Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Boot Camp won't start in Windows 8

Hi All,


I got the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display this week and I installed Windows 8 Release Preview with Boot Camp. The reason I used Windows 8 is because the Retina Display is not supported in Windows 7 yet.


The dual boot and drivers are all fine. The only problem is that the keyboard doesn't work as how normal windows keyboard... For instance, the function keys only work when fn is pressed, or they are basically doing special tasks like changing the brightness, etc.


I know this is the default behavior in Mac OS and you can set it through keyboard settings. I also know that Boot Camp in Windows should be able to deal with that too. However, when I try to launch Boot Camp in Windows 8, it always give me me this error:


---------------------------

Boot Camp

---------------------------

An error occurred while trying to access the startup disk settings.



You may not have privileges to change the startup disk. Make sure you have administrative privileges and try again.

---------------------------

OK

---------------------------


I used to use the 27 inch apple display with Windows 7 before, so I know this is realted to the fact that the system is using AHCI driver instead of ATA driver for the harddisk. Seems like with Boot Camp 4.0 and Windows 8 Release Preview, the system natively boots into and supports AHCI mode. I verified that in the device manager in Windows 8.


So, how can I use boot camp in Windows 8 with AHCI driver? If I cannot do that, is it possible to get back to ATA mode? Or, is it possible to change the behavior of the keyboard without using boot camp? (Of course I can use the default driver for the keyboard I guess, which basically make Fn doesn't work and make "delete" doesn't work since delete = fn + backspace).


If none of them are possible, when will Apple update boot camp to run with Windows 8? Or, when will Apple release the retina graphics driver for windows 7?


Thanks


Ti

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), Mac OS X (10.7.4), Windows 8 Preview Release

Posted on Jun 16, 2012 7:08 PM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Jun 17, 2012 5:18 AM

There are bugs with using Apple drivers and you can bet that no one knows when Apple might release something, they tried releasing Boot Camp 3.0 before Windows 7 RTM though at the end of RC, rushed to say the least to put it on snow leopard DVDs months before 7 was ready, resulting in buggy drivers.


Luckily Boot Camp Assistant works. Bad news: they could tie Windows 8 drivers and support to Mountain Lion. Some Macs would fully support 8 but not 10.8. Posting the drivers seems to be ignored // out of the question and has never been done. Nor does Apple's software udpate in Windows seem to be used for Boot Camp related drivers.

38 replies

Jul 18, 2012 5:21 PM in response to Veraxus

Played around some more and this is what I found...


If you make the secondary user account an admin, THEN you can make the initial account a standard user... BUT...


Doing this breaks Boot Camp Control Panel for BOTH ACCOUNTS.


BCCP stops working for the secondary (admin) account, and it remains broken on the original (non-admin) account. So the problem somehow is related to BCCP having administrative rights.


As an additional note, if you change the account types back (original = admin, secondary = standard) then BCCP resumes working on the secondary account.

Jul 19, 2012 3:00 AM in response to Veraxus

This is not my experience. The Boot camp control panel works for all accounts that are standard, and not for admin accounts.


Windows requires that at least one user is admin on the box (this maks sense).


So to change the boot camp settings on your primary admin accout, what you do is:

1. Log of you primary account and log in to secondary admin acount (create one if you don't have one).

2. Log in to secondary account, and change your primary user to standard user

3. Log in to primary user

4. Make your bootcamp changes using the control panel

5. Log of you primary account and log in to secondary admin acount.

6. Change your primary user to back to admin


This works for me every time. I don't see it as a big problem, becuase I never need to change anything in the Boot camp control panel again. So I actually deleted the secondary account.


I have my "tap to click", and the F1-F12 are standard windows function keys. To change volume, light and keyboard backlid I need to press fn.

Jul 19, 2012 1:49 PM in response to tjementum

Bingo, tjmentium, that does the trick!


At first I was going to argue that it didn't work, but then I noticed that on my main account I was still forcing Bootcamp.exe to Run As Administrator even though the account was busted down to standard. By turning that off and trying again, it worked!


Like you, I was even able to delete the secondary account since there's no need to change settings again.


