Beware Apple's Windows Precision Touchpad driver update

Thanks for this valuable information, Simon. However how did you get 6.1.15 drivers back? Brigadier 0.2.4 downloads Boot Camp Support Software 6.1.8034 as a latest release for MacBookPro16,4 (all 16-inchers). It contains AppleMultiTouchTrackPad driver 6.1.7800.0 and AppleMultiTouchTrackPadPro 6.1.7800.2. Could you clarify what is the right TrackPad driver version that doesn't have delay issue and what is the updated (problematic) driver version?

Hi again,

Further on your reply it appears you're using non-Apple or custom trackpad drivers so you probably aren't affected by this. I know there was a guy who made custom trackpad drivers for Boot Camp, in part because he wanted to add extra functionality along the lines of Microsoft Precision Touchpad that Apple (at that stage) hadn't implemented. If so, you're probably unaffected by this recent update, but I can't be sure.

I'm not familiar with that software you're using to install Windows, so I can't really offer much more, sorry.

Hi Chad.

I looked up that Brigadier software/script and it appears to just download the driver packages directly from Apple from within Windows.  In other words, it seems to replicate the "Download Windows Support Software" function from the Boot Camp Assistant application within macOS, sans the Apple Software Update utility I guess.  I've no idea if it continues to monitor or check for updates as they're released.  As mentioned, the full package that Boot Camp Assistant (and, presumably, Brigadier) downloads/installs never seems to contain the latest version of Boot Camp and its individual drivers.  There's always an update or two after Windows and the Boot Camp support software (drivers) installs.

I suppose Brigadier is helpful if you don't have a copy of macOS on your laptop (I know some people who use their Macs for Windows only, so it's not out of the question) or in select other circumstances.  If you do have macOS however, I really can't see the point of going that route. The Apple Software Update utility is very innocuous as far as Windows software is concerned.  It's a 3.87 MB utility, so it's hardly bloatware either.  There's also a (coincidentally) 3.87 MB Boot Camp Manager application which runs in the background, but it uses very few resources (I've never seen it do anything and it uses 0.5 MB of RAM) and is probably just used to tell Apple Software Update utility when software updates are available and to launch it.  I suppose for the paranoid there's a chance Apple might use it to check how many people are (regularly) using Windows and how much, but this is nothing unusual and is standard practice for Apple and Microsoft to do in their own operating systems.  It's not like they can't get this information from the number of downloads of the support package and updates.  This utility, too, can be deleted or disabled via Task Manager if one is really super tight and worried.  It's hardly trying to obfuscate itself like bloat or spyware typically does.  Microsoft tries to install far more bloatware as part of its standard Windows installation.

Perhaps it's more obvious how to manage driver versions with Brigadier, but you yourself say you're not sure if you have this latest update and if Brigadier is only using drivers from Apple's servers, then it surely can't allow an easy downgrade once they're removed.  You can turn off checking for updates, let alone installing them; something that Windows itself doesn't allow. It's not like Apple even offers iTunes or QuickTime for Windows anymore. You can also, probably, delete the Apple Software Update utility after installing Windows if you really want, though I can't understand why you'd want to do this either.  It would be very annoying to get it back and may even require a full reinstall.  The utility gives you the option to review and accept any updates before installing them, and even to hide updates that you don't like, such as the (dreaded) 6.1.15 Precision Touchpad update. I'm sure it's fine, but I'd personally trust a third-party script less than Apple's own tool to do these things.  I'm sure it's open-source, but still.

I reckon there's a pretty good chance you don't have the latest Apple touchpad driver, but there's a really easy way to check. If you go to the Windows Settings application, then Devices, then Touchpad, if you have the option to configure 3 and 4-finger gestures then you either have the latest Boot Camp update or (potentially) you installed that third-party driver I mentioned. If you can't configure multi-touch gestures then you certainly don't have it. Like I said, the tap delay is *very* obvious.

I don't know enough about that Brigadier tool to know if it checks for updates or not and at what frequency. If you haven't installed updates with it in the past month then you won't have it. I also don't know if the script tells you the Boot Camp software version that it's installing either.  So really, I think the Brigadier tool is only useful as a last resort. If you're really that suspicious of Apple then it makes me wonder why you're using a Mac laptop in the first place.  I run a very tight version of Windows as well, so I appreciate your concerns (I even go so far as to install Education N and remove all Windows components/add-ons/software I don't need), but really Apple Software Update is the least of my concerns.  

PS:  It seems the Bootcamp.exe application needs to launch at boot in Windows for me to get tap-to-click functionality, so it probably has a role to play in enabling some of the drivers somehow.  After Windows has loaded, I can quit it with no ill effect.

PPS:  The Bootcamp.exe application is also the System Tray, which I use regularly for switching the boot drive back to macOS.