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Jun 29 2007

Can I use the new Apple USB Aluminium keyboard on Windows?

Categories: Hardware — Jonx @ 02:06

Short said: HELL YES! And it feels good.
I first saw the new metallic keyboards on Engadget. First, take a look at a couple of pictures. 

 

Then run to your nearest Apple store and try to buy one before they run out of stock. Fortunately I was able to buy the last one at the end of the first delivery day. I guess those keyboards will have a certain success. Only the USB version is out in stores right now in France. The Bluetooth version looks even nicer but I’m not yet ready to get rid of the key pad.

Did I tell you that I’m a Windows guy? I’m currently using Windows XP and find it rock solid. I did not say that I’m a Windows fan but I’m not an OSX fan either. Neither Am I a Linux fan. “Fan” is a word too strong to describe what I am. I started Loving Linux in its early days but do not like what they currently offer on the desktop level. I used to setup a Linux box using floppy disks. I did that with my friends even when Linux reached 99 disks… That was a lot of fun. Fortunately someone invented CDROMs. But I’m losing myself on the road of an already very long story.

So, a long story short, I don’t like Apple’s hardware or software. I find they tend to lock the customer even more to their world then Windows is. I find they are really successful at what they are doing and selling but until now they did not get me. Not the IPod (I hate ITunes), not the IMacs (only one button on that mouse what the…), not the MacBooks (nothing that has 12”?), and so on…

Lately I was getting tired of my big Logitech Cordless MX1000 mouse+keyboard Combo, more on this in another post. I wanted something that looked more like a keyboard as I do not use all the extra keys you can find on the new keyboards.

So, I bought the keyboard and plugged it in. Wow, it get’s recognized through the default standard HID interface. “Apple Keyboard”. That’s it. It’s ready to use. But… hey, what’s going on here… The keys are all mixed up… Yep, you are reading correctly. All the keys except the special keys are working but the problem is that the keys are the same function they had, based on the original PC layout… Some keys have moved. For example #/@ is located on the top left of the keyboard, replacing the 2 key on my French keyboard. Typing # on the Apple keyboard is producing 2. This means that all the keys not at the same place then on a PC keyboard will have the PC keyboard value by default. It’s the case for all the keys at the outer edge of the keyboard and most numeric keys.

Anyway. That means a couple of things. I will have to find a way of mapping keys to others, find a way to use the special keys that have specific functions, like sound up and down and finally get access to the keys that do not seems to generate events on a PC, like the Eject key. Not very usefull, but fun.

What are my options?
1. Find a hack to make all this work
2. Find a third party Apple Keyboard driver
3. Program a HID usb filter
4. Get my hands on the Apple Keyboard driver used in Boot Camp
5. Live with it? Hum, no, not an option.

Scenario one, was the easy way. It consists of a Windows feature called Scan Code Mapper for Windows that lets you map key from one usage to another. It’s a bit painful to make all the mappings and the computer needs to restart to use the new mappings. A tool called SharpKeys can help you build the mapping with a nice GUI. The problem is that only recognized keys will work. Also it does not make the difference betwenn one keyboard and the other.

Scenario two, did not bring much. I could only find AppleK Pro that looks to be a Windows replacement driver but I don’t like web pages that do not show when they have been updated. The screenshots look nice but the page talks about © 2001-2004 and also I wanted to find a solution that would not add 50% on the total keyboard price. Maybe I'll give it a try later.

Scenario three, was fun to try. You find some info here and there but nothing very easy to use. I guess that with some more work I would have managed to build something up. The nicest sources in case you are interested are the following:
The Human Interface Device controller suite by Robert Marquardt, in Delphi.
A USB HID Sniffer.
Using Raw Input from C# to handle multiple keyboards
Making USB C# friendly
Managed Library for Nintendo's Wiimote (it’s the most up to date HID sample you can find for C#, could be adapted to Apple Keybord I guess)
Also, last but not least would be Usb Sniffer for Windows
OK, all which put together could have lead to something useful that would at the end let me use ALL the keys of the apple keyboard.

While investigating Scenario three, I was also working on Scenario four. Scenario four seemed the best option as one would find normal to get drivers for the peripheral they just bought. Did I told you that Apple locks people to what Apple decide is better for them. Why should I have troubles, if I want to use an Apple Keyboard on Windows PC? Especially when the keyboard is standard USB and has existing drivers. Why is Apple not just writing on all the peripherals they sell, that they are compatible with the Windows world? I'm sure they would sell a lot of them. My keyboard box says that it requires Mac OS X 10.4.10.

Did I understand correctly when I saw that Boot Camp has ALL the drivers for ALL the Apple peripherals to use on Windows? XP, Vista, whatever.

They have the drivers. Why not make them available for the broader crown? Do you think they did not yet think about it?

I guess they did because you can hardly make it harder then Apple did at hiding a drivers disk deep inside other stuff you don't need.

Let me just rephrase something so that it finally appears clearly on the web:
What is Apple Boot Camp? Apple Boot Camp is a CD Image that provides ALL the Apple drivers for ALL (most of) the Apple Peripherals.

More generally, you can find drivers for most of the hardware you can find in Apple computers to make them work like they should under Windows.

OK, Boot Camp also provides, among other features, a boot manager that let’s you choose between Apple OS X and Microsoft Windows at startup.

Apple says on its web site that “Boot Camp will burn a CD with all the required drivers for Windows so you don't have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them”.
Very nice. Why not put the .iso file for download directly on their web site. OK, put it besides the Boot Camp download, I understand that most of the people will use it that way.

 

It took me a long time to figure out how to take a look inside the Boot Camp image and even longer to get my hands on the drivers CD.
Strangely no one is sharing the Drivers Disk it on the web.

Here is how *I* did.

First, download boot camp. Latest version is still in beta despite the 1.4 number. You will get an ugly BootCamp1.4.dmg file.
.dmg? How can you use this on windows? On Apple? No problem, but I don’t have an Apple computer. I only want the keyboard.
It’s an HFS filesystem virtual disk. I first thought you could mount it on Linux like that, but no, you first have to change it to ISO or to IMG.
You could use the DMG2IMG tool, but no, it’s not working on the latest 1.4 release. Maybe it’s because that this is a compressed DMG file.

You can read many things on the web on how to convert the .dmg file to iso or img. Use MagicISO, PowerISO, UltraISO, IsoBuster. I could make work none of them. Did you?

I was so desperate I even tried to download a Mac OS X 10.x image to try to run it in VMWare… Before coming to that extremity (it’s working and I had it running some weeks ago but had no usage of it, so I deleted it) I stepped by accident on TransMac.

