Installing Windows 10 on Macbook Pro 2011 (unsupported Mac) and Fixing Sounds

My Macbook Pro 13-inch Early 2011 is in the list of Bootcamp Support for Windows 7 and Windows 8, but not Windows 10. It means that my machine would be fine running Windows 7 and Windows 8, yet some hardware might not be recognized when running Windows 10. However, later Mac models work just fine with Windows 10 because Apple provides hardware drivers (Bootcamp Support) for them.

[Method 1] HERE is how I successfully installed Windows 7 via VirtualBox. And here is some solved issues happened during installation. It worked with Windows 10 too, just using a Windows 10 ISO file instead, but sound didn't work out of the box. There were several steps to do for solving the sound issue. However, built-in keyboard and USB mouse worked fine without insalling drivers from Bootcamp Support (but I wasn't able to adjust screen brightness, keyboard backlight, and sounds using function keys). 

[Method 2] I was also able to install Windows 10 using a bootable USB stick (created by Bootcamp app) but built-in keyboard, trackpad, and USB mouse weren't working when starting Windows for the first time so I couldn't even install the drivers from Bootcamp Support. I had to press and hold down the power button to shutdown the machine and start it again; then Windows did some repair tasks and rebooted the machine, and the keyboard and USB mouse started to work so I was able to install the drivers from Bootcamp Support and then Windows updates. However, sound and external monitor weren't working. Sound issue could be fixed by the steps described in the section below, but external monitor couldn't, even after installing the monitor driver and firmware updates and manually updating the graphics card's driver).

Fixing WiFi, Camera, Bluetooth, and external monitor

I got WiFi, Camera, Bluetooth, and SD card reader working using Bootcamp Support version 5.1 (intended for Windows 7 and 8 only), but I had to manually install them one by one, by clicking on their corresponding setup files located in the Broadcom and Apple folders the Bootcamp Support file. I also manually installed other drivers that came along, thinking they might be useful though I didn't know what they were.

After installing Windows Updates and some drivers from Bootcamp Support, I was able to adjust screen brightnes (in Settings > System > Display) and use my external monitor connecting through Thunderbolt-to-VGA adapter.

Fixing Sound

At first, I followed everything from the video below (I backed it up here in case it gets deleted from the channel).

Here is the steps from the original post that the video referred to.

The sound still didn't work for me though it did for many others on Youtube. Under Sound, video, and game controllers section in the Device Manager settings, the sound driver got a yellow exclamation mark on it as shown here:

Then, I right clicked on it and select Update driver > Browse my computer for drivers. Then, in the Search for drivers in this location box, I browsed to DisplayAudio folder in the downloaded Bootcamp Support file and clicked OK. For my case, the location is C:\Users\Bros\Documents\bootcamp5.1.5769\$WinPEDriver$\IntelHDGraphics64\DisplayAudio.

The yellow exclamation mark was gone but I still couldn't hear any sounds. 

After that, I installed this driver CirrusAudioCS4208x64.exe from the Bootcamp Support file but still no luck. For my case, the file location is C:\Users\Bros\Documents\bootcamp5.1.5769\BootCamp\Drivers\Cirrus.

It worked after installing another driver, CirrusAudioCS4206x64.exe, located in the same folder. And the sound drivers in the Device Manager settings updated their names as shown below.

Update 1 (15th September 2021)

Today, I re-installed Windows 10 with VirtualBox because I accidentally messed up the Windows partition and my machine couldn't boot. This time, I used BootCamp Assistant on OSX Mavericks to automatically download BootCamp Support and store it on a USB drive. Interestingly, its size is about 1.3 GB, which is much bigger than the BootCamp Support v5.1.x (542 MB Zip file) and v5.0.x (581 MB Zip file) that I manually downloaded from Apple's website. If i'm not mistaken, the size of BootCamp Support downloaded by BootCamp Assistant on my MacBook Air 2013 running OSX Mavericks is different too.

What's more interesting is when I clicked on the BootCamp Support's setup file from within Windows 10, I didn't get the message that it's was intended for Windows 7 and 8 only like the BootCamp Support v5.1 and v5.0; and the setup ran successfully (so i didn't have to manually install the BootCamp's drivers one by one anymore). Then, everything worked perfectly fine, including WiFi, function keys (able to adjust screen brightness and keyboard backlid), sounds, trackpad, and external monitor, even withtout installing Windows updates. 

Trackpad supported one tap for click, two-finger tap for right click, and two-finger scrolling. The two-finger tap for right click must be manually enabled by selecting the Secondary Tap checkbox in Boot Camp Control Panel.

Therefore, I think Apple has developed Boot Camp Support Software (drivers) for my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011) to run Windows 10, and they haven't updated their online document yet. 

Conclusion

The best way is installing Windows 10 through VirtualBox and using the Boot Camp Support Software (drivers), which is automatically downloaded by Boot Camp Assistant (BCA) on OS X Mavericks. Everything works fine but restoring the system images of the Windows 10 partition doesn't.

Installing Windows 10 with a bootable installation USB drive has two major problems: sound is not working and external monitor is not detected, even using the Boot Camp Support Software downloaded by BCA on Mavericks. However, I could fix the sound issue using the above solution, but i couldn't get the external monitor working no matter what I tried.