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

[chucker23n1]

1903 was meant to be March 2019.

Yeah, those version numbers are weird.

1507 and 1511 shipped in July and November, respectively, but basically only because those numbers were given retroactively.

1607 shipped in August, 1703 in April, 1709 in October, 1803 in April, 1809 in November, and now 1903 in May. And those are still misleading — many didn't receive 1809 until well into January.

This seems like a self-inflicted wound, where product management wants semi-annual updates, engineers determine that they actually can't reliably ship in time, and marketing then comes up with wild confusing names like "Windows 10 May 2019 Update (Version 1903)". I'm sorry, what? Just name it 1905, then. (Heck, just leave the date out altogether. This is Windows 10.6, a.k.a. Snow Leopard.)

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.

I don't know how this is a bad thing. They're seeing telemetry that shows that some computers aren't booting after the update, and they've now narrowed it down to that particular driver in that particular version, so they're advising not to install in that case. Sounds like a positive to me.

 

[chucker23n1]

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).

 

[ScooterComputer]

I hit this on a 2013 iMac yesterday that was running Windows 7 and Boot Camp 5.1 (I think 5.1… 5 something), the "official" version for Windows 7. I downloaded Boot Camp 6.0.6136 with Brigadier, but it wouldn't install under Win7 (Apple has the Setup app running some kind of system version check). So, even if you're running a newer, "compatible" Mac, if you're still running Windows 7 and looking to move up, you'll find yourself in a catch-22. Can't upgrade Bootcamp, or the driver file, can't upgrade to Win 10 1903.

The solution was to upgrade to Window 10 1809 first (I'd imagine 1803 would work too, but I didn't try it in this case). After that, Apple Software Update offers "Boot Camp Support Files" version 6.0 and it installs. Then the Windows 10 1903 Setup app will run successfully and update to 1903.

It sucks because this method takes a LOT longer, having to sit through two full Win10 upgrade/reboot cycles. (It might also really fsck with the ability to "easily" downgrade to the previous OS, since I'm guessing the second Win10 install causes the prior Win7 System.old folder to go bye-bye.) It doubly sucks because Apple doesn't deign to publish what definitive version number of Bootcamp is required—there are multiple minor versions of Boot Camp 5 and Boot Camp 6, depending on model—or allow you directly download them outside of Boot Camp Assistant. (And Brigadier is woefully out of date. If you need it, look for the PowerShell script in one of the comments at GitHub.) Apple has apparently decided to scuttle the KnowledgeBase article that outlined which versions were needed that they once published. Furthermore, given the newest Boot Camp KnowledgeBase article on Mojave, it seems Apple has resorted to yet another partitioning scheme involving a OSXRESERVED partition.

 

[chucker23n1]

So, even if you're running a newer, "compatible" Mac, if you're still running Windows 7 and looking to move up, you'll find yourself in a catch-22. Can't upgrade Bootcamp, or the driver file, can't upgrade to Win 10 1903.

The solution was to upgrade to Window 10 1809 first (I'd imagine 1803 would work too, but I didn't try it in this case). After that, Apple Software Update offers "Boot Camp Support Files" version 6.0 and it installs. Then the Windows 10 1903 Setup app will run successfully and update to 1903.

It sucks because this method takes a LOT longer, having to sit through two full Win10 upgrade/reboot cycles. (It might also really fsck with the ability to "easily" downgrade to the previous OS, since I'm guessing the second Win10 install causes the prior Win7 System.old folder to go bye-bye.)

I can kind of see that, but Windows 7 has been out of mainstream support since January 2015. It will run out of extended support January 2020. You were supposed to do this migration almost half a decade ago.

It doubly sucks because Apple doesn't deign to publish what definitive version number of Bootcamp is required—there are multiple minor versions of Boot Camp 5 and Boot Camp 6, depending on model—or allow you directly download them outside of Boot Camp Assistant. (And Brigadier is woefully out of date. If you need it, look for the PowerShell script in one of the comments at GitHub.) Apple has apparently decided to scuttle the KnowledgeBase article that outlined which versions were needed that they once published. Furthermore, given the newest Boot Camp KnowledgeBase article on Mojave, it seems Apple has resorted to yet another partitioning scheme involving a OSXRESERVED partition.

Yeah, I think Apple could make this a lot simpler.

 

[ScooterComputer]

I can kind of see that, but Windows 7 has been out of mainstream support since January 2015. It will run out of extended support January 2020. You were supposed to do this migration almost half a decade ago.

I'd have made the jump to Windows 10 a year ago, for the clients still on Win 7 (mostly QuickBooks users, "legacy" apps users)… but… between 1709, 1803, and 1809, Microsoft just could not seem to get their act together. Win 8 was a dumpster fire; and 8.1 just wasn't really worth the effort either. Windows 10 has been good, overall, but the bad has been baaaad. Although in each case, once the issues were worked through (months later), and you knew what to look for to prevent them, upgrades then went fairly smoothly.
(Must say, though: Microsoft support now spends a LOT of support worker time working issues. Something Apple has shown a complete lack of interest in doing in the past 5 years. I might not have always gotten a "resolution" until the next semi-annual, but they worked the problems, with varying degrees of expertise, as long as it took to pinpoint the cause. Usually it was I who figured out the cause, but still. Apple doesn't give it that long, nor the logs enough to help.)

 

[tbone7467]

was this issue ever resolved? I was wondering if 1909 fixed the machaldriver issue on older macs.