Go no further. TransMac is THE solution. Period.

It is commercial but has a 30 days trial. Not very intuitive at first (maybe it’s just because this is all not easy anyway) but worked like a charm at the end.

I had the solution I was looking for. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Here are all the details:

  • Open the BootCamp1.4.dmg file with Transmac. It shows you a HFS+ Volume
  • Double click on it.
  • Drag and drop the Install Boot Camp Assistant.mpkg to the upper windows that represent you PC file system
  • Browse deep to the following directory either inside Transmac or on your computer:
Install Boot Camp Assistant.mpkg\Contents\Resources\BootCampAssistant.pkg\Contents
  • Here you have a file called Archive.pax.gz making more than 300GB. This is the file we need
  • Extract the file content. I used WinRar for that but 7-Zip is also able to do it and also we will need 7-Zip in just a second as the Archive.pax.gz file only contains a .pax file that is an Apple compressed archive. Use 7-Zip to extract its content
  • Again browse deep inside the directory you just extracted:
Archive\Applications\Utilities\Boot Camp Assistant.app\Contents\Resources

 

  •  Here you find a new DiskImage.dmg.

Fortunately as you now know how to extract .dmg files this is just taking a couple of seconds thanks to the use of TransMac. *goshhh*. No it’s not working. TransMac says No Mac HFS volumes found. I tend to work using trial-and-error all the time.

So, I played a bit with TransMac and tried its Tools->Disk/CD/DVD Image->Expand Compressed DMG file.

  • Browse to your previous DiskImage.dmg it then asks you a save location. I put in DiskImage.iso
  • Save. Et voila. You have what you have been reading for on that post
  • Mount the ISO file using whatever you want. I’m using the excellent Alcohol 52% Free Edition. You now have a nice Mac Drivers CD.
  • I just run setup.exe and installed everything. Am I a warrior or not??? I am.

I guess that the files in x:\Drivers\Apple, AppleKeyboardInstaller.exe and BootCamp.msi are just enough. But this will be a future test.
The first file gives you the correct keyboard layout. The second gives you access to the special key, like sound, brightness and CD eject, insert.

Of course the Expose and Dashboard keys are doing nothing on my XP box.

After the setup, it asks you to restart. That’s what I did. After the restart, you have a boot camp icon in the systray and the keyboard is…

WORKING!

I’ll compare the keyboard to my Logitech keyboard in a future post.

The bootcamp tool is not very useful because most of its features crash. Except Help. Also I did not try “Restart under Mac OS”, anybody?
It’s useless, but without that the special keys do not work.

Also, a bad surprise is that I still have both keyboards plugged and that now, it is my PC keyboard that has its keys swapped to the Apple layout.

A message to the Apple guys… Can you try to make sure that when you change something on a computer, it does only apply to the peripheral it is meant to change? It's OK to have that problem when you are a poor lonesome programmer but not a big company. You do that or you change your keyboard layout Tongue out 

While you are at it. Could you make the Boot Camp tool work even if I do not use it on an Apple computer, so that I can get access to the keyboard options? I gues it’s there that I can change the fact that the Fn key is on by default? I don’t like to have to press Fn+F2 to rename a file.

Maybe that those minor problems will make me continue the development I started concerning the USB HID tool? Maybe later when I get more time (read, never Laughing).

Thank for reading me trough here.

I could have just written instead:
Can I use my Apple Keyboard on a Windows PC?
Yes, just extract the Drivers Disk you can find buried inside the Boot Camp disk.

Thanks to the TransMac people. Didn’t I use that tool on my Amiga 20 years ago, is this possible?

Some more references: Apple keyboards and keyboard mapping in Windows XP. Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts.

Also some info on Wikipedia.

Do you think I could/should put the drivers online here for easy download? I own the keyboard that I bought from Apple officials. Why should it be so hard for me to get my hands on Windows drivers? I guess we could write to bootcamp@apple.com to ask them what they think. I’ll write them and let you know what they say. That makes me remember that I should install the Apple update tool found on the CD. Maybe that this way it will update my drivers without having to redo all that for the next update.

Finaly, all is there. See the keyboard mapping in Windows XP on the Apple web site. For example F14 is printScreen and alt+F14 is printScreen for the current window. Only CTRL+ALT+Suppr is missing for me. It's opening the task manager, meaning it's mapped to CTRL+Shift+Esc, any hint?

Also note that the keyboard manager does not always start automatically. You can find it here: C:\Program Files\Boot Camp\KbdMgr.exe

For the French users, the AltGr keys (~#{[|\^ @]}) are still available despite the fact that they are not printed on the keys. I wonder how the programmers working on a Mac are doing.

ps: I write this all using my new toy keyboard, I'm glad I bought it. 

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Comments

July 4. 2007 12:05

Thanks for the nice OSXFnBehavior, Thomas. I didn't think about the registry.

What would be nice is if someone with a mac would snoop for us what is going on in the registry when you interact with the apple control panel.

I used regmon to take a look:
www.microsoft.com/.../Regmon.mspx

Now beside the OSXFnBehavior entry I see that you also have three keymaps... This will probably let us ajust our keymaps by hand. For example, I, have a french keympap (running XP US), and the '=' key on the keypad seems to be mapped to the '-' key. The one beside backspace. when I switch to the english layout using alt+shift, the key works correctly.

Here are the keymaps... note, that I have a French layout... can anyone see a pattern emerging?

"Keymap"=hex:69,46,6a,47,6b,48,91,8b,90,88,67,2e
"KeymapFn"=hex:0c,22,0d,1e,0e,1f,0f,20,10,27,12,23,13,55,18,21,27,54,2a,4c,2d,\
2e,33,56,38,57,4f,4d,50,4a,51,4e,52,4b
"KeymapNumlock"=hex:0c,5d,0d,59,0e,5a,0f,5b,10,62,12,5e,13,55,18,5c,24,5f,25,\
60,26,61,27,54,2d,2e,33,56,37,63,38,57

it translates to
"Keymap"=105(i), 70(F), 106(j), 71(G), 107(k), 72Cool, 145(æWink, 139(ïWink, 144(ÉWink, 136(êWink, 103(g), 46(.),

"KeymapFn"=12(), 34("Wink, 13(), 30(), 14(), 31(), 15(), 32( ), 16(), 39('), 18(), 35(#), 19(), 85(U), 24(), 33(!), 39('), 84(T), 42(*), 76(L), 45(-), 46(.), 51(3), 86(V), 56(8), 87(W), 79(O), 77(M), 80(P), 74(J), 81(Q), 78(N), 82(R), 75Kiss

