Downgrade (upgrade?) Win 10 to Win 7

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I've got a fairly recent HP laptop that came out with Win 10 64 bit. I'd like to get this machine onto Windows 7 64 bit, but there are no drivers available on the HP site and HP support (obviously) do not recommend this course of action. I know this a minefield, but what are my chances of the machine running Win 7 successfully?
 
Don't reference the HP site, check if the individual parts have Win7 drivers. (Check intel's site , wireless providers, etc)

Chipset, graphics, USB drivers, intel graphics driver can all be downloaded from the main manufacturer's site.

It's not a guarantee, but at least you'll know if something is amiss.


Also considering the move to 7, auto updates for 10 is urking.
 
Why would you want to do this?

I upgraded my old HP which ran Windows 7 to Windows 10 and I've never looked back.
You might have some issues with drivers - but the only way to know is to try it. Do you have a Windows 7 licence?
 
Nether said:
Don't reference the HP site, check if the individual parts have Win7 drivers. (Check intel's site , wireless providers, etc)

Chipset, graphics, USB drivers, intel graphics driver can all be downloaded from the main manufacturer's site.

It's not a guarantee, but at least you'll know if something is amiss.


Also considering the move to 7, auto updates for 10 is urking.
Click to expand...

Good advice, thank you. I've had it with the auto updates, I managed to fend them off for a couple of weeks but this morning it caught me for 1.2GB of stuff, plus it re-installed the Realtek audio drivers that I had carefully disabled because they were conflicting with a sound app that I use.
 
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vic777 said:
Why would you want to do this?

I upgraded my old HP which ran Windows 7 to Windows 10 and I've never looked back.
You might have some issues with drivers - but the only way to know is to try it. Do you have a Windows 7 licence?
Click to expand...

I have no issues with the way Win 10 runs -it's quick, does everything that I need it to do but it refuses to stay in a state that you prefer, and reverts to reinstalling shirt that you don't want.
 
Your main issue is your windows 10 license.. if its not the Pro version you cant downgrade for free, unless you got one of those "free" all-in-one discs :P
 
+1 for Nether. Just want to add that if you have problem downloading graphics driver from Intel, find out which Intel Desktop Board use the same chipset and download driver by searching for this model number.

Added:
BTW, Good luck with new Intel hardware. It is a challenge to install Win7 on Skylake. The latest chipset do not have windows drivers other than for Win10.
 
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sajunky said:
+1 for Nether. Just want to add that if you have problem downloading graphics driver from Intel, find out which Intel Desktop Board use the same chipset and download driver by searching for this model number.

Added:
BTW, Good luck with new Intel hardware. It is a challenge to install Win7 on Skylake. The latest chipset do not have windows drivers other than for Win10.
Click to expand...

I tried a Win 7 64 bit (Ultimate, with SP1) USB installation earlier today, since my machine blue-screened shortly after I posted yesterday. I disabled secure boot and enabled legacy boot beforehand but I cannot get beyond the message "Device drivers are missing". I believe it could be missing USB3 drivers, but this machine has 2 x USB3 and 1 x USB2, which I tried, so I'm not sure what to look at next. I ended up doing a repair to my Win 10 install from the Win 7 USB.
 
Zenthrax said:
Your main issue is your windows 10 license.. if its not the Pro version you cant downgrade for free, unless you got one of those "free" all-in-one discs :P
Click to expand...

I've got a very useful Ultimate ISO, seems to have all the versions on it.....
 
Enable legacy USB devices in BIOS. How did you transfer ISO to the USB stick? Burn DVD media and use internal or external optical device. Booting from DVD is defined by standards, you don't need special formatting tools as opposed to USB sticks.

Error message suggests it needs SATA controller drivers. In which mode SATA works for now? Posting laptop model number may help.
 
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Why downgrade to win7 and not Win8.1?
 
sajunky said:
Enable legacy USB devices in BIOS. How did you transfer ISO to the USB stick? Burn DVD media and use internal or external optical device. Booting from DVD is defined by standards, you don't need special formatting tools as opposed to USB sticks.

Error message suggests it needs SATA controller drivers. In which mode SATA works for now? Posting laptop model number may help.
Click to expand...

Laptop is HP Pavilion, model 15-au114ni. Has Intel i3-7100U CPU, came preinstalled with Win 10 64 bit Home single language.

I tried loading a USB stick, using the MS tool and Rufus. I think I'll rather try with a DVD.
 
In first step download CPU-z and identify your chipset.

Download the latest drivers for this chipset. There are most likely included in the latest INF update: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/do...evice-Software-INF-Update-Utility-?product=53

According to HP your graphics is HD Graphics 620 (not 630?). Get driver (which include HD Graphics 630) from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/96551/Intel-HD-Graphics-620

I am not familiar with Win7 installation on Kaby Lake. Drivers are here, but perhaps devil is in details. You will probably need to load drivers during boot time (F8). Maybe someone else will give instruction. You need to find out which drivers you need to load manually, on what media and in which order.

Added: It seems you quite a lot of work, this quide is probably outdated, as drivers are now available for download directly from Intel: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-3413666/guide-installing-windows-kaby-lake.html

Another one: http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...r-intel-skylake-and-kaby-lake-laptops.803630/
 
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Drake2007 said:
I would upgrade it to linux.
Click to expand...

I use Porteus and Knoppix (as live boot) regularly, and I've had a go at HDD installs of a few other distros. I love it but none of the Linux flavours talk to an iPhone with any degree of confidence, and I can't run EQ APO on Linux.
 
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