Kudos! Problem solved :-)

Jul 30, 2012 9:53 AM in response to shampu

Sorry shampu... I'm not going to download a .exe file manipulated by a random user ;-) Could you explain how you changed the file?


But i did inspire me to figure out how to run the Apple Control panel without creating a second account.


1. Start notepad and paste the following (se *** comment below):

runas /trustlevel:0x20000 "C:\Windows\System32\AppleControlPanel.exe"

2. Save the file as "BootCampControlPanel.cmd".

3. Create a shortcut to this file and save it in the start menu or on your desktop.

4. Right click the shortcut file. Select properties. Click Advance.." and check "Run as administrator".

5. Use this shortcut to start the Control Panel (the icon tray icon still does not work)


So basically we run a Command Prompt in Admin mode, and use this to start the applecontrolpanel.exe in user mode (sounds weird I know... but it works).


*** 0x20000 might be diffrent on your machine. From a command prompt run "runas /showtrustlevels" and use the hex number for (Basic User).


Thomas

Aug 26, 2012 10:40 PM in response to AfflatusX

Sounds to me like the op has installed Win8 in EFI native mode (selecting 'EFI boot' vs 'Windows' in the Option boot menu when installing). This has a long technical history with it (see http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=696523) but in short, the startup disk and other system registers are not configurable (as of yet) by the Boot camp control panel, thus the error. The proposed workaround allows opening of the BC control panel without the startup disk tab available. This also explains why the display adater is onboard rather than discreet.

Oct 24, 2012 10:27 PM in response to shampu

Anyone have a solution to getting the "Restart in Mac OS X" option working? It was a pretty handy option to have when you wanted to switch over to Mac OS without restarting and holding down the option key.


For now, if you select the option, it appears to execute normally until you realise it's only restarting the computer back into Windows 8.


Thanks,

Gabe

Nov 1, 2012 11:57 AM in response to GabeZs

This post is in two parts.


Part 1:


I have a theory on all of this: I think this underlying technial issue is relating to why Apple has had AHCI disabled on Apple computers running Boot Camp all these years, as discussed in these other threads:


Older topic, "Enable AHCI for windows 7" (archived)


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2173193



Newer topic, same underlying issue, "AHCI"


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3879884?answerId=18143189022#18143189022



Part 2:


I believe my above theory to be true, because I have EXACTLY REPRODUCED THESE WINDOWS 8 ISSUES ON WINDOWS 7 X64 ULTIMATE on my MacBook Pro Retina 15", by simply installing the new official Intel RST (not RSTe) drivers version 11.6.0.1030 or higher, as found here:


http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&keyword=%222012+Intel +Rapid+Storage+Technology+%28Intel+RST%29%22#


NOTE: Your Windows 7 IDE disk type will be transformed into the new Windows 8 AHCI SCSI Disk platform, and it will finally ENABLE TRIM IN WINDOWS if you use SSD (e.g. if you have the SSD option for the new MacBook Pro Retina), as well as dramatically increase performance, enable the Intel RST monitoring taskbar, etc.


WARNING: By doing this, I broke my existing and previously-working Boot Camp taskbar in Windows 7 in the same way as discsussed in this thread: it started giving me the exact same errors: "An error occurred while trying to access the startup disk settings. You may not have privileges to change the startup disk. Make sure you have administrative privileges and try again."


It's also interesting to note that I have also reproduced ALL of the partial-solutions in this thread for my Windows 7 x 64 installation as well (e.g. reducing user-levels to Normal).


Unfortunately, I'm still unable to get the "Restart in Mac OS X" option working, which was a personal favorite feature of mine... but adding TRIM and nearly doubling my performance was worth it to me.


I'm very much looking forward to an Apple update to the Boot Camp 4.0.1 drivers to resolve this issue.

Nov 11, 2012 12:49 AM in response to jackhoang

This thread originally was about getting the Boot Camp Control Panel to run under Windows 8.


For all of you who wants to set a startup disk, you should really just install rEFIt on the OSX partition: http://refit.sourceforge.net/.


It lets you select the boot partition on startup. I've selected Windows as default, and left 2 seconds to choose OSX. Last line in config file.

Boot Camp won't start in Windows 8

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.