"KeymapNumlock"=12(), 93(]), 13(), 89(Y), 14(), 90(Z), 15(), 91([), 16(), 98(b), 18(), 94(^), 19(), 85(U), 24(), 92(\), 36Money, 95(_), 37(%), 96(`), 38(&Wink, 97(a), 39('), 84(T), 45(-), 46(.), 51(3), 86(V), 55(7), 99(c), 56(8), 87(W)


Jonx

July 4. 2007 16:07

Thanks so much! USing this method I now have my Nice Apple Keyboard running on Windows Vista, with all the keys in the right place and The Volume & Multimedia buttons working!
Thanks again

Mike

July 4. 2007 18:06

I have just bought the new aluminium Apple keyboard too. I love it, and it works on my XP, but, I cannot get the keys 'pause' my music to work? Any suggestions. I'd love for someone to put something together for girls like me who are clueless at transmacking... and stuff...just want the keyboard to work. It's a beauty though.

Nicole

July 4. 2007 18:10

i found something as well, at least the open-tray key and the f14 are working without any problems: www.advertising.de/.../

but I will try your solution as all the other keys are interesting, too Smile

michael

July 4. 2007 18:12

One happy girl... I just downloaded the link that Joan Pons has and voila, my pause button works, thanks a mil...

Nicole

July 4. 2007 18:21

hello michael,
the difference is that the other download probably provides older drivers. le t us know what it gives.

Jonx

July 4. 2007 18:41

Thanks for the guides and the files. I've got everything working but the insert key which is replaced with the Fn key. On the bootcamp help and websites it says to use the Help key which as far as I see doesn't exist.

Cheers

Fletch

July 4. 2007 19:04

Hello Nicole. I'm happy to hear it is also working for you. I added a new post you might wanna read. There you will find the Apple boot camp control panel to download. The other site does not provide it, so here it is.

Jonx

July 4. 2007 22:24

Hello Adam, thank you for your help. Unfortunately having the drivers and the control panel is not the problem (it was hard to get them the first time, but I have them now).
Still on a windows PC, I have what I call bugs with that control panel and drivers. yet, I know this is beta stuff...
Any idea on how to make the control panel work on a PC?

Jonx

July 5. 2007 01:05


Thanks for the write-up. On XP the fn behavior seems to be controlled by the following registry values HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\KeyMagic\OSXFnBehavior
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\KeyMagic\OSXFnBehavior

Changing the value to REG_DWORD and value zero did the trick for me.

THIS IS OPEN HEART SURGERY your mileage may very. I had to disconnect my keyboard halfway to reset the driver to a sane state. Again don't blame me IN CASE YOU FRY YOUR SYSTEM.

Regards

Thomas

Thomas Witt

July 5. 2007 04:30

In case people are having trouble grabbing the Apple keyboard drivers (or just can't) for the new aluminum keyboard, I've put them online:

www.adamdachis.com/.../apple_bootcamp_drivers.zip

When you download those, you'll need to install the Boot Camp Control Panel in order to get things working with the keyboard. If you try to run just the executable for the keyboard it won't work.

Also, here's a doc that goes over mapping:
docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304270

Adam D

July 5. 2007 07:32


Hum, note that dates in the comments are messed up. It looks like blogengine is a bit buggy here.

Thank you for you comment Ross. What we can do is write Apple to ask for it. Now, I'm currently very busy butu if Boot Camp 1.5 or up does not bring the solution I'll probably write one. Or at least I'll try Wink I started program something like I already explained, but because most of the keys are usable, it's enought form right now.

I guess the setting must be provided by the small tool that sits in the systray.

Has anyone a screenshot of the tool made on a mac so that we can see if there is a feature to lock the fn key there or not?

Jonx

July 5. 2007 16:22


Hey,

An excellent and most comprehensive post! It's been a great help.

I've managed to get my shiny new keyboard up and running on my office pc, but the lack of the option to lock the fn key is really killing me, as I use almost all of the function keys regularly.

I know this has to be stored somewhere, because I've set the option in my Vista install on my MacBook Pro. I've searched all over both machines for a place to set this option manually (including a lengthy search through the registry and some likely directories) to no avail.

It all wouldn't be so bad if I could actually remap the special functions, but it seems these key events never get through to any of the remapping tools I've tried :-/.

I've got nothing constructive to add I'm afraid, but if you ever find a workaround let me know, eh? ;-)

Cheers

Ross

July 6. 2007 00:58


Hello,
It's not fun to be able to get them that easy Wink
Thanks for letting me know...

Jonx

July 6. 2007 05:26


Hey, really good post! congrat.
I'm looking forward one of this nice looking/touching keywoards...good to know that it "works" with Xp.
I have found the drivers (AppleKeyboardInstaller.exe) here:
http://makel.org/blog/45/
so is not necesary to transmacking anything
Thanks for share information.

Joan POns

July 12. 2007 09:02

The keyboard works just fine after installing BootCamp 1.4. The control panel itself does not load on the PC, but the fn and eject keys are just fine.

thanks for the article, it saved me a lot of time...

Dualboot

July 12. 2007 09:16

Hello Dualboot,
Nice to hear. Thank you for the feedback.

Jonx

July 19. 2007 00:07

hey there...

i´ve got the keyboard as well and im really happy about it.. but i want the extra buttons to work in vista 64bit. Did anyone found a way to get it working. I tried both installing complete boot camp 1.4 drivers and just the keyboard driver which ended in a error telling me that i should try to install with setup.exe. The whole driver packages messed my vists 64bit completly.

any idea ? cant you extrat the driver files and just install the keyboard as new hardware or something like that.

hope anyone can help me out

thx
James

James

July 19. 2007 00:16

hello,
I do not know if they support xp 64 with the bootcamp stuff.

What I do to avoid getting all the place messed up is put bootcamp.msi and applekeyboard.exe in a new empty directory. then install from there. this worked for me, but I using XP32...

have you tried the apple support forum?

Jonx

July 20. 2007 05:30

That it is not working gives you a strong signal that you should not try to force to make it work Smile but if don't mind the possibility to kill you system and have to reinstall, you could try to extract the files manually and install them by hand. the bootcamp.msi contains the boot camp control panel, the keyboard manager, and two services, the OS switcher and the time service...

But as this is all not working very nice (read flawlessly) on Windows standard I bet you will probably have troubles going further...

let us know what it gives... good luck.

