Pro Display XDR drivers on PC

[Albabit]

Hello everyone !

I have a Windows 11 PC equipped with a Thunderbolt motherboard, which supports the bridge connection with my RTX 4090 (DisplayPort > Thunderbolt).
My Apple Pro XDR display works, but I can't install the correct Apple drivers, despite my many retries...

I followed, for example,
-this guide here: https://imbushuo.net/blog/archives/1006/
-Or this conversation here, with @etc who seemed to know the issue well and provided many answers: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/xdr-pro-display-windows-11.2416046/

The difference for me is that my screen is connected directly to Thunderbolt, so I don't need to use a Belkin USB-C adapter or anything else...

My problem is that the driver associated with my display is the old Microsoft "Generic Monitor" driver.

With Brigadier, using the model "--model MacPro7,1" option, I get the package "BootCamp-002-34411".
(In which I've correctly conserved the driver folder: "AppleProDisplayXDRUSBCompositeDevice").
I run the command "msiexec /i BootCamp.msi", Bootcamp is well installed,
but in BootCamp's "Monitor" tab, it displays that "No supported external monitor is connected".
My Bootcamp version is 6.1.0.

The driver is still the generic Microsoft one.
(In Windows Devices Manager, when I try to update my driver, locating the "AppleProDisplayXDRUSBCompositeDevice" folder, it doesn't install anything and tells me that "The best drivers for my device are already installed")...

Every time my PC is started up, I have to disconnect and reconnect my ProDisplayXDR to get 6K resolution instead of 5K.

Do you have, please, any idea how I can install the correct drivers instead of the current generic ?

Thanks in advance for your help! 🤞

 

[etc]

The display itself and its USB composite device are different devices for Windows. You're trying to install USB driver for the display instead of installing it for "Unknown Device" which should be present in the device manager. BootCamp uses that device to control XDR, so if it says that there's no external monitor, that could mean one of these:

1) XDR as a device is not allowed to connect to TB port (you need to open Thunderbolt Control Center to check this);
2) Composite device drivers are not installed (so there should be an "Unknown Device" or something like this in the Device Manager);
3) Wrong TB controller setup in the UEFI, so it doesn't allow anything to be connected (so, no "Unknown Device" is present and hence "No external monitor") and it just passes DP-signal through itself. You should check TB controller settings in UEFI.

As for 6K, I suppose you won't get even if you manage to make composite device working. This involves some kind of a EDID editing magic or something like that, but I preferred to switch to USB-C solution just because it "just works" (c) without that TB controller mess.

 

[Albabit]

Thanks a lot @etc for your help ! ❤️
Your clarifications help me to understand all this better.

I had no "Unknown Device" in the Device Manager.
It seems that the right solution was the 3rd one.
Indeed, Thunderbolt discrete card support was disabled in the bios !
(Actually I thought this only meant support for an additional dedicated Thunderbolt PCI card in the PC).

Now that I've enabled it, BootCamp recognizes my ProXDR monitor ! 😁 And the color profiles are working.

(I notice that the brightness slider does not change the brightness with the default profile "Pro Display XDR (P3-1600 nits). But it works with the others.
However, it works in Windows display settings.
Not a major problem).

But I still have to unplug and re-plug the monitor once Windows is running, for BootCamp to recognize it and give me the full 6K resolution.

I notice that the "Apple Pro Display XDR USB Composite Device" driver is correctly installed in the USB bus controllers. The driver is dated 22/08/2019.

As for the display driver, if I've understood you correctly, it's normal for it to still be the generic Microsoft driver?

(Also, do you know why you can have the BootCamp version 6.1.8082, while I can only have 6.1.0 ? ^^ )

Thank you once again for your precious help !

 

[etc]

(I notice that the brightness slider does not change the brightness with the default profile "Pro Display XDR (P3-1600 nits). But it works with the others.
However, it works in Windows display settings.
Not a major problem).

This is because 1600 nits profile activates HDR mode in Windows. To control brightness, disable HDR in Windows Screen settings. Or switch to 500 nits basic profile or whatever it's called.

But I still have to unplug and re-plug the monitor once Windows is running, for BootCamp to recognize it and give me the full 6K resolution.

Oh well, this is just a TB controller issues. I actually couldn't get 6K at all in a similar setup, so I switched to USB-C.

As for the display driver, if I've understood you correctly, it's normal for it to still be the generic Microsoft driver?

Yep.

(Also, do you know why you can have the BootCamp version 6.1.8082, while I can only have 6.1.0 ? ^^ )

Maybe because you used MacPro as mac identifier. As I remember, I used Intel iMac identifier. This was long time ago, don't remember details.