How to install Windows 8 on Mid 09 Macbook Pro (10.8.3)

So i loved the new Windows 8, and even had it installed before bootcamp supported windows 8 on my new iMac, i waited to buy a bigger hard drive and more ram for my mid 09 Macbook Pro. The day i bought the new hardware, Apple released 10.8.3, and an updated bootcamp to support Windows 8! Yay! I got my install disc out (iso file burned to DVD), opened up bootcamp assistant, only to get an error saying apple dropped support for my mid 09 Macbook Pro and Windows 8. Making the install impossible through bootcamp. Do not fret, i have the solution, and EVERYTHING works perfectly. Here we go.


  • Gather your Windows 8 install disc AND a Windows 7 install disc (you can surely find one by searching the net, use your old one, or borrow a colleagues... we are licensing Windows 8, NOT 7, this is just for my trick to fool bootcamp assistant and no i do not condone piracy)
  • Inside BootCamp Assistant, the driver download may hang,it did for me, twice..could be heavy usage due to the popular new update...so i recommend downloading it faster, and manually here http://support.apple.com/downloads/#macoscomponents and get 4.1.4586 yes this is for windows 7, ALSO while you are there, download the windows 8 support pack 5.0.5033, as we will need that later as well. As a matter of fact, DO IT THIS WAY and dont bother
  • That being said and done, in BootCamp Assistant (OSX), only check off Install Windows 7, leaving the download support software unchecked
  • Partition your hard drive as youd like, this splits up your storage space however you like, keep in mind which OS you plan to run the most, and obviously give that one more room, i.e you do all your Photoshop work, and app development in OSX, and only use Windows for office stuff, you'd want to give yourself more room on the OSX side. I however bought a huge new internal drive to split them basically in half, as i use them both frequently.
  • This step is where the trick comes. OSX 10.8.3 / BootCamp will advise you there is no support for Windows 8..only 7 with your Mid 09 Macbook Pro if you have put your Windows 8 disc in, upsetting you as it did me...possibly bringing you to this post, thats not FAIR is it? Your 09 MacBook Pro is still JUST AS GOOD as a lot of PC's running Windows 8, why they excluded this model i have no idea...im sure they had reasons, but i dont care at the moment..lol
  • INSTEAD place a Windows 7 install disc in, and click next. BootCamp Assistant will now partition your drive, make the windows side bootable and restart your MBP.
  • Let it do its thing, and eventually you will land at the Windows 7 installation interface. We don't really want that, we want Windows 8 right?
  • Click the "x" to close the installation for Windows 7, it threatens your MBP will restart, and allow it to do so.
  • **IMPORTANT** Once you hear the beloved Mac chime, quickly press and hold the "option" key.
  • This brings you to an area where you can select a startup disk. At this point, lets get rid of the trick. Hit your eject button and get rid of the Windows 7 install disc, we are done with it now.
  • You now, well in my case anyway, should only see your Mac HD, and the Recovery Disk.
  • Insert your Windows 8 install disc
  • Now WAIT. Eventually, you should see a new DVD looking icon that says Windows pop up next to the MacHD and Recovery Disk. (depending on what you called your iso, it may something else...not sure, but you cant miss the new entry)
  • This is where a wired mouse will be needed, or use tab/space/enter to navigate to the new Windows Disc icon and launch it.
  • You are now in Windows 8's installation interface, cool!
  • Follow the steps until it asks you where you want to install it. You should see a partition about equal to what you set earlier in BootCamp Assistant, and it SHOULD say Bootcamp right on it. Select this partition. (mine was the last one, the fourth i believe)
  • OH NO, it says you cant install it to that partition, this is normal. You need to highlight/select this partition, and click format. I cant remember, but i think you have to click "options" to get to a the spot where you can format it. Pretty straight forward. Safety check, obviously make sure you have the Bootcamp partition selected, dont format your Mac OSX partition!
  • After the quick format is done, Windows 8 installer will then allow you to click "next" and from there the magic happens.
  • Go through the whole Windows 8 install, and setup how you would like, this takes awhile, and im not covering that, as its a hand in hand walkthrough like any other install.