Jonx

July 20. 2007 10:26

i cant run the .msi file
getting an error telling my the software failed to install, so i guess its cause of vista 64bit

havent found anything for vista 64bit on the web.. maybe someone finds a way or apple releases 64bit driver with bootcamp 1.5

James

July 21. 2007 17:01

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Crashed Pips » How to Choose a Good Keyboard

crashedpips.co.uk

July 24. 2007 13:36

Pingback from ilovesubstance.com

Thanks to C#kes for the tip - I Love Substance

ilovesubstance.com

July 26. 2007 10:55

I am using new Aluminium keyboard on Vista PC. Happy with it.
The apple keyboard driver got from windows update.
F1,F2....F12 is different from normal PC.
On vista, F keys that have icons on them have no repsonse at default.
If I want to use F1, the apple guide teaches we should press "fn+F1=F1".
However, I find funny that "hold any key+F1=F1".
eg. A+F1 =F1, 7+F1=F1, ;+F1=F1 , or even F2+F1=F1.

Once a time, I hold a key+Eject=Sleep PC in a game. The PC turn off to sleep mode immediately. But I could not find a key to wake up.

Last, my printscreen key is F14 only. It is not nesscary to hold Alt+F14.

someonehoi

July 27. 2007 09:54

Alt+F14 is not the same then F14. F14 does a print screen where Alt+F14 is printing only the current application window. Can be handy.
About waiking up your PC, if you happen to have a prettyrecent motherboard (a year or two) then you should find the option to wake up your PC in your bios. I have a gygabyte motherboard and I can choose to wake up my PC by hitting any key, the return key, or the sleep key for those that have one on their keyboard.

Jonx

July 30. 2007 00:58

Thanks for all of the info on the drivers. I am trying to install the keyboard driver from the link Adam D provided. I get a Hardware Update Wizard window with "cannot install this hardware...There was a problem installing this hardware.. Apple keyboard..An error occurred during the installation of the device. Fatal error during installation." I did have the drivers working prior to a recent XP "repair" that I did. Any suggestions?

majorgar

July 30. 2007 18:08

Ask Adam Smile
Er, just kidding.

What I would do is, like I suggested in a more recent post, is copy applekeyboard.exe and bootcamp.msi to a directory on you disk and install from there. before that, you could try uninstall your current apple drivers and stuff, you could try to install the driver yourself by extracting it and then use manage to browse to the faulty driver and install it yourself by browsing to the extracted files. is this something you can manage or do you need some help? be specific about the steps where you have troubles. good luck Wink

Jonx

August 1. 2007 12:28

Jonx,
Every time I boot up, the drivers try to install: a window will pop up saying it found new hardware: apple keyboard, then the driver tries to install and then the driver wizard fails. I did catch the device manager in the middle of that and it showed that the Apple Keyboard drivers need attention: hidclass.sys, hidparse.sys, hidusb.sys, KeyMagic.sys, hid.dll, WdfCoInstaller01005.dll. "Update driver" in device manager resulted in the same failed due to fatal error. Unistall driver via device manager did not work. I would appreciate any advice on how to extract the drivers manually. Thanks.

majorgar

August 2. 2007 04:03

Hello majorgar,
You are no doing this under vistaX64 right? Because I know nobody that succeeded under vista 64.
Now we are talking about extracting AppleKeyboardInstaller.exe
It's simple, use winrar for example to open the file, it's a simple self extracting file.
Also I would unplug the keyboard and use your old one until you have cleaned up the mess. this way you will not get distracted by the new hardware found notices. Remove the old files, remove the devices and drivers if needed and then try to make a fresh install of the drivers like I said from a single directory holding only BootCamp.msi and AppleKeyboardInstaller.exe, execute bootcamp, this will install all the drivers it finds in the current directory, meaning in that case only AppleKeyboardInstaller.exe
After that plug the keyboard and see what you get...

Jonx

August 2. 2007 19:24

Jonx,
Thanks for your reply. I am fine with extracting the installer and bootcamp.msi. The thing I am unsure of is which files to delete to enable the installer to work again. I have a zboard which works fine and I don't want to remove any shared files that would kill that. The keyboard that I am trying to enable is the internal keyboard to a macbook pro. Do I delete all of these: hidclass.sys, hidparse.sys, hidusb.sys, KeyMagic.sys, hid.dll, WdfCoInstaller01005.dll? Then run the bootcamp.msi?
Thanks again.

majorgar

August 13. 2007 22:52

brilliant website - thanks so much for the help

samh

August 14. 2007 13:59

Also - any idea why the pause button doesn't seem to work while I'm using Internet Explorer? Seems to be fine for all other programs.
thanks

samh

August 15. 2007 10:41

Thanks. I guess that if the pause key is working every where except in IE, it's probably a problem... with IE Wink

What is pause meant to do? In IE? In other programs?

Jonx

August 16. 2007 22:51

Pingback from rickvandelaar.wordpress.com

Using Apple Aluminium Keyboard on Vista « Rick van de Laar

rickvandelaar.wordpress.com

August 19. 2007 03:23

Not too sure - its odd because the mute and volume buttons work, but not the play and skip buttons (ie F7,8,9). In IE, F11 is quite an important one but that's got the mac controls overriding... oh well - not a major problem.

samh

August 21. 2007 12:36

Just needed to add this, but if you have a pc with and AMD chip, I advise not to use this. I recently tried the boot camp install, and I was very impressed. But then I restarted my computer and everything ran very slow. I though my operating system might of crashed, since I have wiped my Hard drive in a long time. So I decided to do a nice fresh, clean install of Windows XP. Everything worked well, but then I installed the Bootcamp driver and utility, boom! The system crashed again. I was really bummed out. I wipe my Hard drive again, and installed all my programs except boot camp. Everything works well now. I work for Geek Squad and I ran a system diagnostic on my computer. It showed no hardware errors. So I am certain that it was bootcamp that messed up my system. I am currently looking for some kind of fix, but I haven't been able to find something. Maybe some one here can help.

Larry

August 22. 2007 03:42

Hello Larry,
Thank for your comment. I also encounter some crashes and freezes from time to time. But globaly I live better with it then without. Now, do you have any proof about the fact that this is related to AMD chips? I'm currently running XP on an AMD Athlon X2 64.

Do people using Intel processors also have freezes or does it work better?

