New Laptop Question

Evening Guys,

Looking for a quick bit of advice. My father is looking for a new laptop - his 9yr old Dell Inspiron 1150 is finally giving up.

I've been looking at the HP Pavilion G6-2264SA model - Link

Here's the question - all of HP's laptops come with Windows 8. My father has used Windows 8 on another laptop and cannot get on with it. His Dell currently has XP and I'm thinking of putting Windows 7 on the new laptop. Can I take the laptop, wipe it and install Windows 7 on it and will I be able to find the correct drivers (either through HP or the manufacturer)? I think I should be able to, but I just wondered if anyone else has done the same thing.

Thanks,

Install something like classic shell and windows 8 will be pretty much like windows 7

In reply to a post by aquilla:

wipe it and install Windows 7 on it

......

not within the terms of the license agreement you can't

you could do a dry run looking for the drivers on the HP web site, and researching how you're going to get the product activation / WGA thing satisfied.

Just make sure that you create the restore disk set first and then you can do what you like with it. Drivers should not be a problem.

In terms of Windows 7 licensing, I would buy a W7 license. Trying to break the WGA on W7 just isn't worth the hassle now.

I've had a look on HPs website and they just list Windows 8 as the only OS when you go their support site. I would like to think the hardware in these machines should be compatible with W7 at least (not expecting XP compatibility).

UKOffline has a good point, install classic shell on it and you won't know any difference. Hide all the metro apps so they can't be accidentally launched. Set internet explorer to open in desktop mode by default. They are extremely similar then

I run Windows 8 with Stardock's Start 8. It boots straight into the desktop and looks just like W7, complete with start menu and shutdown button. I haven't seen the Metro screen since installing it. It boots and shuts down quickly as well. It's the best $5 I've ever spent! It would be much simpler than going through installing Windows 7

Thank you for all the responses.

I'll hold off on the W7 license and see if my father can cope with W8 and the start menu.

In reply to a post by aquilla:

Thank you for all the responses.

I'll hold off on the W7 license and see if my father can cope with W8 and the start menu.

I use startisback, but that is not free, it don't cost much mind you about $4 i think.

The one problem is that i have read that windows 8.1 or what ever it will be called may stop some of these start menu applications working, in fact the leaks of 8.1 already does that to some. but if it is a problem, then you don't update to 8,1 simple as that really,