Coffee Lake and windows 7

[niktriantafi]

Hello.
I will be installing and using windows 7 on a new 8700K build.
I know all about the blocking of windows 7 updates , I ll deal with it, my concern is regarding the hardware and if its going to perform properly.

The build will only be used for gaming so I have no use for the onboard graphics.
It will be combined with a GTX 1080 and a G-sync enabled 144Hz monitor.

Motherboard manufacturers partially support windows 7 with drivers and software, all except the intel chipset drivers.
Will I be missing out on anything for the specific use as there are no intel chipset drivers for windows 7?
Does coffeelake offer something different other than what Kabylake did and so it will not be taken advantage on windows 7?
Will I encouter limitations on my current hardware? (2x8 ddr4 3000MHz, sata SSD)


Thanks in advance.

 

[Barty1884]

It's impossible to tell you definitively what the issues will be. Windows 7 is not supported on the hardware, so essentially, you're on your own with any issues that may occur (they could be minimal, they could be substantial) - I don't believe there have been many tests performed to establish common issues.

As for hardware limitations, no - I wouldn't expect 3000MHz DDR4 to be an issue.

I would question why you'd do this though, especially if the build will only be used for "gaming"..... which is a benefit of Windows 10 indirectly (DX12, W10 exclusive). While DX12 is not overly commonplace right now.... it certainly will be in the lifecycle of an 8700K + 1080 setup.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

Some stuff will not work without chipset drivers, for example USB drivers usually comes with chipset drivers and there will be other stuff as well. You will probably get lower performance from your system without chipset drivers.

In the end, why not install Windows 10? Windows 7 is old and general support has expired long time ago and only a couple of years left before there will no longer come security updates as well.

So to answer your question, NO your hardware will not perform properly without chipset drivers.

 

[smorizio]

if you dont like how windows 10 looks there are free programs like classic shell thta makes it look and act like windows 7.

 

[niktriantafi]

Thanks for all the answers.

I gave windows 10 a go, 6 months almost, it was a rather disappointing experience, so I returned to 7.
I rushed into the new platform , dazzled by the 12 threads, never noticed the lack of win7 support before it was too late.
I ll probably be forced to accept 10 at the end but not without a fight.

My main concern is if win7 will hold back the setup in performance.
Will GTA5, Assassin's Creed or the like, perform better with windows 10 on the same setup or not.

If not, I m sticking with 7 for many years to come.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

Thanks for all the answers.

I gave windows 10 a go, 6 months almost, it was a rather disappointing experience, so I returned to 7.
I rushed into the new platform , dazzled by the 12 threads, never noticed the lack of win7 support before it was too late.
I ll probably be forced to accept 10 at the end but not without a fight.

My main concern is if win7 will hold back the setup in performance.
Will GTA5, Assassin's Creed or the like, perform better with windows 10 on the same setup or not.

If not, I m sticking with 7 for many years to come.

Yes it will hold back performance simply because you cannot install all the needed drivers.
Generally speaking, Windows 10 will actually perform better, even more so in games that supports DX12 as you will need Windows 10 for that.
Stick with Windows 7 for many years? Well that is your call, but in roughly 2 years from now, Windows 7 will no longer receive security updates and will thus no longer be a safe system to use.

 

[niktriantafi]

Yes it will hold back performance simply because you cannot install all the needed drivers.
Generally speaking, Windows 10 will actually perform better, even more so in games that supports DX12 as you will need Windows 10 for that.

But which are the needed drivers?
Audio drivers are available, nvidia drivers also. So which motherboard driver is actually needed for gaming is my querry.
Is there a guide to what "intel chipset drivers" include in this platform?

As for the performance, GTA online which is my daily relaxing time, did not perform any better with windows 10 on a z87/4790K built.
After an update, I think it was the anniversary one, the game started inexplicably minimizing to desktop every 15 minutes or so which wrecked my nerves.
After many hours of troubleshooting, googling, installing and uninstalling drivers, software and focus logging apps the best solution I came up with was the return to 7, and wouldn't you know it, all problems solved and this is why I m going to stick with 7.
I don't mean to turn this into a 7 vs 10 debate, I'm sure many people are using 10 trouble-free.

 

[Kasper Jorgensen]

Chipset drivers are needed and you wont find any chipset drivers for any other than Windows 10.

 

[spam2]

The chipset drivers on my MSI Z370 board worked fine with Windows 7 install. I had to use Intel USB 3.0 driver from June because the latest one on the driver disc screwed up everything.

You shouldn't need to patch Windows on Coffee Lake. Kaby Lake - Yes.

 

[spam2]

I'm running Windows 7 Pro on a MSI Z370-A Pro and all drivers including chipset are installed. Works smoothly

 

[Atom Ant]

Hello guys! Very nice topic, congratulation for the author! I am very interested to running Windows 7 on Coffe Lake, but i will need to manage on laptop, which even more difficult. Currently I am running Windows 7 on Kaby Lake laptop and everything better than with Windows 10. Nicer interface, better customazations and actually more stable and faster performance in general. However i have doubt if i will be able to install IGP driver for Coffe Lake, which was already big question for Kaby Lake. Fortunately for Kaby Lake a driver modding trick is working, unsure how it will do with Coffe Lake.
If anybody is interested to see my guide how to install Windows 7 for kaby lake, welcome here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/windows-7-installation-help-for-intel-skylake-and-kaby-lake-laptops.803630/
For now i would really appreciate if some of you who managed to Install Windows 7 on Coffe Lake would post screenshots here with CPU-Z running to confirm.