Jonx

August 25. 2007 08:51

hey there,

i got a 10 sec freeze everytime i startup vista32bit on a intel core 2 duo.
it happens everytime when he loads the bootcamp symbol.
So i doubt it has anything to do with amd chips.
I think its more a driver issue or anything like that

James

August 25. 2007 23:56

excellent!!! it works fine, thank you one question you have troubles with the number pad(in the rigth side)

Rodrigo

August 26. 2007 15:01

Hello,

What sort of trouble are you talking about?
the only trouble I have is the fact that the = key does correspond to the -/_ key...

What sort of trouble do you have?

Jonx

August 28. 2007 12:55

I'm having the same problems as Larry. I'm using an Intel processor, Windows XP.

I did some searching and found an apple discussion forum regarding the slowness Bootcamp is causing:
"The BootCamp 1.4-Beta control panel seems to force a Windows PC to freeze for 20-30 seconds while it tries to search for a valid Mac OS X installation on your computer's hard drive(s)"

Read the post here:
discussions.apple.com/message.jspa

What I'm worrying about now is how to get Bootcamp off of my system. I couldn't find an uninstaller anywhere, and doing a System Restore removed the Bootcamp software but left the bootup freeze.

Has anyone found out how to remove the Bootcamp Control Panel completely?

Ted

August 29. 2007 08:36

Thanks Jonx, Great write up. Very useful indeed.

I followed your instructions, and then I have made a few small changes:

1) To play safe, I've decided not to install BootCamp.msi, I am worried that since it's looking for Mac hardware, it might mess up my XP. The KeyMagic.sys driver is enough for taking care of all the basic mappings outlined in that Apple document.

2) Except - my new Aluminium keyboard has F13, F14, F15 shifted one place to the right from the old keyboard. So I changed the "keymap" key to map PrtScn to F13 instead of F14, Scroll Lock to F14 and Pause to F15. So the modified "keymap" is:

"Keymap"=hex:68,46,69,47,6a,48,91,8b,90,88,67,2e

(67,e2) is used to map the "=" key on the Apple number keypad to PC's "+/=" key. And I could not figure out what (91,8b,90,88) do, maybe eject and something?

3) I turn off the fn key by default through the "OSXFnBehavior" key. I then used SharpKeys to map the rest of the media keys.

dchao

August 30. 2007 15:07

Hello, very interesting, both of your comments.

Ted, just a wild guess... what about removing by hand the files that bootcamp is installing?

dchao, how did you guess what key is doing what? do you need to restart to make the changes take effect?

In my case I'm trying to write a tool that will handle all the keys directly. By all the keys, I mean the special keys. Sadly I'm not strong enough to find a way to do it. Lucky me I have at least the eject key meaning that I would be able to use the ejct key.

Tell me, is SharpKeys able to map something on the eject key?

Is there anybody here, reading this that would be kind enough helping me work out the other keys?

Most of the keys are working on their own, so the keys I miss are:
- detecting the fn key on it's own to be able to toggle it's status using itself (by the way dchao, I have posted a tool toggling that status in a more recent post)
- detecting the mute, sound up, sound down keys using fn+F10 to F12
- detecting the fn+F1 to F4, just for fun

Any ideas? If I get the idea of the codes in the keymaps, they are just entries in some sort of correspondance table... not the code itself (not always et least) but not sure about that.

thank you all for you help.

Jonx

September 1. 2007 11:54

Jonx, you are correct, the entries in the "keymap" keys correspond to some sort of internal table.

To work out the keymap, its as simple as change around the mapping (blindly), and then use SharpKeys to see what's changed.

As you know, I have the following so far:

2E = "="
67 = "NumPad ="
68 = F13
69 = F14
6A = F15
6C = F16

"KeymapNumlock" correspond to mapping when NumLock is pressed

"KeymapFn"correspond to mapping when Fn key is pressed

I will do more poking around when I have time.

dchao

September 2. 2007 02:56

*** correction ***
6B = F16
6C = F17

dchao

September 2. 2007 18:22

One more point, my MS keyboard doesn't have the EJECT key, and I look at the Key Settings in the keyboard properties, and I couldn't see it, I wonder if this key even exist in th the Windows world.

But I, personally, would like to map the EJECT key to the Sleep or Logoff key on my MS keyboard. I tried with SharpKeys, it did not work because SharpKeys is sitting at a very high level, and the when it sent out the Sleep scan code, the lower driver could not see it.

dchao

September 3. 2007 16:11

The KeyMap codes used by KeyMagic.sys are the standard USB keyboard codes.

I've found a very useful doc on the MS web site. The USB keyboard codes are in Appendix C.

I checked the keymap with the Appendix, and everything seemed to be correct.

download.microsoft.com/.../scancode.doc

dchao

September 4. 2007 07:55

Hello,
I found that too last night... this one is also interesting:
download.microsoft.com/.../translate.pdf

that gives me the following:
meaning the keymap would read like that:
"Keymap"=hex:
69,46 F14, Print Screen
6a,47 F15, Scroll Lock
6b,48 F16, Break, Pause
91,8b Keyboard Lang 2, Keyboard Int'l 5
90,88 Keyboard Lang 1, Keyboard Intl'2
67,2e Keypad =, = +

"KeymapFn"=hex:
0c,22 , Play/Pause
0d,1e
0e,1f
0f,20 , Mute
10,27
12,23
13,55
18,21
27,54
2a,4c
2d,2e
33,56
38,57
4f,4d
50,4a
51,4e
52,4b

"KeymapNumlock"=hex:
0c,5d ,Keypad 5
0d,59 ,Keypad 1 End
0e,5a ,Keypad 2 Down
0f,5b ,Keypad 3 PageDn
10,62 ,Keypad 0 Insert
12,5e ,Keypad 6 Right
13,55 ,Keypad *
18,5c ,Keypad 4 Left
24,5f ,Keypad 7 Home
25,60 ,Keypad 8 Up
26,61 ,Keypad 9 PageUp
27,54 ,Keypad /
2d,2e , =+
33,56 ,Keypad -
37,63 ,Keypad . Delete
38,57 / ?, Keypad +

What I guess is that the first table is a mapping table from one code to the other but the two other tables are lookup tables. I don't know how to read the entries in the second table. Maybe a Mac programmer could help us Smile

Jonx

September 4. 2007 22:58

I'm going to add the Eject key to my fn tooggle tool. So that people can map it to the feature they want. Would you find this usefull? What sort of things would you like to be able todo with that key? I just want to have it eject the CD. I don't use that feature but I like it when the things do what they are designed for Wink

Jonx

September 6. 2007 07:25

Don't forget, on the Mac, the Eject key is multi-function:

Eject: eject disc
Control-Eject: Bring up "restart, sleep, or shutdown" dialog box
Command-Control-Eject = Restart
Command-Option-Contol-Eject = Shutdown

Does BootCamp make the Eject key performs the same way as it does on the Mac? I wonder?

