Got the wife an hp laptop with windows 8 over 12 months ago, but just can’t get to grips with it.
how easy is it to put windows 7 or is this something that can’t be done.

Can you not upgrade to 8.1? I just bought my daughter an HP laptop with 8.1 and she uses the “old” style Win7 desktop.

12 months and you still can’t figure it out? Shocking.

8.1 is a big improvement, in my limited experience. There’s also a ‘classic shell’ program you can get.

8.1 all the way.

As Scotroutes says, get it to boot into ‘desktop’ on win 8.1 and it is dead easy. If you end up in the ‘odd new’ desktop, just hit the window key.
Have you tried some of the online ‘how to’ guides? I had a colleague who is a complete IT luddite get a new laptop – I gave him a video and a couple of online articles, and he now loves it.

I’ve got 8 on here.
It’s shite. (IMO)

you MIGHT be able to downgrade, but as i discovered there are a lot of drivers that might not exist! my SO’s laptop has no usb for an example!

Download Classic shell.

You can make windows 8 look like vista or 7 or XP but with the speed of 8.

I wouldn’t have got 8 if classic shell hadn’t existed.

12 months and you still can’t figure it out? Shocking.

Let he who is without sin has not started loads of IT help threads, cast the first stone.

Cheers cool hand luke, where would i download classic shell from I’m a computer dinasaur

http://www.classicshell.net/

I dislike it with intensity, cant understand why I have to go through an extra stage with just about every operation, need to buy a new scanner cos my old one wont work, and wheres my recent documents eh ?

What extra stage?

I preferred this little gizmo over the 8.1 rehash.

http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/
once you get past the Metro interface its not a huge deal different to Win7 but seems to be tweaked a little better in data transfer rates etc.

Pretty much all corporate users are buying / using W7 (on new machines), so nearly all laptops will have W7 compatibility.

as i discovered there are a lot of drivers that might not exist! my SO’s laptop has no usb for an example!

I’d be absolutely shocked if that were the case. Want me to take a look?

got so annoyed at how useless it was….now running ubuntu….very happy

I’ve used both. U-bloody-buntu is a far greater pain in the arse.

“How can we differentiate ourselves from Windows?”
“I know, let’s put the close and minimise icons on the LEFT of the window instead of the right! Great idea!”

🙄

haha true molgrips but you can actually just set them to be which ever side you like

Moving back (or forwards really) to windows 7 is easy if you can get hold of a copy…. It’s very hard to buy these days.

Just go the HP site and see if there is a W7 driver pack for the laptop, if there is it will (should) work fine. Done it with a Dell here. As for not getting on with 8 there is no real issue with it, most of the world is slow to change windows versions as normally every other version is crap. Wait until things settle down a bit.

Used Windows 8.1 for around a month. Got to the point where its inconvenience was minimal. However I’ve just installed classic shell and its like returning to a favourite old pair of slippers.

I’d be absolutely shocked if that were the case. Want me to take a look?

I’ll dig out the model number later if you want, but I went to the HP site and it did say no drivers, and there was nothing I could find to get the usb functional.

It is a HP Pavillion G6 of some description that shipped with win8. due to an accident the HD got broken and I happened to have win7 install discs, but no way of reinstalling win8 easily.

Moving back (or forwards really) to windows 7 is easy if you can get hold of a copy…. It’s very hard to buy these days.

Need to find a friendly corp IT guy, we have generic install package on a server so I can put W7 on any machine (as long as it’s connected to our LAN). W7 is still the de-facto standard in the corp world.

you mean piracy footflaps?

ubuntu is rubbish use linux mint 16 the best linux os
an easy for windyhoes heads to get to grips with.
you should still have a copy of windows for windy native software as wine emu sucks but gaming an music making use windy hoes
for browsing the web use linux, theres good photo an video software
audio rippers dvd rippers iso tools , make an old pc faster ,windyhoes is slow

windows is a buggy drm fest with the need for req updates
security programs, and angry rage

but i find if i ever need to run a windows program(not gaming tho) i just
use xp in virtual box in linux.

runs stable an never get blue screen crashes, boots much quicker.

hackers love to target windows as there are more users to be milked

I’ll dig out the model number later if you want, but I went to the HP site and it did say no drivers

That just means HP don’t provide them, because they don’t sell the system with that OS. There’s a possibility that if you put “Windows 8” as your OS and get those drivers instead, they’ll work with W7.

Go into Device Manager, right-click on the device and pick Properties. Go to Details and change the Property to “hardware IDs.” This will give you the unique PCI “fingerprint” for that device. Google the longest one (you can right-click / copy to save typing).

Chances are, it’s some sort of Intel controller. I’d hazard that running the hardware detection on Intel’s website will snag whatever you need to make it work.

