[GUIDE] Install Windows 7 on Air 2015

[davidcie]

I finally got it to work, except for when I try install the bootcamp drivers, it says it's not intended for this computer model, even though I used bootcamp in OS X to download the drivers.

Please have a look at the Drivers section in the OP, you cannot simply install Bootcamp as downloaded from Apple website. They really do not want you to run Windows 7 on this computer after all

To anyone having trouble formatting the Windows partition as NTFS in Windows installer — if the option to format is greyed out you can try the following:

1. Press Shift+F10 to bring up the command prompt.
2. diskpart
3. list disk and note the disk with the size of your Air's SSD
4. select disk <your disk number, most likely 0>
5. list partition and note the partition the size of the Windows partition you created in Disk Utility
6. select partition <your Windows partition number>
7. set id=ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7 override (this is NTFS GPT filesystem id)
8. format fs=ntfs quick
9. exit
10. Refresh the list of partitions displayed by installer, it should now allow you to select your designated Windows partition.

 

[tl166115]

Please have a look at the Drivers section in the OP, you cannot simply install Bootcamp as downloaded from Apple website. They really do not want you to run Windows 7 on this computer after all

To anyone having trouble formatting the Windows partition as NTFS in Windows installer — if the option to format is greyed out you can try the following:

1. Press Shift+F10 to bring up the command prompt.
2. diskpart
3. list disk and note the disk with the size of your Air's SSD
4. select disk <your disk number, most likely 0>
5. list partition and note the partition the size of the Windows partition you created in Disk Utility
6. select partition <your Windows partition number>
7. set id=ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7 override (this is NTFS GPT filesystem id)
8. format fs=ntfs quick
9. exit
10. Refresh the list of partitions displayed by installer, it should now allow you to select your designated Windows partition.

Hi David!

In my opinion, this notification that saying the BootCamp isn't suitable for the model is caused by the user using the "bootcamp.exe" to install rather than install the drivers one by one in the "Drivers" folder. Apple couldn't imagine that we can actually install Win7 in 2015 MBP so they did not put any supportive stuff in their installation program, aka, the "boot camp.exe."

 

[davidcie]

In my opinion, this notification that saying the BootCamp isn't suitable for the model is caused by the user using the "bootcamp.exe" to install rather than install the drivers one by one in the "Drivers" folder.

Definitely, I always install drivers one by one if only because I do not want it to install everything it possibly can as it usually does AFAIK. So install drivers one by one and Boocamp.msi (from an admin console) is the way to go in my experience.

 

[coma22]

So install drivers one by one and Boocamp.msi (from an admin console) is the way to go in my experience.

Hey . I bought it. IMac Retina 2015. Video card Intel HD 6200. Do I use your VgaShim files?

 

[davidcie]

Hey . I bought it. IMac Retina 2015. Video card Intel HD 6200. Do I use your VgaShim files?

Some have tried it on iMacs but it does not work out of the box, probably some modifications would be needed. Would love to help but do not have the hardware to try and come up with a solution

 

[wilsonchandra]

Hi David,

I really appreciate the effort on running Windows 7 on newer macs.

I am now trying it on my MacBook Pro 13 (2016)

Managed to get to the "Windows is loading files" screen, but I just got stuck there.

Attached is the verbose log of VGAShim, any ideas?

Thanks

 

[davidcie]

I am now trying it on my MacBook Pro 13 (2016) Managed to get to the "Windows is loading files" screen, but I just got stuck there.

Hello Wilson! Thanks for stopping by and sacrificing a bit of time to try and get one of the better Windows versions running on your machine From the log file it seems that there is hope in that your firmware supports the injection stragegy devised for the Air 2015. I would guess the reason it is ultimately failing nonetheless stems from the Pro also having a secondary discrete GPU (NVIDIA) which either your firmware or indeed Windows configures / uses in a way that throws the latter off.

