How to replace Windows 10 with 7

[johnrxx99]

I bought my Acer Aspire V3 471G with Windows 8, upgraded to 8.1 and foolishly accepted the 10 free upgrade. Having built my first computer 40 years ago I just cannot live with the lack of control with windows 10, it feels like I'm using someone else's machine. It seems to be updating all the time, even with all the apps turned off, and often takes at least 5 minutes to load.

Therefore I want to go back to Windows 7 but have found nothing that suggest you can do this. I have downloaded the windows 7 drivers for this machine and backed up the existing OS. Is there a away to do this or do I have to ditch the hard drive and get another - I quite fancy a ssd anyway?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

If you bought it with 8, I don't think you can go to 7 without buying a copy of 7.

However, you should be able to go back to 8.1 fairly easily - there should be an option in the menus to roll back.

 

[johnrxx99]

If you bought it with 8, I don't think you can go to 7 without buying a copy of 7.

However, you should be able to go back to 8.1 fairly easily - there should be an option in the menus to roll back.

I have windows 7 on my PC so I have a disk. You cannot revert to 8.1 after a month.

 

[USAFRet]

If you bought it with 8, I don't think you can go to 7 without buying a copy of 7.

However, you should be able to go back to 8.1 fairly easily - there should be an option in the menus to roll back.

I have windows 7 on my PC so I have a disk. You cannot revert to 8.1 after a month.

On which PC? The Acer, or something else?

 

[johnrxx99]

If you bought it with 8, I don't think you can go to 7 without buying a copy of 7.

However, you should be able to go back to 8.1 fairly easily - there should be an option in the menus to roll back.

I have windows 7 on my PC so I have a disk. You cannot revert to 8.1 after a month.

On which PC? The Acer, or something else?

On a PC, ie not a laptop, lol. I should have explained, the Acer is a laptop, my PC is a self build powerful windows 7 monster.

 

[bignastyid]

You need more than a disc you also need a liscense. Once you have a valid win 7 liscence simply do a clean install of 7.

 

[drtweak]

If you PC you want to roll back to windows 7 didn't come with windows 7 installed then you can go back to windows 7 with out buying it as said above. You can go back to 8 but only if you are still under the 30 days OR if the system recovery partition is still there you should be able to restore the laptop back to how the PC what when you first bought it.

 

[basroil]

Note that if your laptop came with Windows 8.1, you will likely be unable to find certified drivers for Windows 7.

Also, if you did not have Windows 7 originally on that laptop, you will need to buy a new Windows 7 license. Your Windows 8.1 license cannot be used to downgrade.

Rather than trying to revert your system, you should figure out what is actually wrong, as a modern Windows 10 machine should never take more than 1min to fully load (less than 30s for ones with an SSD). You likely have third party apps running in the background at launch, which would also slow down Windows 7 or 8 if you downgrade to one of those.

 

[USAFRet]

If you bought it with 8, I don't think you can go to 7 without buying a copy of 7.

However, you should be able to go back to 8.1 fairly easily - there should be an option in the menus to roll back.

I have windows 7 on my PC so I have a disk. You cannot revert to 8.1 after a month.

On which PC? The Acer, or something else?

On a PC, ie not a laptop, lol.

Then you'd need to purchase a Win 7 license to install that on the Acer. You can't use the same one on two PC's (laptop or other).

 

[johnrxx99]

You need more than a disc you also need a liscense. Once you have a valid win 7 liscence simply do a clean install of 7.

You can't do that with windows 10, that's why I'm asking. The disk is a Windows 7 disk, purchased and kosha

 

[Blueberries]

Step 1. Don't

 

[johnrxx99]

Note that if your laptop came with Windows 8.1, you will likely be unable to find certified drivers for Windows 7.

Also, if you did not have Windows 7 originally on that laptop, you will need to buy a new Windows 7 license. Your Windows 8.1 license cannot be used to downgrade.

Rather than trying to revert your system, you should figure out what is actually wrong, as a modern Windows 10 machine should never take more than 1min to fully load (less than 30s for ones with an SSD). You likely have third party apps running in the background at launch, which would also slow down Windows 7 or 8 if you downgrade to one of those.

So the disk I have will not work? That's why I asked about getting rid of the hard drive and getting a new one. I've used the disk to load windows 7 on 3 new hard drives on other machines, the problem is I cannot format the drive with windows 10 - that is the question.

There are several sites with windows 7 drivers for the Aspire V3 471G, which I have already downloaded and have ready to load. All I need to do is format the disc.

 

[USAFRet]

It's a case of the license. That install disk would work to install, but 1 license, 1 PC.
You cannot use the same license on your PC and the Acer laptop.