Of course, the Intel update won’t work if the chipset is Nvidia or AMD or some such, but the principle is the same. Chipset drivers underpin everything else, if they’re not in place you’re always going to have driver problems.

you should still have a copy of windows

If you run an OS, and have to have a second OS on hand for the things your first OS can’t do, then it’s failed as an OS.

“You need to keep a copy of Linux around for all the things Windows can’t do” said no-one, ever.

ubuntu is rubbish use linux mint 16 the best linux os

What’s wrong with Ubuntu? I’ve been using it for years, I could give Mint a go though.

If you run an OS, and have to have a second OS on hand for the things your first OS can’t do, then it’s failed as an OS.

Hmm well only only need Windows because most people use MS Office so although the Linux office options can work with MS Office docs they’re not perfect – bit unfortunate. Thing is though that the money saved by not buying the MS stuff is significant so shame more people aren’t comfortable using Linux.

BTW, I’m really put off going for Windows now as seems so controlled to restrict piracy – re-installing it seems problematic.

Mint is a much nicer distro than Ubuntu my limited recent experience.

It’s hardly a viable alternative to Windows for newbies though. I’ve had plenty of issues with hardware and software is a bit of a mess. The ‘app store’ type thing is great but there seems to be dozens of home made apps to do the same thing slightly differently which is going to be confusing for a newbie I reckon.

And Libre Office is not a patch on MS Office.

And Libre Office is not a patch on MS Office.

No, but IME the majority of people “need” Office when Wordpad would suffice.

No, but IME the majority of people “need” Office when Wordpad a type writer and a calculator would suffice.

FIFY

Cougar:

“You need to keep a copy of Linux around for all the things Windows can’t do” said no-one, ever.

Says me, constantly. As a UNIX man managing UNIX through windows is an absolute pain in the bum. Even VNC sessions to a true UNIX desktop is a pain through windows.

“Why do you need *nix” – “because I have *nix” is a bit of a tautology, is it not? (-:

I’ve never had a problem with VNC, used to use UltraVNC to connect to all manner of things. Though when I have to remote manage Linux boxen I’ll use PuTTY rather than VNC.

If you run an OS, and have to have a second OS on hand for the things your first OS can’t do, then it’s failed as an OS.

“You need to keep a copy of Linux around for all the things Windows can’t do” said no-one, ever.

thats like saying use one bike for road an downhill

there are pros an cons to both os

there is no ultimate os , mac linux windyhoes are all like tools in a tool box
an 4mm wont fit a 5mm use which fits the job in hand or take 1 tool an get caught short

Cougar – Moderator
If you run an OS, and have to have a second OS on hand for the things your first OS can’t do, then it’s failed as an OS.

“You need to keep a copy of Linux around for all the things Windows can’t do” said no-one, ever.

That’s nonsense.

No, I think it’s spot on 🙂

Anyway there’s nothing wrong with Linux as an OS. It’s the Linux ecosystem that’s the problem. Well, I say problem – it’s just different… and it has advantages.

“Why do you need *nix” – “because I have *nix” is a bit of a tautology, is it not? (-:

Nope, unless the Windows team – that need Windows to manage their Windows servers are also tautologous. I’m much more efficient managing *nix through *nix, in the same way the Windows team are with their work. Can I do it using Windows? Possibly, but keeping copies of Linux on other machines to use for management due to the size of the estate.

I’ve never had a problem with VNC, used to use UltraVNC to connect to all manner of things. Though when I have to remote manage Linux boxen I’ll use PuTTY rather than VNC.

I use PuTTY to connect to other Linux boxes which I use as a hopping point for the production Linux/AIX/Solaris/HPUX boxen. When you’re talking thousands of servers you can’t log into each, you need a good regime with trusted servers (note: not windows). We use VNC for oracle/TDP/SAP installs, but that again requires more Linux machines/VMs for somewhere to VNC into, especially with firewalls.

Windows has its place but it is not the only thing out there. I could happily do my job without Windows. Everything I need could be done through a web-based interface, including office documents.

And windows 8 is still poo! 😛

As this is already well off topic….
I have a Linux partition on my laptop so I can keep work and home seperate if I need to. I use Linux vm’s for stuff as it’s solid and free. Plenty of reasons not to use Windows for certain things.

molgrips – Member

No, I think it’s spot on

Anyway there’s nothing wrong with Linux as an OS. It’s the Linux ecosystem that’s the problem. Well, I say problem – it’s just different… and it has advantages.

No it’s complete guff! There are thousands of scenarios where 99% of the time one OS is perfectly okay, but for the one percent you need a different one.

Look how many Mac OS users run Parallels, Fusion or VBox to run some Windows software they can’t get on OSX.

Or another example, many of the bioscience/genetics labs I visit have both Windows & Linux workstations as the Windows equivalents of their bio software doesn’t perform well enough or simply isn’t available.