Would love to help, especially given that from the messages it seems it should be possible to make it work, but unfortunately without access to a similar laptop cannot go much beyond a polite "best of luck"

 

[wilsonchandra]

Hello Wilson! Thanks for stopping by and sacrificing a bit of time to try and get one of the better Windows versions running on your machine From the log file it seems that there is hope in that your firmware supports the injection stragegy devised for the Air 2015. I would guess the reason it is ultimately failing nonetheless stems from the Pro also having a secondary discrete GPU (NVIDIA) which either your firmware or indeed Windows configures / uses in a way that throws the latter off.

Would love to help, especially given that from the messages it seems it should be possible to make it work, but unfortunately without access to a similar laptop cannot go much beyond a polite "best of luck"

Hi David,

Thanks for your reply!

I currently have a 13 inch MacBook Pro in which there is no discrete graphics, only Intel graphics is available.

Should there be any steps to troubleshoot or if there any logs to give, I will gladly try it and report it back...

 

[davidcie]

I currently have a 13 inch MacBook Pro in which there is no discrete graphics, only Intel graphics is available.

Ah I see! Sorry, was on vacation and forgot to check specs before posting. So you have the Late 2016 MacBookPro13,1 with Iris 540? Or the MacBookPro13,2 with Iris 550 and touch bar?

 

[wilsonchandra]

Ah I see! Sorry, was on vacation and forgot to check specs before posting. So you have the Late 2016 MacBookPro13,1 with Iris 540? Or the MacBookPro13,2 with Iris 550 and touch bar?

I have the Late 2016 MacBookPro13,2 with Iris 550 and touch bar.

Btw, have a fun vacation! Just reply to me after the vacation

 

[artician]

Thank you so, so much for putting together this guide, and doing all the research and development that preceded it.

I have a MBP mid-2015 that I'm attempting this on. I think I know what's preventing me from success but I wanted to confirm. I'm experiencing the issue after booting from my USB drive, but the windows logo will appear and then... nothing.
My MBP model has two GPU's; Intel and AMD. Would this be the primary culprit? Would injecting the appropriate AMD GPU drivers into the windows installation files be a workaround? Or is that somehow different than what your steps did for USB3.0 support?

Again, many sincere thanks for all your hard work and help.

 

[davidcie]

@artician I'm afraid it's a little bit more complex than that. With those discrete cards I've heard that you'd need to first disable the integrated GPU and than make sure the AMD chip is enabled and ready to draw on screen. Then perhaps integrated Windows drivers would be able to find and communicate with the card.

Unfortunately you'll have to look elsewhere as this strategy / situation is quite a bit different and I do not have the hardware to test any ideas I might have Best of luck thou!

 

[tl166115]

I am not sure. try injecting both Intel and AMD drivers

Thank you so, so much for putting together this guide, and doing all the research and development that preceded it.

I have a MBP mid-2015 that I'm attempting this on. I think I know what's preventing me from success but I wanted to confirm. I'm experiencing the issue after booting from my USB drive, but the windows logo will appear and then... nothing.
My MBP model has two GPU's; Intel and AMD. Would this be the primary culprit? Would injecting the appropriate AMD GPU drivers into the windows installation files be a workaround? Or is that somehow different than what your steps did for USB3.0 support?

Again, many sincere thanks for all your hard work and help.

 

[artician]

I hope no one minds that I continue to post here for help. I keep making baby-steps with this, but I need some hints and tips --

-I'm savvy.
-I followed all instructions here.
-I can boot from the thumbdrive.
-I can get as far as Advanced Boot Menu via F8.
-Selecting Safe Mode with Command Line in Advance Boot Option menu will display the Windows drivers as they're loaded.
-Windows driver list stops at the file "disk.sys".

I'm stuck on disk.sys, and according to google the most likely culprit is a video card incompatibility, which makes sense given that this is the first model macbook pro with dual intel and AMD GPUs.

I attempted to inject the proper Win7 AMD/Radeon drivers into my Win7 install ISO, however I received an error. It is this process that I'm woefully ignorant of. The drivers for the AMD GPU contain a subdirectory along with the CAT INF and SYS files.
I first attempted to inject the drivers by having the additional subdirectory within the /inject/drivers/ folder, but that threw an error.
I next dumped the contents of the subdirectory into the /inject/drivers/ folder just to see, but this threw a different error, expectedly.

