Boot Camp Windows 8 drivers

Question

Boot Camp Windows 8 drivers

I've been able to load Windows 8.1 on my old MacBook 7,1 (mid 2010 I think) by cheating and playing with the Boot Camp Assistants info.plist.

This actually worked to my surprise but it appears that at least some of the boot camp files haven't been installed (keyboard and internet works) and in particular the trackpad drivers are missing even though it works with the defaults. It's usable but clicking and dragging causes lots of problems. I bet a mouse would work but I don't have one right now.

I would like to try installing the drivers manually from Apple but because this model of MacBook is officially not compatible with 8.1 the installer for the Windows 8 tools doesn't let me continue. If I try the Windows 7 tools it says it not's compatible with Windows 8.

Is there any hack to this that I could install the proper trackpad drivers from Apple without going through their installers? I know this is not supported but Windows 7 is supported on this model of MacBook so there must be drivers available and it's possible they work with Windows 8 also.

Posted on Oct 20, 2015 8:15 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 21, 2015 4:34 AM in response to thealchemistguild

From How to identify MacBook Pro models - Apple Support and Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033, get and install individual drivers using the specific executables, without using the setup.exe. The system requirements for this version are

Post Date: Mar 14, 2013

File Size: 601.76

System Requirements

MacBook (13-inch, Late 2006)
MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2007)
MacBook (13-inch, Late 2007)
MacBook (13-inch, Early 2008)
MacBook (13-inch, Late 2008)
MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009 & Mid 2009)
MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009) *
MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010) *
MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2008)
MacBook Air (13-inch, Late 2008 & Mid 2009)
MacBook Air (11-inch & 13-inch, Late 2010) *
MacBook Pro (15-inch & 17-inch, Core 2 Duo)
MacBook Pro (15-inch & 17-inch, 2.2 & 2.4GHz)
MacBook Pro (15-inch & 17-inch, Early 2008) *
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008) *
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early 2009 & Mid 2009) *
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2009) *
MacBook Pro (13-inch and 15-inch, Mid 2009) *
MacBook Pro (13-inch,15-inch, and 17-inch, Mid 2010)
MacBook Pro (13-in, 15-inch, and 17-inch, Early 2011 & Late 2011)
Mac Pro (Mid 2006)
Mac Pro (Early 2008) *
Mac Pro (Early 2009)
Mac Pro (Early 2007)
Mac Pro (Mid 2010)
Mac Pro (15-inch and 17-inch, 2.2 & 2.4GHz)
Mac mini (Mid 2007)
Mac mini (Early 2009 & Late 2009)
Mac mini (Mid 2010) *
iMac (17-inch, Late 2006)
iMac (20-inch, Late 2006)
iMac (24-inch, Late 2006)
iMac (20-inch & 24-inch, Mid 2007)
iMac (20-inch & 24-inch, Early 2008)
iMac (20-inch, Early 2009 & Mid 2009)
iMac (21.5-inch & 27-inch, Late 2009) *
iMac (27-inch, Late 2009) *
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2010) *
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2010)
iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011 & Late 2011)
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2011)

all these drivers support Windows 7, 32 bit

* drivers that support Windows 7, 32 and 64 bit

Reply

Answer 2

Oct 21, 2015 7:17 AM in response to Loner T

Those only work with Windows 7 and I wasn't able to get Windows 7 to boot from USB like Windows 8 (DVD drive is broken).

I was able to install the trackpad drivers manually (on Windows 8) but I don't know how to "enable" them and override the defaults that are already installed (it may not be possible without the main installer).

Reply

Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,471 points

Oct 21, 2015 7:32 AM in response to thealchemistguild

Download the drivers to a USB flash drive and switch to Windows. Copy the USB content to a local Windows folder and run individual executables by hand. You can try 5.0.5033, but you may run into other issues.

Reply

Answer 4

Oct 21, 2015 7:35 AM in response to Loner T

I was able to install the trackpad drivers and they appear in the device manager but they're not "active" because the other drivers seem to be taking priority (i.e. nothing changed after installation). I don't know anything about how Windows handles drivers but it's possible I need to install something else or configure something (more research is needed), perhaps a control panel or something.

Reply