I think all these are Kernel level functions, we are not talking about simpling mapping the keys to get it to work on Windows Frown


dchao

September 27. 2007 13:48

could someone walk me thru turning the Fn key to the off position. i love this keyboard, but since i use drafting and 3d modeling software constantly, the Fn key issue is slightly aggravating.

i would prefer holding down the Fn Key to adjust the volume and have the basic F keys as primary functions.


and another note, i downloaded the boot camp drivers provided thru an earlier link but the Play/Pause, skip keys only work when itunes is the current app. any suggestions as to why?

any advice would be greatly appreciated. this post has been tremendously helpful.

rafael

September 28. 2007 15:08

Hello guys,
I posted the latest Apple keyboard drivers bundled with Leopard in my latest post on my blog in case you need them.
John.

Jonx

October 1. 2007 09:30

Thanks all!

Somehow I managed to get my new keyboard working with 32 WinXP, installing BootCamp.msi and AppleKeyboardInstaller.exe. I don't like running the Boot Camp, but for now I can live with it..

I can toggle the Fn key via Boot Camp Control Panel. Screen shot:

aycu02.webshots.com/.../2005224841000324437_rs.jpg

Insert key works by pressing Fn+Enter.

Matti

October 8. 2007 09:00

Ok. I picked up this sweet keyboard to use with my home HP laptop. Just for the record, I have another HP laptop (same model) for work. Also, I have the white mac keyboards that I've used for a few years now.

I can get the keyboard to plug into my work laptop and have XP find it without issue. My home system, XP Pro SP2, won't see it. In fact, it forget my other keyboards entirely. All but the main one. I can't get even a generic windows keyboard to show up.

Not sure what to do here. I've got bootcamp installed with the keyboard driver. Nothing works.

Oh, usb works fine. I've a mouse, usb hdd plugged in without issue. Something about keyboards ...

rppp01

October 9. 2007 00:02

Spoke too soon.

I went into the control panel, and uninstalled the driver for version 2.0.x.x ... Windows popped up a hardware wizard and installed the keyboard version 2.0.0.0. And is fine.

Huh. Cool. Now for the F keys.

rppp01

October 17. 2007 07:50

So AppleKeyboardInstaller.exe is all we need to install to get our mac keyboard to work on windows xp. I ran it, but it does not execute. All i got from it was the ability to use F14 as a screenshot button. Was there something i missed?

Colin U

October 17. 2007 23:00

sorry no, it's not all you need. AppleKeyboardInstaller "only" brings you keyboard driver, so in one way its not exactly meant to execute. You can see based on all the comments here that there is no perfect solution. The tool that is controling the special fn keys is the one you get when instaling bootcamp.msi. Now many people, including me could not make it work correctly. Maybe you can live with it and the problemes it brings. Finally you will need my tool fn toggler to be abe to change the state of the fn key. You can also change it once and for all in the registry. Also know that what I say here is meant for windows xp on a PC, not a mac... Good luck Wink

Jonx

October 19. 2007 11:52

Thanks. Well i decided that I was going to remap the keyboard using one of the many programs ive found to do that on the interweb. I have found a few, but are there any free ones out there or demos that allow me to do what i want to do with out continual annoying "register me" popups.

Colin U

October 20. 2007 15:14

Is there any way to remap the keys to make them work with my 64-bit XP? I love my new keyboard, but it is amazing that there's no 64-bit drivers for Apple keyboard!
1. Working keyfunctions
2. 64-bit drivers (XP, Vista)
3. Driver without that freezing when starting Windows

Marko P

October 21. 2007 13:27

Colin U: I in my posts and people in their comments have posted links and even config files to tools doing what you want. Even if no tools is able to access to the very specific keys of that keyboard.

Marko: I totally agree with you. It's a shame. About the freezes, they are cause by the Apple kbdr.exe startup. The is looking for Apple hardware but freezes as it can't find any.

Sorry.

Jonx

November 7. 2007 20:56


i like that alum keyboard too, wonder if i can hack the wireless version... hmmm

interesting thread. you can use the scan codes to remap the entire keyboard in the registry without using any of the driver files from bootcamp. winDoZe is bad enough without installing a hybrid mac driver, yuk.

there are a couple of quick tools for remapping but why doesn't someone who has a basic 101-104 keyboard map already just post their registry key?

a while back, i had to remap keys with linux as i'm an old kernel hacker. same principal just mod the registry on the keys that are mapped wrong. this principal will work under x64, 2003, vista, etc

my motto never install drivers when easy reg mods will do the trick.

unix/linux fans should know how to mod defkeymap.map

if you want to use software this KeyTweak looks pretty easy, although for the complicated keys, you'll have to hack. it's how M$ does all of the international keyboards with weird umlauts and symbols, pushing extended ascii characters on the keyboard.

as for the HP recognizing more of the functions of the keyboard, HP was unix long before winBloZe. HP maps much more of keyboard level 3 than most OEM's so they are used to recognizing many, many keyboards for AIX, linux, DoZE, blah, blah, blah.



GAlexander

November 19. 2007 11:58

I just got that keyboard, and followed those instructions..
I have installed the boot camp drivers succesfully but,
my boot camp control panel seems to have missing tabs.
The only tabs I have are: Startup Disc , Power.
Therefore, A lot of the keys dont function (Eject,Volume,etc...)
Im running WinXP Pro.

Any solution?
=(

tomerubin

November 20. 2007 07:57

Hello,
This is the way the control panel is designed to work on a PC. sorry. now, the fact that you have missing tabs is not related with the fact that you have missing keys. the keys should work anyway when the control panel is running. have you tried fn+volume up or down? because fn might be toggled off by default.

Jonx

November 21. 2007 06:02

No luck so far...
geuss I have a buggy windows, since i havent made a format
in 5 years..lol

tomerubin

November 22. 2007 04:47

I had less problems with the previous drivers. Bootcamp 1.4. Do you want to give them a try?

The issues I had with them was some freezes here and there...

You are not talking about the bluetooth version, right?

Jonx

November 22. 2007 23:58

Never mind man..
Thank you for trying to help though Smile
oh, and I was talking about the wired keyboard.

tomerubin

November 23. 2007 21:29

Sorry, I mixed up with another comment.

See, I have the wired keyboard two. And XP pro.