Can anyone offer any insight? Many thanks in advance.

 

[tl166115]

I hope no one minds that I continue to post here for help. I keep making baby-steps with this, but I need some hints and tips --

-I'm savvy.
-I followed all instructions here.
-I can boot from the thumbdrive.
-I can get as far as Advanced Boot Menu via F8.
-Selecting Safe Mode with Command Line in Advance Boot Option menu will display the Windows drivers as they're loaded.
-Windows driver list stops at the file "disk.sys".

I'm stuck on disk.sys, and according to google the most likely culprit is a video card incompatibility, which makes sense given that this is the first model macbook pro with dual intel and AMD GPUs.

I attempted to inject the proper Win7 AMD/Radeon drivers into my Win7 install ISO, however I received an error. It is this process that I'm woefully ignorant of. The drivers for the AMD GPU contain a subdirectory along with the CAT INF and SYS files.
I first attempted to inject the drivers by having the additional subdirectory within the /inject/drivers/ folder, but that threw an error.
I next dumped the contents of the subdirectory into the /inject/drivers/ folder just to see, but this threw a different error, expectedly.

Can anyone offer any insight? Many thanks in advance.

Hi!

I am the thread creator of install Win7 on Mac Book Pro 2015, and I might be able to help.

First of all, I have a Mac with Intel GPU, so I do not offer guarantees.

There are two possible methods that you might want to try, but either one requires a tool called "RT7Lite." This tool enables you to inject any drivers

1. Use RT7Lite and get ALL of the Inf files into the installation disk. Also, inject the Intel GPU'S INF,
2. Only inject the driver for Intel so the AMD GPU won't even be used.

None of these have been verified; these are just my thoughts

Tom

 

[artician]

Hi!

I am the thread creator of install Win7 on Mac Book Pro 2015, and I might be able to help.

First of all, I have a Mac with Intel GPU, so I do not offer guarantees.

There are two possible methods that you might want to try, but either one requires a tool called "RT7Lite." This tool enables you to inject any drivers

1. Use RT7Lite and get ALL of the Inf files into the installation disk. Also, inject the Intel GPU'S INF,
2. Only inject the driver for Intel so the AMD GPU won't even be used.

None of these have been verified; these are just my thoughts

Tom

Hi! Thank you for replying. I originally read your thread at first, but I wasn't able to locate RT7Lite. The original page is down, and I don't know if I can trust softpedia. I used to use the Lite Win hacks with Win2k and XP. Do you know another source for the RT7Lite installer?

Otherwise this thread seemed to be the next best thing.

I originally only injected the driver for Intel, and it results in the behavior I described.

I am currently looking at disabling the AMD card in EFI for the duration of the Win7 install.

 

[tl166115]

Hi! Thank you for replying. I originally read your thread at first, but I wasn't able to locate RT7Lite. The original page is down, and I don't know if I can trust softpedia. I used to use the Lite Win hacks with Win2k and XP. Do you know another source for the RT7Lite installer?

Otherwise this thread seemed to be the next best thing.

I originally only injected the driver for Intel, and it results in the behavior I described.

I am currently looking at disabling the AMD card in EFI for the duration of the Win7 install.

Try download it via my own google drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bcOVaB3jPOxYtz1Hx3KqN7QT49yKxeFA/view?usp=sharing

 

[davidcie]

@artician you have much better chance of success following the instructions @tl166115 produced. This thread is mostly about the Air and since I do not have access to a more recent Macbook Pro, I also have no way to help out those trying to make it work under W7 Thread will be updated in case of any hardware purchases in the family thou

 

[tl166115]

Hi! Thank you for replying. I originally read your thread at first, but I wasn't able to locate RT7Lite. The original page is down, and I don't know if I can trust softpedia. I used to use the Lite Win hacks with Win2k and XP. Do you know another source for the RT7Lite installer?

Otherwise this thread seemed to be the next best thing.

I originally only injected the driver for Intel, and it results in the behavior I described.

I am currently looking at disabling the AMD card in EFI for the duration of the Win7 install.

