MacOS – How to install Windows 8 or 10 on MacBook Air 2015 11″ El Captain

bootcampmacbook promacoswindows

I want to install Windows on my internal SSD. Because my internet connection is slow and unreliable, and the download within Boot Camp Assistant can't be resumed I've downloaded the support software (Boot Camp drivers: AppleBcUpdate.exe) directly from Apple using this direct link.

I did use the Boot Camp Assistant to make a bootable drive for Windows and put the support software in another drive. When I try to proceed I get the error message

"couldn't find the support software.....".

How can I proceed from here?

Best Answer

You fetched the wrong installer. The recommended way is to simply open in the menubar of Boot Camp Assistant > Action > Download Windows Support Software.

This will download and unpack all necessary files and you can simply continue installing Windows.

An alternative is brigadier. This is a python script which downloads support software for an arbitrary Mac.

Download the zip (direct link!) and unpack it. Open Terminal and cd into the resulting folder: cd .../Path/to/brigadier-master (probably cd ~/Downloads/brigadier-master).

Then enter ./brigadier --model=MacBookAir7,1. The command will download the proper installer and compile a WindowsSupport.dmg in the brigadier-master folder. This dmg file contains all necessary files and folders (an xml file, a drivers folder and a $WinPE folder).

Terminal output:

host:brigadier-master user$./brigadier --model=MacBookAir7,1
Using Mac model: MacBookAir7,1.

Model supported in package distribution file at http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/39/14/031-55710/u2c6bi4yl91ud1lqc3k53bx9860hvsnf7z/031-55710.English.dist.

Distribution 031-55710 supports the following models: MacBook8,1, MacBookAir5,1,
MacBookAir5,2, MacBookAir6,1, MacBookAir6,2, MacBookAir7,1, 
MacBookAir7,2, MacBookPro9,1, MacBookPro9,2, MacBookPro11,1, MacBookPro11,2,
MacBookPro11,3, MacBookPro11,4, MacBookPro11,5, MacBookPro12,1, MacPro6,1, 
Macmini6,1, Macmini6,2, Macmini7,1, iMac13,1, iMac13,2, iMac13,3, iMac14,1, 
iMac14,2, iMac14,3, iMac14,4, iMac15,1.

Making directory /Users/user/Downloads/brigadier-master/BootCamp-031-55710..

Fetching Boot Camp product at URL http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/39/14/031-55710/u2c6bi4yl91ud1lqc3k53bx9860hvsnf7z/BootCampESD.pkg.

100.0% 1614454784 / 1614454648 bytes
Expanding flat package...

Extracting Payload...

Extracted to /Users/user/Downloads/brigadier-master/BootCamp-031-55710/WindowsSupport.dmg.

Done.
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