Microsoft Outlines Issue With Windows 10 Updates for Older Macs, Solution Coming This Month

Microsoft is facing an issue with Windows 10 updates for Mac devices that came out prior to 2012, as well as newer Macs with older versions of Boot Camp. When users attempt to update to the May 2019 Feature Update for Windows 10, version 1903, there is a driver incompatibility error.

On its support page for the issue, Microsoft reported:

Mac devices prior to 2012 or newer Mac devices with the older Apple Boot Camp or Windows Support Software drivers have a compatibilty hold in place and are unable to update to Windows 10, version 1903. Specifically, devices with MacHALDriver.sys dated September 24, 2011 01:57:09 or older in Windows\system32\drivers are affected.

Microsoft went on to state that updating your Boot Camp Windows Support Software drivers may allow you to update to version 1903 of Windows 10. The company is working on an official solution that it hopes will be out by the end of July.

Boot Camp is a utility on macOS that allows users to install and use Microsoft Windows operating systems on Mac devices.

You can read the full support doc by heading to Microsoft's website.

Tags: Windows 10, Boot Camp

Top Rated Comments

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Awesome discussion

2 weeks ago

I just hope Apple doesn't hire any of these Microsoft engineers.

while ms sucessfully manage to update millions of different hardware architectures apple fails at 3. according to you the whole apple software team had to go when iOS 8 was released

Rating: 4 Votes

Max E Verde

2 weeks ago

FYI I install updates for Windows at work and many Windows PCs also have similar errors with drivers when updating to 1903.

Rating: 3 Votes

Delgibbons

2 weeks ago

while ms sucessfully manage to update millions of different hardware architectures apple fails at 3. according to you the whole apple software team had to go when iOS 8 was released

Damn right Sir. MILLIONS of combinations of hardware going way back to the legacy days. Macs don't even bloody support Nvidia graphics cards, so pipe down.

My PC was on hold until the new Intel display driver appeared and now its updating. Rather have a hold and have to wait a while than update and break...

Rating: 2 Votes

saulinpa

2 weeks ago

1903 was meant to be March 2019. They are reporting issues now? My VMs went to 1903 last month but my physical W10 boxes aren't going yet as they are reporting not ready either.

I just hope Apple doesn't hire any of these Microsoft engineers.

Rating: 2 Votes

crjackson2134

2 weeks ago

Works(ed) until now, my question was what would happen if you update to the latest version 1903, run into the same problems as above?

Well it's on 1903, but I haven't updated again since about 5 days ago, so I'll check if you like.

Okay, so I just got the latest updates, and it all works perfectly on my MP5,1...

Windows 10
Ver. 1903
Build 18362.207

No problems updating, no problems booting back and forth from macOS to WIN10. All flawless for now.

Rating: 2 Votes

saulinpa

2 weeks ago

while ms sucessfully manage to update millions of different hardware architectures apple fails at 3. according to you the whole apple software team had to go when iOS 8 was released

When was Apple four months late for a minor software update and then only releasing it to some saying it wasn't ready for the rest? 1903 is not supposed to be a major release. Like going from 9.1 to 9.2. There aren't that many architectures but peripheral combinations that give "millions."

Rating: 1 Votes

dmylrea

2 weeks ago

March version "released" 2nd half of May when only a few were able to install was a Joke. Only now is it starting to gain wide availability but a significant amount of computers still can't use it. It was "released" more of a beta probably because they have a history of previous disasters.

Different animal. Catalina is marketed as a significant jump and states that it is dropping support for hardware and software. W10 1903 was supposed to be stable and incremental release, part of W10's quarterly updates that are supposed to be safe.

You can download 1903 manually from MS and install it at any time. I've updated about a dozen computers and not a single one did I wait for Windows Update to tell me "You're ready".

More importantly, why do you care so much? 1903 really isn't that much a different animal than 1809. Sandboxing? Half-baked. Different GUI theme? It's different...if you need that.

Rating: 1 Votes

crjackson2134

2 weeks ago

1903 in CSM mode, with BootCamp driver for iMacPro 1,1 is installed on my Mid-2012 cMP 5,1 without any issues whatsoever. Booting and updating reliably from an SSD mounted in Drive Bay 1.

Rating: 1 Votes

Dave-Z

2 weeks ago

I really loathe Microsoft and a lot of it’s software, but in all honesty, it’s working very well on my MP5,1.

I really felt the same way, but after all the trouble I've had with my iPad I decided to switch to a Windows 2-in-1 and I'm liking it. I've had no problems. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Rating: 1 Votes

chucker23n1

2 weeks ago

Windows can run on ARM. Though who knows if it will be compatible with what Apple rolls out.

Yeah, we'll see.

ARM is nowhere near as standardized/abstracted as x86, so many of Windows on ARM's drivers are Qualcomm-specific. We probably depend on Apple and/or Microsoft to provide a lot of low-level stuff there.

And even if it does run, it isn't quite the same. Virtually all apps are x86 today and run in emulation. A lot of developer tooling is also lacking or limited compared to x86, so even if developers want to help with porting, they may not be able to (add to that that there's neither an IDE-integrated emulator nor a whole lot of actual hardware to test with).

Rating: 1 Votes

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