  • Once your inside your new Windows 8, you'll see a bunch of things not working, like tap to click on your trackpad, no on screen displays for brigtness, volume, and possibly other stuff. Not cool right?
  • Grab your USB stick, or Burnt disc that you applied the bootcamp support downloads to in the begining of this tutorial.
  • FIRST open the Windows 7 Bootcamp install, 4.1.4586, open the folder and find setup.exe and run it (we are in windows 8 now)
  • It takes a while, but Apple's BootCamp will install a bunch of drivers, etc, and eventually restart your MBP, which is cool, let it do it.
  • Upon finishing, lets go back to the USB/Burnt Disc where all your support software was saved, and lets get the newly support BootCamp 5.0.5033 opened up.
  • Big Thanks to a post by ErikVanD i seen on this forum for the next step.
  • If you want, try and click setup in this latest BootCamp support set, and you will get another sad error claiming x64 is not supported, something awful to that nature. Awww man, this far, only to get let down. Nope. We are going to fix that. And this is where ErikVanD's post pointed me to what we do next.
  • It was said to navigate in the BootCamp 5.0.5033 folder to something of the effect of BootCamp/Drivers/Apple and run the MSI file "BootCamp" (MSI file will say Windows Installer in its description, and not necessarily MSI for anyone not too savy with Windows) **note - NOT .bootcamp (notice the period in the front) and it should work and install the new Windows 8 support for your MBP...but in my case it didn't, which is why im posting how i fixed this. Your setup may somehow be different, but mine gave me an error say it "needs elevated permissions to run, use setup.exe instead. We tried that remember! And it gave us the x64 not supported error. Oh man! Blabbing aside, this file needs to be ran as an administrator, which yeah your the only user, but Windows is funny like that. Normally youd just right click, and select run as administrator, but out the box, that option isnt there when you right click, only install, repair, open with etc. Here's the next trick, you need to add a registry file to enable running as an administrator, dont be afraid, this is an old trick, and really easy.
  • Open notepad in Windows, and create a new doc, call it Add_MSI_run_as_administrator.reg
  • Paste this following code into the new doc
  • Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Msi.Package\Shell\runas] "HasLUAShield"="" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Msi.Package\shell\runas\Command] @=hex(2):22,00,25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,\ 00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,6d,00,\ 73,00,69,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,63,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,22,00,20,00,2f,\ 00,69,00,20,00,22,00,25,00,31,00,22,00,20,00,25,00,2a,00,00,00
  • Or download the file already made from my company server at http://www.theprojectdev.com/public/pub.html **i put this there as a courtesy to help others like me, its just a complete reg file, so either create your own through copy and pasting above or download it. Either way, put it on your desktop.
  • Now double click the new registry file, and allow/ok it to do its thing.
  • Once done, you can discard the file from your desktop, or keep, your choice.
  • Guess What!? Now we can do the impossible! Lets revisit that solution from before by going to the newest BootCamp 5.0.5033, and navigate to BootCamp/drivers/Apple and select that tricky BootCamp MSI file that wouldnt allow us to run, this time RIGHT CLICK it. Because of our new registry entry we placed, we now have an option to "Run as Administrator" Click that option.
  • WooHoo! We have done what coudnt be done, BootCamp will now walk you through the installer, and add all the great support for Windows 8 on your mid 09 Macbook Pro that they for some reason neglected!
  • After the update, you will endure yet another restart. From there, most likely using a wired mouse still, navigate to the system tray icon on the bottom right corner of the screen (little up arrow) and click it. It will pop up a little menu, showing system processes/stuff running, click the gray squared diamond (this is bootcamp) and it will bring up the newest BootCamp control panel. From here, you can nav to trackpad/touchpad and set tap to click (finally) and gestures, etc. This control panel has lots of good stuff to make a MBP user feel comfortable in Windows 8. There you go! You did it!