What drivers did you use? Those from my page or your own?

Try to stop/kill the control panel process... without it, for exemple in Windows media player I have the keys doing something. F7 is doing sound on/off, F8 sound down, F9 sound Up. Fn+F7 is previous track, Fn+F8 is play pause, Fn+F9 is next track.
In opera Fn+F7 is doing scroll home, Fn+F9 is scroll to the end. Strangely eject is scrolling to the bottom page while at the same time doing a fast advance on the playing song in media player. what did you got without the control panel running?

Jonx

November 30. 2007 18:39

I'm lucky enough to have the Leopard Intaller DVD which, when you load it in a Windows PC launches the BootCamp installer automatically. This seemed to work fine and all the keys do what I want except the Quotes key("Wink or ASCII 34. My Keyboard gives me this peculiar character (¨Wink It's close but not close enough and I only realised it was wrong because searching for a phrase in Google using ¨Apple Keyboard¨ is not the same as "Apple Keyboard"

To get around the issue I have to type Alt+34. Anyone else seen this problem?

JEH

December 11. 2007 13:10

hello JEH,
I don't have that problem. When I press "/3 I get ", to get the ¨ I have to press another key. You probably talk about an american keyboard. I have a french keyboard.

First make sure it's not a program you have installed that is replacing the " by the ¨, then eventually you can use a tool by microsoft called Keyboard Layout Creator 1.4 to load and modify the layout of the apple keyboard. Select File/load existing keyboard and select the apple language you are using.

HAs any one else that problem?

Jonx

December 13. 2007 22:42

Jonx: back in September you said you might add the Eject key to your fn toggle tool - did you find any way to do this? I can't work out what its code is.
Thanks

jw

December 14. 2007 13:49

hello jw,
you are the first one showing some interest for that.
Because nobody asked for it I didn't make any progress on that.
Is it ok for you if the key does only open/close the CD tray?
What would yo like???

Jonx

December 15. 2007 05:10

Thanks for the offer - but I was actually hoping to be able to remap the key (and some others) using the KeyMagic.sys registry settings. I thought if you were able to use the key in your app you must have found what code it's sending? Smile

jw

December 15. 2007 20:28

sorry, but no, I wasn't able to map something. My guess is that the keyboard driver does not take care of the eject key. It's only the bootcamp tool that is reading it directly in user mode. I don't know, I'm not sure it is a key you can map on something else. The way I think it is meant to work, is that the tool that wants to work with the special keys has to read them directly... the keymaping stuff is only meant to work with the standard keys not the special keys.
My tool can "only" read the open/close key and some other keays but not all special keys. That's why I was not satisfied with my work. but I found a new lead last night that might lead to something usable...

what is it that you want to achieve?

Jonx

December 16. 2007 11:54

What I have working:
- F keys work as F keys without Fn pressed (OSXFnBehaviour=0)
- F13-F15 = PrtScn etc. (by changing Keymap value)
- Fn+F7 thru Fn+F9 do what they say (playback controls).

Would be interested to know if anyone has got further than this.

What I would like:
- Fn+F10 thru Fn+F12 to do what they say (volume & mute)
- Eject to eject/close something (maybe all optical drives)
- Fn+F1 thru Fn+F4 to do something like what they say
e.g. maybe Fn+F1/2 brings up display properties,
Fn+F3 brings up Internet explorer, Fn+F4 Task Manager.

FYI I was a bit wary of installing Bootcamp, I am just using the driver, on Win XP. I have the English keyboard, recently purchased.

How are you reading the special keys in your app? Would you mind sharing your code? No worries if not.

Many thanks

jw

December 17. 2007 03:16

I sent you my sample. let's not send it further without letting me know please. it's not that it's very special, it's just that I would like to know it if someone has a solution.

my tool can help in detecting eject and Fn+F10 thru Fn+F12

the bootcamp 1.4 control panel was able to handle the eject key and Fn+F10 thru Fn+F12...

What I also see missing is a way to check the status of the fn key. enabled or not. and be able to toggle it's state just by pressing the fn key. not like my tool does and use F19. Not that F19 is used for something else Wink

If you have the required skills and interest, let me know. My knowledge is a bit short on all those matters

Jonx

January 1. 2008 08:02

Well, I've read through all the comments on here, upto your latest, Jonx.

I've been considering purchasing an Anodized Aluminium Apple Keyboard for a few days, I think I will go ahead and get one.

Now, for the key mapping; I'm not bothered if I have to install external or third party softwares to get the Keyboard working like it should. Nor am I bothered if it's registry editing I have to do.

I'll be keeping an eye on this until we finally achieve our goal! Smile

Brett.

Brett

February 10. 2008 08:25

HI,
On my new Mac key board I don't have the F13 button.
Can anyone tell me how to program it.

Thanks

Joan

February 11. 2008 03:30

You don't have one or it doesn't do anything?
I guess it's the latest. What do you want the F13 key to do?
It should do it's job once you installed the keyboard drivers. have you done that already?

Jonx

February 14. 2008 14:05

Trying to install the Bootcamp.msi lead always to the Error message:

"This instalation needs more rights. Start the instalation by using setup.exe"

I am currently the admin user. I did not want to instal everything, only the parts needed for die Apple keyboard.

Any ideas?

Mike

February 15. 2008 05:57

Is this under Vista? Nobody has confirmed that those drivers are working under Vista.

Jonx

February 25. 2008 02:17

new question:

how can i deinstall bootcamp ?

i have installed bootcamp on my pc, and everything works fine.
but there are two things i dislike which make me want to deinstall it. first there is a 10 second delay when xp loads the desktop.
and the second which is the mayor problem, is that i can only use 2 gb ram. bootcamp doesnt allow me to boot with 3 gb.

thanks for the nice blog !!

bugabanjo

February 26. 2008 02:57

That's weird about the RAM... remeber to report this in the apple forum's. that way you'll get a chance to see this fixed.

About the freeze delay. I was sat with it and removed the bootcamp tool. I can leave without it Wink

Jonx

March 15. 2008 20:05

Hello!

Got one for my new Vista x64 PC. All buttons work, except the fact that I can't get the Volume and play controls to work.

Another thing, i bought this keyboard in Russia and I found it weird to discover that the Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keys sis't have thei names written on them, but arrows! Is that noraml?

valj

March 16. 2008 23:20

I have a French keyboard and also got arrows on my keys... My guessins is that it's because text other then english falls too long... maybe that they also they lower the costs required to localise keyboards...

