feature unoperable or functional.

People won't click on SUPPORT tab above, we know that.
Nor is there a nice "contributed tips" at the head of forum.
Use to be able to easily search Apple Knowledge Base and we know that is no longer as good or ideal.
The page you could RSS of "Recent Changes" to Apple tech articles is 80% "i" stuff that to me is new-school but not computer stuff.

I am currently doing research in South America, and I don't have installation discs nor is there a store here to buy them. Before buying Windows 7, I opened up the Boot Camp Assistant, and I was glad to see an option to download the drivers. So, I went ahead and purchased Windows 7 and Office for a hefty sum. I got back to my hotel excited to be able to set up a Windows partition, but now here I am with no option but to return my purchase for store credit. What's ironic is that such an unprofessional glitch an Apple's part makes me all the more likely to scrap the Mac and go with Windows, since for my work I need to be able to use Windows as well.

I got everything to work by downloading a torrent of the disc image and burning it to a cd. The additional tip provided here about getting 64-bit drivers to work also proved to be essential:

http://www.forumwizard.net/unix-mac-os/1035156-mac-boot-camp-drivers-3-0-32bit-6 4bit.html