[SOLVED] Is it possible to install windows 7 (with drivers) on a laptop that came with windows 10?

[Krasen]

So i have a Dell G7 7700 laptop that came with windows 10 installed. I was wondering is it possible to install windows 7 Home on it and find drivers to work for it?

i dont see any drivers for windows 7 for that system in dell.com/support

any way of making this work or should i just give up the thought?

Thanks for any answers!

 

[rgd1101]

if there is no driver, you going to miss some of the feature of this new laptop.
so yes give up on that

 

[hotaru.hino]

You might be able to find drivers from the individual hardware manufacturers like NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel. However, depending on the hardware, the laptop may not even boot into Windows 7 because there's no default driver to use.

 

[GoofyOne]

Is there a particular reason you need to use MS Windows 7???

If you explain why you need it, folks may be able to help you in a different way. For instance you can run programs (apps) in compatibility mode. That is you can specify that the program should run as a Windows 8 or Windows 7 program. I think that does not always work though.

{GoofyOne's 2c worth}

 

[Cj-tech]

So i have a Dell G7 7700 laptop that came with windows 10 installed. I was wondering is it possible to install windows 7 Home on it and find drivers to work for it?

i dont see any drivers for windows 7 for that system in dell.com/support

any way of making this work or should i just give up the thought?

Thanks for any answers!

Why would you want to install Windows 7 as the main operating system? It’s easier to create a virtual machine if you just want to play around with stuff. I personally use VMware WorkStation Player because it is free for non-commercial purposes.

Below is a guide for Windows 10. It might be a little different from the Windows 7 installation process, but the general steps should be the same.
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2128797

 

[Krasen]

Is there a particular reason you need to use MS Windows 7???

If you explain why you need it, folks may be able to help you in a different way. For instance you can run programs (apps) in compatibility mode. That is you can specify that the program should run as a Windows 8 or Windows 7 program. I think that does not always work though.

{GoofyOne's 2c worth}

Why would you want to install Windows 7 as the main operating system? It’s easier to create a virtual machine if you just want to play around with stuff. I personally use VMware WorkStation Player because it is free for non-commercial purposes.

Below is a guide for Windows 10. It might be a little different from the Windows 7 installation process, but the general steps should be the same.
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2128797

well i just had a great experience growing up using windows 7 for a long time and when they invented 10 i was not fond of it. So i got a new laptop recently and i was wondering if i can install 7 on it. But if the drivers are non existent then i guess there is no way it can happen 🙁

 

[Cj-tech]

well i just had a great experience growing up using windows 7 for a long time and when they invented 10 i was not fond of it. So i got a new laptop recently and i was wondering if i can install 7 on it. But if the drivers are non existent then i guess there is no way it can happen 🙁

Even if there were drivers, I wouldn’t recommend using Windows 7. It no longer receives updates, so it is a big security risk.

 

[SkyNetRising]

well i just had a great experience growing up using windows 7 for a long time and when they invented 10 i was not fond of it. So i got a new laptop recently and i was wondering if i can install 7 on it.

If it's just because of familiarity with windows 7, then not worth it. Installing windows 7 on modern hardware is rather tricky.
Have to do manual integration of drivers and hotfixes, before it's even possible to install.
Then you have problems with locating all the necessary drivers.

Time to learn to use windows 10 or even upgrade to windows 11.

 

[Math Geek]

if you are willing to put in the work it is possible for sure.

this is probably the most asked for service i get from clients now. i have gotten win 7 to run on just about anything at this point, new or old.

first step is to just try and see if it will install. make a win 7 usb installer and see if it will even install. if it does not, then you have to do a bit more work to get started. if it installs, then all you need to do is look for some drivers once it is up and running.

question is, do you have a key for win 7? they don't sell it anymore so they are not that easy to come by if you don't already have one on hand to use.

you can make a small partition to install it to or swap out another hdd for the experiment. but do be careful if using the old drive in any way as data loss is easy. so be sure to back up anything important cause once gone it is unlikely to be retrievable.

i don't care why you want to use win 7, i still use it for my daily driver and will never move to win 10 or higher from what i can see. my clients feel the same way which is why they pay me to get win 7 running on their system. you are not alone

it is on you, however, to keep yourself safe using it, which is not any different than newer OS's really. risks are there no matter what.

 

[jmsigler2@dallas]

Have you tried running an operating system within your new host operating system as a virtual machine? I have used Virtual Machines many times to make use of parallel Linux operating systems or older Windows operating systems including servers. Yes, you might have a drivers problems on the host, but maybe not. On the other hand, many people load a Virtual Machine manager such as VirtualBox from Oracle, which is free by-the-way. There is Microsoft Hyper-V and DELL VMware. VMware is not free but it offers a lot. Historically, Microsoft VMs have been the most limited in features. However, I have not tried Hyper-V yet on Windows 10, but you might want to try that. I would try Oracle VirtualBox.

I would then create a Virtual Machine of Windows 7 inside that the Oracle VirtualBox manager. The only thing I am not sure of is the display mode. I think Windows 7 and later are supposed to use VBoxSVGA, otherwise use the legacy VBoxVGA. VMSVGA is reserved for Linux operating systems which you can also load. If you machine is pretty new, you should have 32GB or memory or higher, 16GB minimum. Most new computers can upgrade to 32GB or 64GB; I know this because my son just bought a Razer laptop which supports 64GB or memory as a upgrade. Also, Virtual Machines sometimes have virtual drivers which get around the drivers issues you might face. Anyway, that is the direction I would go.

One other piece of advice. Stay with Oracle VirtualBox 6.1.30 for now as 6.1.32 and 6.1.34 have unresolved display bugs. I had to rollback or recover back two versions. One big problem happens with use of a Bridged Adapter for your network connection to the internet. I used that a lot when I access the internet on my laptop by tethering with my Razer Phone 2. The two new versions of VirtualBox will freeze in that network mode for my computer. And, many other people are complaining about the same problem . One person wrote that he was fine as long as he ran with NAT or NAT NETWORK adapters. Hopefully, Oracle will fix these issues in the next release. I hope this helps you with some direction!

 

[jmsigler2@dallas]

Outside of going to the Manufacturer's OEM driver website in each case, or going to the computer OEM website for drivers, you can also try going to the Microsoft Update Catalog website. You want to search as a composite string on the device name and the hardware id. I do not think you want to go down the path of a dual boot computer. I think Microsoft might have stopped supporting that path when Windows 10 came out.

Let me give you the website and an example. You can generally get the device name and hardware id from Device Manager. However, device names sometimes change. So, you likely want to try to find the drivers for a computer from a Windows 7 computer from the same computer manufacturer.

I used this path to find drivers for my IOGear GBU521W6 Bluetooth dongle.
Microsoft Update Catalog Search: 'Broadcom BCM20702 Bluetooth 4.0 USB Device' USB\VID_0A5C&PID_21E8&REV_0112

Microsoft Update Catalog

I still think you might have better success with the Virtual Machine approach. Sometimes you still need real drivers over virtual driver support, such as for printing.