 

[johnrxx99]

If you PC you want to roll back to windows 7 didn't come with windows 7 installed then you can go back to windows 7 with out buying it as said above. You can go back to 8 but only if you are still under the 30 days OR if the system recovery partition is still there you should be able to restore the laptop back to how the PC what when you first bought it.

Have you read my first post?

 

[basroil]

You can't do that with windows 10, that's why I'm asking. The disk is a Windows 7 disk, purchased and kosha

What the hell does that mean? Do you have TWO disks (licenses), one for your desktop and one for the acer? If you do not have two, then it is NOT kosher (definitely not "kosha") and you will need to buy another license.

Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7 all share the same licensing agreement when it comes to number and use of licenses, nothing has changed there. The ONLY change is in the activation method and availability of install media (8 and 10 can be downloaded using the media creation tool regardless of if you purchased from microsoft, 7 must be purchased)

 

[Blueberries]

If you have an extra license

http://lifehacker.com/5958507/uninstall-your-windows-product-key-so-you-can-use-the-license-on-another-pc

 

[USAFRet]

If you have an extra license

http://lifehacker.com/5958507/uninstall-your-windows-product-key-so-you-can-use-the-license-on-another-pc

That does absolutely nothing of any importance. It tells that particular PC it has no license.
It does NOT phone homebase and tell the activation server it is now free to use elsewhere.

In the MS licensing, there is nothing about 'deactivation'. All it says, for the various versions, is that 'you must remove the software...'

 

[johnrxx99]

You can't do that with windows 10, that's why I'm asking. The disk is a Windows 7 disk, purchased and kosha

What the hell does that mean? Do you have TWO disks (licenses), one for your desktop and one for the acer? If you do not have two, then it is NOT kosher (definitely not "kosha") and you will need to buy another license.

Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7 all share the same licensing agreement when it comes to number and use of licenses, nothing has changed there. The ONLY change is in the activation method and availability of install media (8 and 10 can be downloaded using the media creation tool regardless of if you purchased from microsoft, 7 must be purchased)

I have one windows 7 disk which I have loaded onto 3 new disk drives in my PC ( not my laptop). I didn't realise the disk will know my laptop is a new machine. I shall buy a new copy but the question of formatting the windows 10 laptop still remains.

 

[USAFRet]

You can't do that with windows 10, that's why I'm asking. The disk is a Windows 7 disk, purchased and kosha

What the hell does that mean? Do you have TWO disks (licenses), one for your desktop and one for the acer? If you do not have two, then it is NOT kosher (definitely not "kosha") and you will need to buy another license.

Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7 all share the same licensing agreement when it comes to number and use of licenses, nothing has changed there. The ONLY change is in the activation method and availability of install media (8 and 10 can be downloaded using the media creation tool regardless of if you purchased from microsoft, 7 must be purchased)

I have one windows 7 disk which I have loaded onto 3 new disk drives in my PC ( not my laptop). I didn't realise the disk will know my laptop is a new machine. I shall buy a new copy but the question of formatting the windows 10 laptop still remains.

Assuming there are Windows 7 drivers for that Acer laptop, there should be zero problem in wiping the drive and installing Win 7 with a new license.

 

[johnrxx99]

You can't do that with windows 10, that's why I'm asking. The disk is a Windows 7 disk, purchased and kosha

What the hell does that mean? Do you have TWO disks (licenses), one for your desktop and one for the acer? If you do not have two, then it is NOT kosher (definitely not "kosha") and you will need to buy another license.

Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7 all share the same licensing agreement when it comes to number and use of licenses, nothing has changed there. The ONLY change is in the activation method and availability of install media (8 and 10 can be downloaded using the media creation tool regardless of if you purchased from microsoft, 7 must be purchased)

I have one windows 7 disk which I have loaded onto 3 new disk drives in my PC ( not my laptop). I didn't realise the disk will know my laptop is a new machine. I shall buy a new copy but the question of formatting the windows 10 laptop still remains.

Assuming there are Windows 7 drivers for that Acer laptop, there should be zero problem in wiping the drive and installing Win 7 with a new license.

Thanks, I'll get a new license and let you know the outcome. Cheers

 

[bignastyid]

You can do a clean reinstall regardless of what os is currently installed. Simply boot to the win 7 media, wipe the partitions and install.

 

[basroil]

Before considering a downgrade to Windows 7, make sure that your laptop has Windows 7 drivers for all it's components. You can do that by going to the manufacturer's website. It would also be a good idea to make a disk containing all of the drivers just in case, especially those for the disk controllers.

 

[Shadowcalen1]

One option that may or may not work is getting your windows 10 licence with a licence extractor, then try and use that. I would do a clone of your harderive before hand though. I was running windows 8 and windows 10 on the same PC with the same licnce using this method, so I dont see why it would not work.