Opening a BootCamp Drivers download or other pkg or dmg file on Windows 7 or 8 with 7-Zip

If you've downloaded bootcamp drivers for Macs to run Windows 7 or 8, but have done the download in Windows, you may be stuck on how to open the downloaded BootCampESD.pkg file you've now got.

The answer is to get a copy of 7-zip, which is free, and which is your 'Swiss army knife' to open the Apple .pkg and .dmg files and the ISO file inside.

  1. Launch 7-zip
  2. In 7-zip, open the BootCampESD.pkg. Inside you'll find a Payload file and a few other files. Double click the Payload file.
  3. Inside is a folder, which you double click. Inside that another folder, which you double click. Inside that ... just keep clicking down the levels of nested folders.
  4. Eventually, several levels down, you'll get to a file called 0.Apple_ISO or some such.
  5. Now, extract this o.Apple_ISO to the desktop (or somewhere) and rename it to Apple.ISO.
  6. Now, either: Mount it by double clicking it—should work in Windows 7—or else by getting hold of PowerISO or similar; OR use 7-zip again to open this ISO file, and extract the contents to a folder.
  7. These are you driver installers. Create an empty folder on your desktop, and drag them out into it.
  8. Finally, open the folder you just created, and run the setup.exe

99 thoughts on “Opening a BootCamp Drivers download or other pkg or dmg file on Windows 7 or 8 with 7-Zip”

      1. hope im not doing anything wrong. but i did everything and when i double clicked on iso, it extracted everything through that zip and then nothing happened…. Totally confused, after 2 weeks of finally finding your website i’m about to drop my mac book pro retina in the ocean. lol. help if u can, and thank-you.

        1. Hi Shawn,
          Try doing it this way:

          1. When you get to the bottom level, inside the ISO, select everything and click the Extract button on the 7-zip toolbar.
          2. Take careful note of where it’s about to extract to.
          3. Close 7-zip
          4. Find the folder.
          5. Double click the installer file, which is usually the one of type “Windows Installer Package”

          Otherwise, post a list of all the file names that you see inside the iso. Which version of Windows are you on?

          Chris

  2. I get the following files after the 0.Apple_ISO directory – doesn’t seem right as it talks about a Motorola modem or something.

      1. I figured it out… I had to extrac the “0.Apple_ISO” file to the desktop (I’m using Windows 8 Pro x64 by the way). Then I had to change the file name to “Apple.iso”. Then I mounted that and it worked like a charm.

        3. Thank you so much Will and Chris!!! I was so glad I found this page. You guys are amazing! Just a clarification for those that might have run into the same issue after you drag and rename the file. Right click and choose 7-zip and extract to “Apple”. That did the trick for me. So grateful!

  3. thanks Chris & Will.

    thanks to the files on your first page Chris, and Will’s fix here, I’m up and running with Win 8 on my Mac Pro (with Boot Camp now installed too).

    nice work, folks!

  4. Pingback: Download BootCamp Drivers for Macs to run Windows 7 or 8 | Chris F Carroll

  5. Hey man, everything is working great until I try to run the Installer part. I dragged all files from the apple.iso to the desktop, click on setup.exe and I get an “Setup was unable to find the msi package or patch C:\ ect” error message. Am I doing something wrong? Your reply would be appreciated! thanks

  7. I am at the payload file how long do I click? been clicking an hour and nothing, all I get is “open with” no files of any kind by double clicking. I’m using windows 8 pro on a imac pc but no ios just windows 8 pro

    1. You want to open it with 7-zip again. If you know your way through Windows’ “Open with” feature then you can choose 7-zip. If you don’t, then do it this way:

      1. Drag the Payload onto your desktop.
      2. Open 7-zip
      3. Within 7-zip, navigate to Desktop, and then double-click the Payload.

      Now you’re up to the bit where you see a folder which you double click to get another folder which you double click to get another folder which … until you get to a 0.Apple_ISO file, which gets you to step 4 in the original post.

      If it doesn’t work, redo the download again, in case the file was corrupted at download.
      Hope that helps,
      Chris

  8. Note: You must download and install 7-ZIP version 4.65. Use this older version. Newer versions can’t see the Drivers path in the ISO.

  10. hello guys,
    found this post very useful to get my windows 7 on mbp working properly thanks a million coz i struggled alot to find some solution n eventually got it here.
    Got one more problem wondering if any of u expert can help me, i tried to erase disk with disk utility in internet recovery mode but it would not do it as it is in ntfs format , all other formats can be selected but ntfs is greyed out and disk identifier gives error invalid request. can somebody help me on this please. thanks

  11. thanks for the link chris. but my problem is i havent got os x on mbp its just windows 7 ive got n i just want to format my disk (currently in ntfs format) back to mac format so i can install os x on it. pardon me if i used some wrong terms as i m completely new to macs. thanks in advance

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  15. AWESOME, you’re a lifesaver!

    Thank you so much!!

    I was about to throw my iMac out the window. lol

  17. Pingback: Opening a BootCamp driver download or other pkg or dmg file on Windows 7 or - Vikram's Web Archive

  18. Step 2 doesn’t make any sense. What type of file is the Payload file? The file does not have any extension and is not by default associated with any application in Windows 7. What application do I use to open the Payload file? Without knowing the answers to these questions it is impossible to complete step 2 and move to step 3.

    1. Hi Kevin, if you did step 1 with 7-zip then at steps 2 and 3 you are still in 7-zip and within the 7-zip gui you click on the Payload file. 7-zip then opens it within the same window. Sorry it wasn’t clear, Chris

  19. VALEU CARA MUITO OBRIGADO FUNCIONA MESMO

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  22. Im stuck in windows first of all. then after i copy the o-apple_ISO to my desktop and rename it to .iso it turns into a disc image and i cant open it. windows keeps trying to burn it to a disc, why? help please

    1. Hi Joe, Turning into a disk image is correct, that’s what it is. What should happen next is that Window mounts it as if it were a disk.
      If that doesn’t work try this instead: Instead of saving the 0.Apple_ISO to the desktop, just stay in 7-zip and double click it. Then, drag all the contents to an empty folder on the desktop.

  23. Thank you so much man. I got Windows 8 working on my Macbook now. Had a little trouble with not opening the .ISO file with Win7, but instead mouting it. The comments helped me out.

    Cheers
    Bjørn Fridal

    1. Cheers Bjørn. If you can suggest improvements to the notes / say which bit didn’t work well I can update it, I’ve tried changing the last steps a couple of times already but still not quite easy. Chris

  24. hey, im a newbie in mac, i installed windows in my macbook pro 9,2, downloaded the support software from your site, when extract the file is less then 6mb and nothing happened to it. eg: wifi and bluetooth, right click and audio. need help. thanks

  25. Hey, I get most of this, just one question: once my files are extracted from the iso in windows (on my mac), how do I install them? Do I need to restart my computer with them on an intall drive, or something, or can I install them directly in windows?

    Trying to figure out whether to install windows now, and then download the files when I have a faster connection available, or to wait for that connection to have Boot Camp download them correctly…

    1. Hi Noah, in Windows, just double click the setup.exe. No restart or anything, just run the file.
      If you install Windows before you’ve got the bootcamp drivers, you will get a working mostly usable Windows install, it’s just that the graphics won’t be so fast and the nice Apple hardware features – camera, trackpad gestures – won’t work.
      NB the easier way to download is on /p682/download-bootcamp-drivers

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