See this...

I understand your concern about Bootcamp drivers. If you download install the wrong versions of stuff, that will nowhere going to help you. If you don't know which driver you need to install, it's better to take help of a good driver updater tool such as FixBit

If you are unable to download Boot Camp drivers on your Mac computer for some reason or want to download Boot Camp on a Windows PC, you can use a third-party tool. Such tool automatically finds the suitable driver for your Mac or Windows OS. You need not take the burden of "is it the right driver or not?"

Alice that is very unhelpful. It sounds like you do not understand the situation. My original indicates that I know about your screenshot. The next page demands that you reformat a usb drive.

This is completely strange and overboard in every single other case of every piece of software that I have ever used, and I have used a lot of software.

Maybe if a person has only ever used Macs then they would not notice how unusual and cumbersome the current system is.

I'm not worried in the least bit about downloading the right driver. I have been downloading right drivers for 20+ years. In fact, Apple used to let users download many things here: https://support.apple.com/downloads

Meanwhile, bootcamp needs you to reformat a thumb drive. Reformatting is a big deal. If something goes wrong, the user can lose ALL of their data. The instructions even go into troubleshooting for reformatting a drive, which is really digging in to helping a user complete a dangerous operation.

On the other hand, other companies have mastered the art of distributing installers that check your system for compatibility, or they work in a way that does not break your system if it is done improperly.

Apple had 2 choices: 1) performing a dangerous formatting option requiring an extra piece of hardware and supporting users who run into trouble with performing that dangerous formatting 2) distributing a software package that users can download, using modern tech to keep it safe in case Apple is worried users might mess it up.

So they chose to help users format things instead of any other option.

The transition from BC5 to BC6 changed the software delivery model. Formatting a disk can be problematic. Apple recommends using a USB2 Flash drive.

See Download and install Windows support software on your Mac - Apple Support for reference. The BCA Action menu uses your Mac's Model Identifier to give you the correct drivers for the Apple-specific drivers that you need. IN the past, with downloadable drivers, many attempts have been made to install incompatible drivers on the incorrect Windows versions. For example, many MacPro users use BC5.x driver on W10, even though they are not certified. Apple Software Update on Windows provides any updates to the base BC drivers package obtained from the Action Menu.

The BC5.x drivers are still downloadable from Install Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp - Apple Support, which support W7/W8.1. BC5.x drivers do not support releases older than W7, which would require BC4 or BC3 drivers.

If apple is worried about users installing the wrong drivers, I'd respond from the world of Windows by saying "we call that Tuesday". Well actually installers are pretty good at detecting devices and doing things right nowadays without the help of using a model identifier, but I get it. Apple's going to limit the options for users to mess things up.

But to the point: I finally got a USB stick and I was finally able to reboot into MacOS. I ran the assistant and it completed. I rebooted into windows, and when I run "Setup" I only get the option to "repair" my existing Boot Camp installation. After this is finished, when I click "About Boot Camp" from the system tray, it tells me I am running Boot Camp 6.0 (from the year of 2006? Surely a typo.)

So I can't really find any documentation about what the latest version of the software is but I heard they've only incremented to 6.1. But I can't be sure because I'm stuck with whatever the BCA gave me. When I poke around on the BCA stick, the drivers are dated 2016.

On the internet I've seen news about 6.1 being released in Spring 2016, and Wikipedia says there was the latest version released in September 2017 and that's all the info I have. I'd say it's probable that the files on my memory stick are from 6.1 given their date stamp. (BTW I'm on a mid 2014 13" macbook pro).

Running Apple Software Update doesn't do anything BTW.

At this point I'd like to blame the BCA procedure, but it looks like the Boot Camp Installer isn't programmed to check if the existing installation is old. Some version history note on Wikipedia says "only support new installation." Would they really mess with the users by doing this on purpose? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_Camp_(software)

It looks like I'm going to have to find some hack to get the new drivers to install, or risk uninstalling everything I currently have for boot camp so I can get the installer to install, and cross my fingers that I can run my system in-between boot camp installations.

Post the line that shows Product Version in Bootcamp.xml. A 2015 Mac is 4 years old. 😉

I have a late 2013 13-in rMBP, which is the same model (11,1) as MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) - Technical Specifications.

The drivers I get are

<ProductManufacturer>Apple Inc.</ProductManufacturer> <ProductVersion>6.0.6136</ProductVersion> <ProductCode>{FCFFE6B6-BAE8-490E-88D0-097A9DA1C43D}</ProductCode>

I used Brigadier to download the package...

./brigadier -m MacBookPro11,1 -o Bootcamp-MBP11.1  Using Mac model: MacBookPro11,1.

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 Bootcamp-MBP11.1/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 Bootcamp-MBP11.1/BootCamp-031-55710/WindowsSupport.dmg.

Done.