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Where are the Apple Windows drivers?

When I first installed Windows (XP) on my Mac, I used Boot Camp, which loaded a bunch of "Windows Driver Package - Apple Inc." modules to run the keyboard, display, and such. Over the years I began running the Boot Camp partition from Parallels, then pulled it out of the partition into a VM once I mastered the knack of successfully running low-level network tools from the VM. I also upgraded over those years to Windows 7 and Windows 10, but those drivers (more likely, their upgraded replacements) stayed resident in Windows.


Recently, I wanted to upgrade my Windows 10 from 32-bit to 64-bit. This is not a trivial upgrade, requiring a completely clean install of the OS followed by a "good luck with that" manual migration of your old files and apps. At one point, I got a snarky message from Windows to the effect that I was using more resources than I ought to because it was using a generic driver for my display. Checking Programs, I discovered that all my Apple-specific drivers were gone. A web search for information about how to get them back has been fruitless; double-plus fruitless on the badly-organized Parallels KB.


I know that originally the drivers were resident on the DVD that Boot Camp Utility burned to install Windows. I'm sure I still have it, but the DVD is way older than Windows 10, and might not even have the 64-bit drivers to boot. I would assume that since I'm using Parallels, I may not even need the drivers, except that I got that snarky message, so it appears that Windows, at least, cares.


I considered "dry-running" a Boot Camp installation just to get it to write the drivers onto some thumb media, but the current BC Utility wants to slice and dice my disc partitions BEFORE giving up the good stuff, so I aborted.


So:


1) Do I still NEED those drivers if I'm running under Parallels?

2) If so, where do I find them?

MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra (10.12.6)

Posted on Apr 21, 2018 9:15 PM

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Posted on Apr 22, 2018 3:39 AM

no a virtual machine use it's own drivers


if the mac is new enough to officially support windows 10 one makes the drivers pack on macOS like this https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSxOTQT8zSM7xzXDlUG08Chr4xN xqXYTFM8iooWWfxYZ5qeOUPNEA


if it's too old to have windows 10 support https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204990 click "mac models you can use with windows 10"


you have to try using the windows8 drivers

https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1720?locale=en_US

Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5640

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Where are the Apple Windows drivers?

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