I really, sincerely hope this helps someone, as it really made my day to get this resolved. I want to add that all On Screen Displays will work (your volume/brightness etc) they keyboard backlighting, and so much more, it really works great. I upgraded my hard drive to 1tb, and installed 8gb of PNY RAM from best buy ($40) and it runs Windows 8, AND OSX fantastically.


My company http://www.theprojectdev.com designs and develops mobile apps (iOS and Android) and web design and development, so im a heavy user of both OS's, and this setup is just the best thing that has happened to me in a portable sense. Runs so so so fast! Enjoy everyone!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Mar 17, 2013 8:28 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 18, 2013 1:14 PM

projectRelentless thank you for taking you time to do this and help all of us loyal Apple users. I was able to install Windows 8 on my MacBook (Late 2009) by following you instructions last night. Since the BC 4 drivers would not install I skipped the step and went on to BC 5 drivers. It seems to be working okay on everything. If its working is there any reason why I should go back and install the other package and then install the 5 again?


Thanks again! Much appreciated!

187 replies

Dec 22, 2013 4:56 PM in response to projectRelentless

When I get to the step where you right click 'bootcamp.msi' and open it as an administrator it gives me an error message saying "This file does not have a program associated with it for performing this action." I double checked and the .msi file is set to open with windows installer.


When I open the file normally it works fine, however that procedes to give the "needs special priveledges message". When I open it as an administrator it gives me the "file not associated with program message". Can anyone help me fix this? Thanks.

Jan 31, 2014 7:00 AM in response to projectRelentless

Hi all!

I have a similar problem. I installed to w7 64b, on a Macbook Pro 17" (mid 2009) with 8GB RAM. I'm now runnin Mavericks (10.9). When I use W7 I get prompted to upgrade to bootcamp 3.3 (I'm on 3.2).

I download it, install it and after reboot, I still have 3.2!

I read millions of discussions about it and finally Apple replied to install 4.0.4033.

The thing is, that I start the install, the display driver installs and everything seems ok, till the point that the "BootCamp64.msi" file is missing. I think that this file supposed to be the older (3.2) version that needs to be removed. I dowloaded (again) the 3.2 bootcamp (that is an.exe file) to install again or repair, but it keeps asking of this bootcamp64.msi file that's missing.

I wouldn't have a problem to stay on 3.2 but my computer freezes many times a day - what can I do - any ideas please?

Feb 15, 2014 4:29 PM in response to projectRelentless

Hello


thanks very much for your post 🙂 im working on trying to fix ecatly this, i am running a mid 2009 17" macbook pro

2.8 core 2 duo , 8 gig DDR3 with windows 8 pro installed.

i installed windows 7 from bootcamp then downloaded my windows 8 pro update and installed this. as i had previously installed the bootcamp drivers on my windows 7, my windows 8 seems to work fine with the track pad and mouse operation. which wasnt the case the first time i tryed this, it has the correct drivers for the Nvida GT9600M graphics card, so it runs games fine. the keyboard buttons also work, volume brigness etc. however the system now no longer shows any sign at all of the correct display drivers, for the intigrated Nvida GT9400M card which is the intigrated graphics card. HELP!

as other posters reported my windows 8 also crashs with everything still on screen when in the internet browser and when watching a youtube video will freeze and crash about half way through, apart from this everything seems to be working.

folling your post i downloaded the bootcamp driver packs, 4.0.4055 and 5.0.5033, in os x booted to windows 8 pro moved them to the desk top. however when i try to run 4.0.4055 i get the message , something like ' software requires to run in windows 7' ARRRRRRR dispair 🙂 i tryed running 5.0.5033 with your steps just to see ( i could try it with them but wanted to post here first to see if i should try and get the 4.0.blar working first) i get the message ' is not supported on your system requires 64bit' or something like that, my windows is the 64 instillation.

i love my apple stuff, love my macbook but for god sake wish they would release a support pack for our macbooks !!!

if anyone could help me out here id be so very grateful and you'l save me from dispair, 😉 i purchased 8 before i realized it was unsupported!! so getting this fixed the best i can is my only option. any help is much appraichated 🙂 many thanks


james

Feb 17, 2014 5:38 AM in response to projectRelentless

Hi,

Thanks for the thread and to everyone involved! it's clearly helped a lot of people out and I thought it may have helped me too but unfortunately I have encountered a problem!

