New computer and windows 7

By Dane
in Microsoft (Windows)

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Grand Master

Dane

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The only reason I could see a problem is drivers....if the computer you buy is using hardware that only has windows 8 drivers available then there could be trouble ...spec out a pc, call the company and ask them if the one your interested in can be downgraded to 7

I thought about that, I was just asking incase they wouldn't be able to downgrade it.

Grand Master

sc302 Veteran

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I have downgraded a couple of computer to win7. Drivers can be a pain, but if you know the manufacturer of the driver and the win 8 driver isn't working (which happened to me a few times) I was able to go to the manufacturer site and get the driver for 7.

Mentor

Athlonite

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The only reason I could see a problem is drivers....if the computer you buy is using hardware that only has windows 8 drivers available then there could be trouble ...spec out a pc, call the company and ask them if the one your interested in can be downgraded to 7

and what hardware today is win 8 exclusive um none pretty much if it can run win8 it'll run win7 you just need to go to the manufacturers sites to pick up current drivers for the likes of mobo, nic, sound, sata (Raid or AHCI) and guru3d for the latest in GPU drivers everything else will most likely use the generic MS drivers that come in an win7 install

Grand Master

Dane

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Thanks everyone for the replies!!

Windows 8 is still lighter and faster than 7, is there a reason you need to downgrade?

I have played around with it since it was first publically available. I cannot get used to it. I have used windows since 3.1. This is the only OS I cannot get used to. So if I can "downgrade" I think it helps.

Grand Master

Inertia

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Thanks everyone for the replies!!

I have played around with it since it was first publically available. I cannot get used to it. I have used windows since 3.1. This is the only OS I cannot get used to. So if I can "downgrade" I think it helps.

Use windows 8 and a start menu replacement App (stardock start8 is what I use) and just use Windows 8 desktop and dump metro.

The experience is the same as 7, but the performance is a bit better and the gui a bit more modern. Win8 is actually a brilliant desktop OS once you get rid of the fugly interface MS thinks everyone will want to use for some reason.

Grand Master

Astra.Xtreme

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I downgraded a new HP Envy for somebody and everything seemed to work except for the USB drivers. Only one of the USB ports would work for some reason. Pretty strange.

I do remember that I had to pull out the hard drive and format it before the Windows 7 installer would recognize it. It seemed like HP tried really hard for you to not to be able to downgrade. The BIOS (or UEFI) was really dumbed down compared to any other laptop I'd seen before. Even getting it to boot from my USB stick wasn't a simple task as it should have been.

If you have a spare hard drive, I'd suggest throwing that in and seeing if you can get all the quirks worked out before you overwrite Win 8.

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