I have been searching for a while about how to disable one of the two GPUs in Mac and here is what I found:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...efi-variable-fix.2037591/page-5#post-24511780

No any promises thou. What I found is that for any Non-Mac OS, the EFI would disable the INTEGRATED GPU not the AMD one. This explains why the integration of Intel GPU driver will fail. But if there is no(or no detectable) dedicated GPU, then obviously Integrated GPU will(have to) be enabled. That link tells you how to disable the AMD GPU, making it unable to be detected by EFI. I even don’t have an idea whether it is gonna work or not because this is for 2011 Mac. But it might worth a try! Common sense tells me that system integrity protection has to be disabled.

Tom

 

[trifero]

It´s a pity that Windows 7 is not supported in the MBA 2015. Thanks for all your work, davidcie.

 

[davidcie]

MacBook Pro Update
I recently had a chance to work on a MacBookPro12,1 (Early 2015) which only has Iris 6100 graphics and as such is similar to the titular MacBookAir7,2. The procedure described in the OP works, with only minor troubleshooting required:

• High Sierra Disk Utility errored the first time I tried to partition my SSD but worked at the second attempt
• Windows 7 Setup for some reason did not like the partition created above; I deleted the Windows partition in setup and created a new one using the freed up disk space
• Had to disable macOS System Integrity Protection after installing High Sierra to make ESP partition bootable with the bless command
• As described in another thread, a little trickery is needed to have a fully functioning trackpad. The driver will install fine on Professional and up if you disable driver signing via gpedit.msc. Alternatively, you should be fine simply running DPInst.exe /F /LM when in the driver's unpacked folder. If you use the driver pack provided below, you'll find a _forceInstall.bat that does this for you.

Drivers
You can download the entire pack here. Alternatively, Bootcamp 5.1.5769 may be downloaded from Apple website; Bootcamp 6.0.6133 is unfortunately only available via the Boot Camp Assistant OS X app or on torrent sites. Either way, this is what I installed on MacBookPro12,1:

• Apple System Devices (aka "Null Driver") v5.1.4.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Apple Camera v5.0.22.0 from Bootcamp 5.1.5769
• Apple Keyboard v5.1.6160.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Apple SD Card Reader v1.0.0.1 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Apple Trackpad v5.1.5900.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Cirrus Audio CS4208 v6.6001.3.24 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Broadcom USB Bluetooth v6.0.6100.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133 $WinPEDriver$ folder
• Broadcom BCM4360 PCI-E wifi v1.558.48.0 from the web
• Intel Chipset INF Update v10.1.1.42 from Intel website
• Intel Iris 6100 v15.40.38.4963 from Intel website
• Intel Management Engine v11.7.0.1068 from Intel website
• Boot Camp Control Panel (BootCamp.msi) v5.1.5769 from Bootcamp 5.1.5769

 

[tl166115]

MacBook Pro Update
I recently had a chance to work on a MacBookPro12,1 (Early 2015) which only has Iris 6100 graphics and as such is similar to the titular MacBookAir7,2. The procedure described in the OP works, with only minor troubleshooting required:

• High Sierra Disk Utility errored the first time I tried to partition my SSD but worked at the second attempt
• Windows 7 Setup for some reason did not like the partition created above; I deleted the Windows partition in setup and created a new one using the freed up disk space
• Had to disable macOS System Integrity Protection after installing High Sierra to make ESP partition bootable with the bless command
• As described in another thread, a little trickery is needed to have a fully functioning trackpad. The driver will install fine on Professional and up if you disable driver signing via gpedit.msc. Alternatively, you should be fine simply running DPInst.exe /F /LM when in the driver's unpacked folder. If you use the driver pack provided below, you'll find a _forceInstall.bat that does this for you.

