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,

I think there is a good chance Windows 8.1 will break those applications yes, but they will no doubt release updates in no time and fix the bugs. It will not be intentional by Microsoft, but the start screen is a pretty core part of the Windows OS (some may even call it part of the kernel) and when you have applications which alter that then you have to be prepared for unintended effects at any time.

Style XP anyone?

StyleXP was killed by an otherwise unnecessary update to MSGina.dll.

I think Microsoft had to do something about the GINA, too many modifications were being made to it by organizations etc which had loads of unintended side effects. In most cases it was a case of reinventing the wheel for no apparent reason.

At the bank a few months ago I noticed they had a heavily customized GINA, totally pointless it was too.

I believe applying a different boot screen using Style XP could cause some serious problems with patching etc.

Edited by Pipexer (Sat 04-May-13 12:11:22)

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

........ I believe applying a different boot screen using Style XP could cause some serious problems with patching etc.

I've never seen any detrimental effects and StyleXP was very popular across loads of my clients.

Use Start8 or Startisback.

If suitable, HP business laptops come with Windows 8 Pro, so have downgrade rights to Win 7 and the drivers can be found by searching the HP SKU under "Drivers and Software" here

This includes all these notebooks on cashback promotion.

If your dad prefers burgundy laptops and a screen he can do his lippy in though, then I agree with others that once out of Metro, Win 8 is pretty much identical to Win 7 so I actually don't think it's any biggie. You can use those tools, or really, in this day and age, sleep/resume works a lot better for the average user than shutting down/booting up any way.

In reply to a post by aquilla:

In terms of Windows 7 licensing, I would buy a W7 license.

Presumably those are only available in the "grey market" ?

Try Amazon.

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

Try Amazon.

oh yes, surprised to see it "Dispatched from and sold by Amazon" I expected MS to kill this like they kill supply of PCs with Win7 in retail.

Given the dreadful retail sales of Win8, I would have expected some sort of recall conditions to be enforced but obviously not. And starting at around £70 the prices aren't bad either.

Edited by Deadbeat (Sat 04-May-13 20:40:28)

In reply to a post by yarwell:

In reply to a post by aquilla:

In terms of Windows 7 licensing, I would buy a W7 license.

Presumably those are only available in the "grey market" ?

Not at all.... Microsoft don't care if users want to waste money on an older version operating system when a newer one that's better exists. They do expect their technology partners and OEMs to use Windows 8 though of course, however they can make exceptions (i.e., if the OEM has a big client who requests the machines in Windows 7... that's fine). It's complex and varies.

In reply to a post by Pipexer:

I think there is a good chance Windows 8.1 will break those applications yes, but they will no doubt release updates in no time and fix the bugs. It will not be intentional by Microsoft, but the start screen is a pretty core part of the Windows OS (some may even call it part of the kernel) and when you have applications which alter that then you have to be prepared for unintended effects at any time.

Style XP anyone?

MS want us all to use the Metro, so we can buy useless apps that do less than what we can do on the desktop and also so they can chuck adverts at us in those apps. Of cause it will be intentional.

It's more to do with TCPI or whatever it's called now than it is to do with advertising revenue.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

In reply to a post by Deadbeat:

Try Amazon.

oh yes, surprised to see it "Dispatched from and sold by Amazon" I expected MS to kill this like they kill supply of PCs with Win7 in retail.

Do they?

Dell still sell a large number of PCs with Win7 - and from the last I heard a month or so back, they were selling more Win7 than Win8

http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/ships-fast-latitude A lot of the Latitudes are initially spec'd with Win7 with Win8 being an upgrade.

Why on earth would Microsoft object to selling Windows 7? They still get the money whether people buy 7 or 8.