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

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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.

windows 10 issue
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.

Top Rated Comments

Awesome discussion Avatar
93 months 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
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Max E Verde Avatar
93 months ago
FYI I install updates for Windows at work and many Windows PCs also have similar errors with drivers when updating to 1903.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Delgibbons Avatar
93 months 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...
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
crjackson2134 Avatar
93 months 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.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
93 months 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.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
chucker23n1 Avatar
92 months 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).
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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