I know the thread has reference to a MacBook Pro 2009 running 10.8.3, however I thought the same process might apply to my MacBook White mid 2010 on 10.9.1 and windows 8.1

So far everything has gone smoothly regarding the boot camp assistant and restart etc up until the windows 8.1 setup which I get an error before setup begins which states 'Widows cannot read the <ProductKey> setting from the unattended answer file', my only option is 'Ok' upon which my mac reboots and attempts the setup again!

I have since booted back into OS X Mavericks in the hope that I can somehow fix the problem, however I am completely lost for ideas!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!


Thanks, Mitch

Mar 26, 2014 3:34 AM in response to kshadow

kshadow wrote:


Hi project


Im having a problem with my MBP mid 2009. I installed windows 7 professional 64bit using bootcamp 5.1.2 and i cant adjust the brightness, use the trackpad, i have no audio. Tried to install the apple support software but it says "Bootcamp x64 is unsupported on this computer model". What do you suggest i can do to try fix this?

Here is a link to a table showing which version of Boot Camp to use (by machine)


Find your Mac and download the correct version for your Mac.

Mar 28, 2014 11:59 AM in response to projectRelentless

I modified Plist, went through a clean installation of Win 8.1 on a Mac Mini 2010 (HDMI) but I couldn't get through the Nvidia drivers installation. They were replaced by the Microsoft High Digital Audio and no sound comes out. All the remaining stuff is fine but whenever I try to install the Nvidia drivers I got a BSoD.

Any suggestions? Do I have to custom BootCamp drivers?


Plz help...

Jul 30, 2014 10:35 AM in response to projectRelentless

Hey Guys


I have a MacBook Pro 2009 which has Mavericks installed. I did have Windows 7 installed also but did a complete upgrade to 8 then to 8.1.


The problem I am having is that I can not install the Bootcamp software at all be it version 4.0.xxxx, 4.1.xxxx, 5.x.xxx or 5.1.xxx.


Every single time I try to install it, I get an error message saying "Bootcamp requires that your computer is running Windows 7"


Any suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated as this is driving me nuts


Thanks Guys


Huza91

Aug 20, 2014 5:48 AM in response to projectRelentless

Hi guys,


so I have managed to install Windows 8 on my Macbook Pro Mid 2009 (with a bootable USB stick thanks to Enable Bootcamp to install from usb for OSX 10.9**WORKS**. and this forum). When tried to install windows 8 using that USB stick and a Boot Camp partition I got the following messages:


"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks"


"Windows cannot be installed to this hard disk space. Windows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS"


"Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disks's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu"


After some googling I found this thread http://superuser.com/questions/481650/cant-use-bootcamp-partition-for-windows-8- installation so I restored the Boot Camp partition, allocated 'free space' for the Windows 8 using Disk Utility and managed to install Windows 8 on that partition.


HOWEVER, when the installation finished without any errors the computer restarts and by holding down ALT key I then choose to boot from freshly installed Windows 8. The Windows 8 logo appears and the loading sign below it, then it says it is installing some devices and once that is finished the screen goes completely black and nothing happens. Restarting again and the Windows logo appears and the loading sign as well but the screen goes black again. The HDD is running but nothing happens. Any thoughts on how I can fix this?


Specs,

OSX 10.9.4

Mid 2009

8Gb RAM

200Gb partition for windows 8 (HDD in total 750Gb)

HDD installed where Optical Drive was since the main HDD cable is broken


-DoriEi

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How to install Windows 8 on Mid 09 Macbook Pro (10.8.3)

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