Drivers
You can download the entire pack here. Alternatively, Bootcamp 5.1.5769 may be downloaded from Apple website; Bootcamp 6.0.6133 is unfortunately only available via the Boot Camp Assistant OS X app or on torrent sites. Either way, this is what I installed on MacBookPro12,1:

• Apple System Devices (aka "Null Driver") v5.1.4.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Apple Camera v5.0.22.0 from Bootcamp 5.1.5769
• Apple Keyboard v5.1.6160.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Apple SD Card Reader v1.0.0.1 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Apple Trackpad v5.1.5900.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Cirrus Audio CS4208 v6.6001.3.24 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Broadcom USB Bluetooth v6.0.6100.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133 $WinPEDriver$ folder
• Broadcom BCM4360 PCI-E wifi v1.558.48.0 from the web
• Intel Chipset INF Update v10.1.1.42 from Intel website
• Intel Iris 6100 v15.40.38.4963 from Intel website
• Intel Management Engine v11.7.0.1068 from Intel website
• Boot Camp Control Panel (BootCamp.msi) v5.1.5769 from Bootcamp 5.1.5769

Hi David! It’s been forever since we celebrated the success in MacBook Pro. Congrats for your success as well! Does your camera function normally? I had somebody posted a thread recently talking about their camera not functioning and since I abandoned my MBP after it burning one mobile hard disk and one mouse I was unable to help...

 

[davidcie]

It’s been forever since we celebrated the success in MacBook Pro. Congrats for your success as well!

Yeah, I know you worked on it ages ago but wanted to confirm the general procedure here since people are still asking via PM, and threw in an up-to-date driver pack as a bonus... will be useful for myself too when I get another MBP to work on in one or two years' time

Does your camera function normally? I had somebody posted a thread recently talking about their camera not functioning

This particular client wanted to use this computer for Skype and this was a must. Yes, I can confirm that it works fine – just note it has to come from Bootcamp 5.1.5769 and not 6.0.6133. The correct driver is included in my MBP driver pack above just in case.

 

[trifero]

MacBook Pro Update
I recently had a chance to work on a MacBookPro12,1 (Early 2015) which only has Iris 6100 graphics and as such is similar to the titular MacBookAir7,2. The procedure described in the OP works, with only minor troubleshooting required:

• High Sierra Disk Utility errored the first time I tried to partition my SSD but worked at the second attempt
• Windows 7 Setup for some reason did not like the partition created above; I deleted the Windows partition in setup and created a new one using the freed up disk space
• Had to disable macOS System Integrity Protection after installing High Sierra to make ESP partition bootable with the bless command
• As described in another thread, a little trickery is needed to have a fully functioning trackpad. The driver will install fine on Professional and up if you disable driver signing via gpedit.msc. Alternatively, you should be fine simply running DPInst.exe /F /LM when in the driver's unpacked folder. If you use the driver pack provided below, you'll find a _forceInstall.bat that does this for you.

Drivers
You can download the entire pack here. Alternatively, Bootcamp 5.1.5769 may be downloaded from Apple website; Bootcamp 6.0.6133 is unfortunately only available via the Boot Camp Assistant OS X app or on torrent sites. Either way, this is what I installed on MacBookPro12,1:

• Apple System Devices (aka "Null Driver") v5.1.4.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Apple Camera v5.0.22.0 from Bootcamp 5.1.5769
• Apple Keyboard v5.1.6160.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Apple SD Card Reader v1.0.0.1 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Apple Trackpad v5.1.5900.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Cirrus Audio CS4208 v6.6001.3.24 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133
• Broadcom USB Bluetooth v6.0.6100.0 from Bootcamp 6.0.6133 $WinPEDriver$ folder
• Broadcom BCM4360 PCI-E wifi v1.558.48.0 from the web
• Intel Chipset INF Update v10.1.1.42 from Intel website
• Intel Iris 6100 v15.40.38.4963 from Intel website
• Intel Management Engine v11.7.0.1068 from Intel website
• Boot Camp Control Panel (BootCamp.msi) v5.1.5769 from Bootcamp 5.1.5769

Thank you so much

 

[MicroTecture]

Well, I don't mean to bring such an old thread back from the grave, but I've tried to actually get this working on my MBA Early 2015 and so far, I've used VGAShim and a fork of it both working fine (not really relevant for what I'm going to say) to me. When I get to the setup part, I can move my cursor and all of that but the setup does not recognize my drive, neither does diskpart within the installer.


Anyone know what to do from here?

Thanks!