New OS Compatibility.

[elisz]

So I'm planning on buying Windows 7 for Christmas to change my Windows 8.1. (Not working out for me and it's not my style.) So I'm downgrading. My question is will I encounter any compatibility issues? I bought my desktop pre-built with Windows 8.1 and I heard somewhere that some hardware are only opted for Windows 8.1 drivers or something. So I'm kind of etchy of buying Windows 7 as I might have some issues. Just want to make sure it doesn't.

Thank you.

 

[yumri]

You shouldnt unless you bought some very properity devices then maybe. As i am assuming you are a gamer then most likely all the way down to Vista will work for you driver wise.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Check with the PC manufacturer as to the availability of Windows 7 drivers. If they do not provide them then you are on your own to identify each hardware device and, if such exists, locate generic Windows 7 drivers.

 

[yumri]

Check with the PC manufacturer as to the availability of Windows 7 drivers. If they do not provide them then you are on your own to identify each hardware device and, if such exists, locate generic Windows 7 drivers.

Mircosoft Windows is ussualy pretty good about matching generic drivers to devices except for drawing tablets so haveing to match a driver to a device to get it to work is most likely not needed. I will suggest getting the properity drivers for your graphics card as they work a ton better than just the generic driver.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Mircosoft Windows is ussualy pretty good about matching generic drivers to devices except for drawing tablets so haveing to match a driver to a device to get it to work is most likely not needed. I will suggest getting the properity drivers for your graphics card as they work a ton better than just the generic driver.

Not in the case of hardware designed with Windows 8 in mind, such as chipsets and other integrated hardware.

 

[yumri]

that really isnt that true for chipsets and other intergrated hardware as unless you are talking about hardware nothing like the hardware when windows 7 came out then it will be matched with a generic driver. The hardware in a Ultra M.2 slot might not work without a downloaded driver on windows 7 nor will SATA express, SAS 12Gb/s, 4k resulation on any card, etc. like that which came out after windows 7 came out but the chipsets of Z97 and before still work and will still be regonized by windows being fully functional, the video card well you might be limited to only 1024x720 on some cards or even lower until you download the driver but you will still get picture, sound will most likely only go through the intergrated HDMI or the intergrated sound not a sound card, but all SATA 1, SATA 2, SATA 3, IDE, EIDE, PATA, SAS 3Gb/s, and SAS 6Gb/s hard drives will work, the CD/DVD drive will work ... maybe not a blu-ray drive though never had one so never got to test that part, card readers will work, any and all USB ports will work if plugged in correctly, etc. etc. most everything will work just special features will most likely need drivers.
For an common example nVidia GeForce expence's optimal settings will not take effect until you actualy get the nVidia driver from the nVidia site or as a windows driver update, Light scribe might not work with some of the newer CD/DVD burners with the generic driver, sound cards mostly will straight out not work for any of the extras on them, a PCIe hard drive might not be regonized by windows before installing it, and basicly anything "designed with windows 8 in mind" will require a driver if a add-in / add-on card while most things just will work straight out of the box.

 

[elisz]

I remember updating my gpu, bios, and others it always included w7~w8 updates. Also my current O.S. is OEM if that matters in terms of compatibility. Should I buy an OEM W7 or the one where you can install it in different computers(but you can only really use it on one device unless you de-activate it or something.) I think the difference of OEM is once you put the product key to that computer it's tied to it. And the other one (idk what you call it.) is you can install it to another computer without worries of it being tied to just one device.

 

[yumri]

I remember updating my gpu, bios, and others it always included w7~w8 updates. Also my current O.S. is OEM if that matters in terms of compatibility. Should I buy an OEM W7 or the one where you can install it in different computers(but you can only really use it on one device unless you de-activate it or something.) I think the difference of OEM is once you put the product key to that computer it's tied to it. And the other one (idk what you call it.) is you can install it to another computer without worries of it being tied to just one device.

OEM is locked into a certain bit count either 32-bit or 64-bit and yes it is locked to one computer without a easy way to get deactivated from it either.
Retail will come with both 32-bit and 64-bit disks or just 1 disk with both on it.

for all intensive propuses that is about it as the keys are about the same and the retail version comes with support while the OEM version does not which might be the biggest issue to look at when buying.