Jonx

March 17. 2008 23:43

Maybe you are right) I was getting ready to go back to the apple store to exchange mine) So any news about Vista x64 with the apple keyboard?

valj

March 18. 2008 16:26

Do you have a specific need in using Vista x64? Beside the cool effect? The only point I see is when you use more then 4GB of memory.

To answer your question, AFAIK, not all drivers are working on Vista x64. Only part of the drivers (those of the mac pro) have been adapted to x64 and I don't know if our keyboard drivers are part of it. But I may be wrong.

Anyway, I won't personally go down the vista road. I'll try to stick two more years to XP and wait for windows 7... My own experience tells me that on the same computer vista is nearly two times slower than XP. But again this is just me Wink

If you find out more details... Share them with us please... Thank you...

Jonx

March 19. 2008 09:20

I've recently switched from XP to Vista x64 because a computer upgrade and also because of DirectX 10 which is not supported by XP. No way I'd go back to XP, I'm even thinking of using Linux Ubunta as my second OS.

Didn't quite understand your answer. You said that NOT ALL drivers work under Vista for this keyboard. Which do? THe thing is that this keboard works perfectly with Vista, only thing I want is to turn my volume up and down from the keyboard (use the special key). Any idea how I can do that?

valj

March 20. 2008 01:31

So you are already using that keyboard under vista x64. What drivers are you using?

When I talk about drivers, I'm talking about the drivers for all the various Apple hardware found in the Apple laptop. I'm jsut interested in the Apple keyboard drivers as it's the only apple hardware I posses. And I don't know if they made drivers for x64 already. Maybe you don't use any driver at all. Do you?

about vol up and down. It depends of your software. As they are special keys, the software has to handle them by itself. When I install the keyboard driver + the bootcamp.msi, the sound keys work as expected with windows media player.

Jonx

March 21. 2008 11:19

Vista autodetects the apple keyboard and download a driver from windows update...That's it, it's just Plug & Play for Vista x64. BUt the reason I'm asking is that like I said, the media controls do not work. If I'm not mistaking, the Apple keyboard driver and Bootcamp do not work under Vista, or am I wrong?

valj

March 28. 2008 04:47

the point where I stopped to read any further was at:

"not the IMacs (only one button on that mouse what the…), not the MacBooks (nothing that has 12”?), and so on…"

which proves that you don't know what you are talking about.
the mighty mouse comes with the standard 3 Buttons a scroll ball which lets you scroll in every direction. and a additional 4. Button for expose or whatever you like.
But you can use every mouse you want.

Even the useless Macbook Air has a 13" screen just as the Macbook, if its too small for you there are Macbook pros with 15" or 17" whatever you like.

I don't want to convert you if you don't like apple, stick to linux, it's OK. Bu tplease get some information before writing such crap.

Jens

March 28. 2008 22:35

Hello Jens,
Thank you for taking the time to comment on my crap.

The only purpose of that post is to talk about Apple keyboards on non Apple hardwares. The rest does not really matter to me.

If you are using only Apple hardware then I'm sorry, you are loosing your time here as you won't learn anything usefull to you.

Regards,
John.

Jonx

April 6. 2008 18:19

In case it wasn't clear, Keypad 0 on the new alum keyboards toggles insert on Windows.

James

April 9. 2008 05:18

BTW, the Eject button works on Windows XP =)

valj

April 19. 2008 23:20

http://iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=994

Apple released new bootcamp, which runs on Vista x64! Really need some help to get it running under Vista x64, any geniuses?

valj

April 21. 2008 04:49

What sort of problems do you have? Where are you stuck?
Note that it says explicitly that the update is for Windows "running on a Mac computer".

Jonx

April 21. 2008 22:00

Jonx,

Boot camp was never released with an intention to run on anything but mac, but the 1.4 version functions on windows XP.

Let sort thing out:
1)When I install bootcamp 1.4 beta on Windows XP - everything is fine. The installation goes smoothely and the program launches on start up (with a 20 sec freeze, but it doesn't bother me).
2)When I try to install Bootcamp 1.4 on Vista x64, the isnstallation is fine at first, but then when it attempt to launch 2 drivers (I can't remember which ones), it says, that there aren't enough administrative privileges. But it doesn't really matter, the reason why I wanted to install the old 1.4 version of boot camp (which doesn't support vista x64) was to later use this new file, the link to which I indicated to update the elder version the the new one (because it is an update to 2.1)
3)I tried downloading the 2.1 XP version and using it to update the current 1.4 version on my XP system (where boot camp works). The update didn't work.
4)I had an idea that maybe if I find the 2.0 version of boot camp for vista x64, it might launch on my vista x64. I found it, dowloaded, but all my attempts to launch bootcamp x64 setup where unsuccessful (it just gave me an error that either no bootcamp files where found or, windows installer can't launch setup).

It is weird that the old 1.4 version setup easily launches both on XP (successfully) and on Vista x64 (unsuccessfully).

I can't understand why it

valj

April 22. 2008 14:16

The new 2.1 updates are bundled as .MSP. Meaning they are patches that shall update existing files. That the update does not work over 1.4 does not suprise me. I suggest you try to remove (uninstall and delete remaining files) all the versions of you keyboard drivers and then install version 2.0 and then try to apply the latest 2.1 patch. Did you already try that?

Jonx

April 23. 2008 05:38

Jonx,

I have tried that. The problem that I am experiencing is that, the 2.0 Bootcamp x64 Setup simply doesn't launch! It gives out an error, whereas 1.4 BootCapm DOES launch.

valj

April 23. 2008 22:17

1.4 does launch maybe but does not work on x64 and cannot be updated (AFAIK) with the 2.1 update.

What error do you have? This might help...

Jonx

April 25. 2008 05:31

I get an error about windows installer not being able to launch setup...although it is an .exe file... That's all I can say for now, any ideas?

I'll be more specific when I get back home from work.

valj

April 26. 2008 08:09

The following error appears: This installation package could not be opened. COntact the aplication vendor to verify that this is a valis windows installer package...

valj

April 27. 2008 00:52

I succeeded! I installd Bootcamp 2.0 x64 on my x64 Vista Ultimate PC! And all the media keys work, including the Eject key Wink

valj

April 27. 2008 17:50

Great news. And what did you do to make your setup suceed finaly?

Jonx

April 28. 2008 17:34

Jonx,

I downloaded another Boot Camp 2.0 package somewhere from torrents which included the x64 version. It's about 380 mb, if anyone needs it, let me know, i'll put it on some file server...

I wish I knew how to iliminate that 20 sec freeze on start up!

valj

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