MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Without buying W7? Google suggests mixed results. 8.1 came pre-installed on a new machine, but I'm not happy with it.
Licensing could be the issue. But, repartition, install new operating system.
In all my years I've never seen a machine reinstalled with an older o/s over the top of the existing one successfully. Even upgrading doesn't give great results.
you will need a new license. MS were giving win7 keys out to those upset by win 8. Dunno if they still are.
You have downgrade rights with OEM versions of W8 Pro so yes, legally you can without having to buy it again, so long as it's Pro. Otherwise you'd need to buy it.
Legal or not the process would be the same, it'd be a wipe and rebuild, and you'd need a licence key.
[i]Upgrade to Win 10? [/i]
9's better 😉
VanMan's right (and Dez is just silly 😆 )
10 is pretty good, and by the time it's "matured" and goes on sale they'll have upgraded w8.1 in most respects I reckon, so you could just revert to that
You mean aside from that fact that it's a test platform and therefore unsupported with regards to drivers, program compatibility and such? Plus the security 'issues' WRT keylogging and activity reporting (if that bothers you).
If you want a copy of 7 you'll have to move fast, it's no longer offered for sale officially IIRC (or imminently so) so whatever is going will be left over stock.
A lot of the Pro based stuff we sell comes with both 8 and 7 rights and media - but I've never seen it on Home versions.
To do it legally you'll need to buy a new OS and MS recently pulled all non-pro versions of Win7 so it'll be expensive unless you can find old stock.
Personally, I'd stick with 8.1 just takes a bit of an open mind and some time - I couldn't go back to Win 7 now, it's toss IMO.
One of your issues could be there won't be drivers for new hardware in Win7.
My problem is that there aren't any drivers for my old hardware under 8.1. And some of my old programs don't work with it. It also looks like it's been made for tablets or mobile phones. I've gotten around this by using something called 'Classic Shell' that makes it look like W7 or XP.
10 is in no way ready, but when it is it'll be great.
One of your issues could be there won't be drivers for new hardware in Win7.
I'm not 100% certain, but Windows 7 and Windows 8 (and Vista for that matter) are all NT6 at their core. There's no practical reason I can immediately see why a driver for one wouldn't work on all (other than shoddy version detection failing an install that would otherwise work). I'm not aware of any fundamental WDM differences between the platforms, though I'd have to Google to be sure.
Out of interest, if I do install XP or W7 on it. If, in the future, W8 drivers for my hardware do appear, will I be able to reinstall my original 8.1 (that came installed on the machine in the first place)?
a) unless you kill it with the W7 install you should have a recovery partition for W8 and,
b) you should have the option within W8 to make a recovery disc.
(note weaselly usage of "should" in the previous post...)
I'm not 100% certain, but Windows 7 and Windows 8 (and Vista for that matter) are all NT6 at their core. There's no practical reason I can see why a driver for one wouldn't work on all (other than shoddy version detection failing an install that would otherwise work). I'm not aware of any fundamental WDM differences between the platforms, though I'd have to Google to be sure.
That's interesting. I just tried to download drivers but it said support for 8.1 is not available. So W7 drivers should work? Hmm, I'll try that first.
Thanks
(note weaselly usage of "should" in the previous post...)
You may find that OEMs (Dell, Lenovo etc) will generally only officially support (ie, provide) drivers for the OS the device shipped with. Picking an earlier model might work if it's the same hardware.
Going to the actual device manufacturer (Intel, ATI, Nvidia etc etc) can often yield broader results. The Intel "automatically find drivers" tool has saved my arse on many an occasion, and is actually stable now that they've recently rewritten it.
a) unless you kill it with the W7 install you should have a recovery partition for W8 and,b) you should have the option within W8 to make a recovery disc.
I think I killed all that when I reinstalled W8.1 to get rid of all the junk that was loaded onto it. What I mean is: If I install another OS, and then later decide to change back, will I have any issues with activation?
You shouldn't have. Windows 8 is complicated, TL;DR is that the serial number is tied to an ID in the BIOS.
Aaaargh. But it's been running fine for a few days? I did look into all this. I read that; if one just uses the recovery thing to reinstall, you get all the bloatware back, and that it's better to DL the OS files from MS, burn to a disk and reinstall. Which is what I did. Am I about to die?
Does it work?
If "yes", leave it alone.
(-:
Oh wait, I've just realised what you mean.
If you've reinstalled a 'clean' copy of W8 by flattening the OEM image and it worked, then if you subsequently install 7, then install Linux, then smear it in strawberry jam, then do the same flatten and install of W8 you should (see previous posts) get the same results.
Gotcha!
Thanks 😀
Bloody computers.
DL the OS files from MS, burn to a disk and reinstall.
How did you manage to do this? I tried to use the product key found with Belarc Advisor on my new Lenovo but failed to D/L from http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/upgrade-product-key-only using this.
I used this link:
[url= http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media ]Link[/url]
I should add that I was installing W8.1 over W8.1 (the same) to get rid of all the junk on a new PC. So maybe that's why I had no problem with activation/product keys etc
Why not try http://www.classicshell.net, I presume its the metro/start you don't like.
Thanks @jambourgue - your link is working for me!
Classic shell for the win (dows 7 experience)
I wouldn't have moved to windows 8 if Classic Shell didn't exist.
8 is shiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttt
Go home, you're drunk.