 

[desertsweeper]

Some stuff will not work without chipset drivers, for example USB drivers usually comes with chipset drivers and there will be other stuff as well. You will probably get lower performance from your system without chipset drivers.

In the end, why not install Windows 10? Windows 7 is old and general support has expired long time ago and only a couple of years left before there will no longer come security updates as well.

So to answer your question, NO your hardware will not perform properly without chipset drivers.

WRONG aside from graphics (IntelGPU) everythings works just fine

 

[desertsweeper]

For now i would really appreciate if some of you who managed to Install Windows 7 on Coffe Lake would post screenshots here with CPU-Z running to confirm.

I am facing the same problem. Despite people like Kasper Jorgensen claiming problems with drivers and performance, it is actually very easy to get Windows 7 to run on CL without issues. You can find driver solutions for all but the one I need: IntelGPU. I know most users solve this or ignore it as they use a GPU board from Nvidia or AMD but I need Intel HWA for my application. I would be very interested if anyone has cracked this. The now well know Kaby Lake workaround of editing the igdllh64.inf file does not work anymore, despite carefully adding all the windows 7 sections that have been removed by Intel. In fact the driver installs without complaint when doing this - but it refuses to start. I am absolutely certain there is a fix just as there was for Kaby Lake. It is agame of cat&mouse with Intel and Microsoft now firmly in bed together to force us into adopting the Windows 10 Virus

 

[chrysalis]

it doesnt help when people post stuff like "it works fine for me"
"I installed drivers all good"

without posting a link to the drivers they used.

 

[desertsweeper]

chrysalis if you can be more specific on what platform you want help with I can assist, as I have found ways to get everything working on Z370 platform aside from iGPU

 

[chrysalis]

I got it working now, here is the steps I took.

Grab drivers from here (my mirror, I got from someone on wilders security)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LN6qglbykYlRQZ6_-Um-Y-yGFGOCejGs

Now I migrated my existing install.

So go into device manager and show hidden devices, list by connection.

Remove all ghosted items (from old system).
Reboot
Install ASMEDIA 3.1 USB drivers.
Reboot
Install INTEL LAN drivers (remove old existing first).
Reboot
At this point the system should stop freezing on sht down and the weird kernel locks preventing reboot and chipset drivers install should be fixed.
Install intel chipset drivers.
Reboot

At this point everything except GPU and any other addon cards should be working, all USB ports etc. I use a discrete GPU so all I had to do was install nvidia drivers.

Windows 8.1 64bit.

 

[desertsweeper]

Yup - however as I pointed out before - no iGPU. And that link you reference from Wilders claims iGPU support but his drivers do not work, and if you try to post a comment to that effect they delete it.

 

[chrysalis]

yeah I never claimed the iGPU works. I dont use the iGPU so I am good, but yeah if you use it then the situation sucks.

 

[rknox]

Yup - however as I pointed out before - no iGPU. And that link you reference from Wilders claims iGPU support but his drivers do not work, and if you try to post a comment to that effect they delete it.

Desertsweeper: any progress on getting iGPU to work on win 7 coffee lake? Reading through the threads, seems I should stick with Kaby Lake - need iGPU for MediaCenter. Two questions also:
- I assume you got the Z370 chipset drivers installed ok but still get error with modified (.inf) graphics driver?
- without intel iGPU driver working, I assume a generic Win 7 graphics driver runs instead? What is graphics like with that generic driver? That is, do you still get at least 1080p resolution and performance?

Thanks,
rkknox

 

[carsco]

I know most users solve this or ignore it as they use a GPU board from Nvidia or AMD but I need Intel HWA for my application.

Same conditions... We need help.

 

[pdpouyan98]

why use win 7 that does'nt contain new directx ?

 

[rknox]

Yup - however as I pointed out before - no iGPU. And that link you reference from Wilders claims iGPU support but his drivers do not work, and if you try to post a comment to that effect they delete it.

I know most users solve this or ignore it as they use a GPU board from Nvidia or AMD but I need Intel HWA for my application.

Same conditions... We need help.

I abandoned the Coffee Lake plan as seems there are real problems running 7 or 8.1, which I needed for Windows Media Center. I settled on Kaby Lake running 8.1 - this allowed me to run WMC but also have most of the 4K functionality currently available. 8.1 vs 7 not so much an issue as WMC is primary interface. Windows still warns of incompatible OS, but this is largely mitigated with wufuc fix. More importantly all the drivers are readily available. I also installed a separate Windows 10 instance so I can boot into W10 and have the latest - for example I can stream Netflix at 4K, meet Blu-ray uhd requirements etc.