How to "downgrade" from Win8 to Win7

May I ask where the service is being advertized? Is the Windows 8 being preloaded on retail machines generally the Pro version, and if not what then? Does this price include the necessary Windows 7 Pro media?

 

I 've no idea. It shows $, so must be in USA...

 

Windows 8 is pretty much dead.

I will be chuckling soon enough when MS dumps it for the next incarnation, and people are left with a Vista situation on their hands. Fanbois will be fanbois, and will still say how great 8 is..

Most of us know better.

 

I still run Vista ...

 

Windows 8 per se, is not bad. In the sense, that anyway, it has the base of Win7 behind it. It's not that we 're suddenly back in the days where the PC would sneeze and Windows would BSOD.

Simply they should have left choice of picking 1 interface and put something "exciting" in it that would make folks from XP up to Win7, to say "Wow, i want to move to Win8 to get this!".

It's not rocket science. It's the same thing with buying a new car, a new watch, something. Would you go buy anything new if the old thing you already have in house looks the same and seems to be doing the same things? This is where the "it's not bad", doesn't cut it. The "new" is supposed to be visibly better, in order to be desirable. Saying in the MS Blog "this is the best windows graphics platform ever", isn't enough. You must also prove it. If you don't prove it, compared to the lack of visible other things that you "want", is futile. You can blame the OEMs all you like for asking touch, but OEMs didn't ask for THIS specific way of touch nor did they ask you to make the OS seem like "Win7 that wore a Metro mask".

Anyway, i 've burnt a CD with Linux Mint Cinnamon, you never know, maybe i will give it a whirl if it's still bootable. Better be prepared in case MS makes a blunder again.

 

Had they just left Metro out and the interface alone, I'd have been the first in line to buy it, even at something like $99.00. I like to have a nice clean new OS when I can.

 

At least I can agree to this. Basically, MS added and removed stuffs. Some of which were nice and some of which were not. Thing is people are passionate about things that concerns them and their usage/preference. I find some of the additions useful but some of the removals annoying. Then again, MS can't please everyone. Only thing I don't get is emotions running high on both sides of the camp trying to convince the other side wrong. Maybe I came from "Planet Pluto"..

 

LOL. You'll probably love Windows 8 when Windows 9 comes out.

 

Precisely why Linux is going to be his next upgrade, I'd assume. And a large reason mine will likely be as well. Personal preference aside... I find it pretty shady that a user isn't given an option to switch back to a previous version if they wish to.

 

Lenovo downgrade instructions
http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/research/hints-or-tips/detail.page?AliasID=WIN8-DWGRD

Panagiotis

 

It isn't a matter of pressing a magical button and every new hardware is going to work with Windows XP. It's a matter of having to rewrite new drivers with support to latest features and improvements to all areas such as performance and security, to support an old OS without these latest features and improvements and also making sure that these drivers are stable on the old OS and also testing them with the new hardware to assure quality and also giving support to an old platform which is going to be discontinued within a year. And there are probably even more logical, technical and related to resources reasons that I didn't mention. So, nothing "shady" here, but absolute normality, unless you are expecting something supernatural.

 

I would agree that there are real difficulties and cost/benefit considerations that make downgrading to XP impractical, but I don't believe that's true for Windows 7. Not making it easy to downgrade to Windows 7 is intentional in the same way that removing the Start button/menu and booting to the metro start screen was intentional. People are being pushed to accept the new UI.

 

What are you talking about? ARM-based tablets such as Surface with Windows RT?

 

Ah, a little TGIF humor . No I'm referring to the untold numbers of new laptops and desktops that are being shipped with Windows 8 preloaded that have no touch support.

 

Oh .. those can downgrade to 7 with no major technical issues AFAIK.

Machines preloaded with Windows 8 Pro even have free downgrade rights to Windows 7 Pro or Windows Vista Business:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Micr...-Downgrade-to-Windows-7-for-Free-319715.shtml

Of course, some latest features from Windows 8 can't work, such as support to DirectX 11.1 and Target Independent Rasterization... but these don't break the experience Windows 7 was intended to provide in the first place.

 

Not merely pushed... forced. That's what I have a problem with. To go out of your way to make it damn near impossible to get rid of it if you decide afterward that you don't like it, is downright shady and unethical. People are sidestepping this issue with the tact of a politician.

I don't want an OS that behaves like malware personally.

 

if people are not married to Windows then Linux Mint and Ubuntu are perfectly viable alternatives.

for gamers who want the latest and bestest Win 8 is the way to go.
there's also support for USB 3.0 'out-of-the-box'.

i don't know if Win 7 supports SSDs out of the box but Win 8 does.
there's probably more stuff i haven't looked into as far as W8 is concerned, bu t i assume that Win 8 is better suited to handle some new technologies, like i mentioned above.

 

We've only got a handful of DX 11 games, and it's been around for 3+ years, let alone 11.1. Not to mention that MS have already released a pre-release platform update for Win 7 that provides a lot of the 11.1 capabilities.

Downloading and installing a USB 3.0 driver from the motherboard manufacturer or off of the driver cd should be a trivial matter. I assume it's pre-installed on Win 7 store bought pc's that support usb 3.0 already.

 

That may be so, but there's nothing easy about it. This is beyond what the average user can do, which means it's an additional cost and inconvenience to them. This offer is also something that the average user doesn't know anything about.

 

I fail to see what could be easier. A magical button that instantly switches the machine to other OS? lol. If the average user buys a machine that comes with an OS (Windows 8 or whatever) that he doesn't want to use, the so called average user needs to format the drive and install other OS or ask somebody to do that for him. This is the common procedure as always, nobody is being "forced". This is the same that happens when an average user buys a machine that comes with Ubuntu. Anyways, (Re)Installation of Windows at this point is trivial, be it 7 or 8. Microsoft is being even too kind IMO giving free copies of 7 and Vista for those who refuse to adapt to 8 in their machines. As they are separate products, Microsoft could simply sell them separately, with absolute no downgrade rights and it would still be entirely normal procedure and nothing deserving the verb "forcing" in my opinion. Some people complain too much, without thinking about the market reality for a second, it appears. Customers aren't always right just because of their condition. Go read some "jokes" about call centers from the point of view of those who work at them (not my case, fortunately) lol

 

Being able to push a "magical" button to switch the OS is perfectly easy, however that option is not available to many people by default. If MS wanted to make downgrading easy they would also have to make it widely accessible. To me "widely accessible" would mean building that magical button into every Windows 8 PC from every vendor. Regarding being able to downgrade for "free" please don't make it sound like MS is doing people a favor. As I understand it this is part of the license agreement and there are also significant restrictions. The article at this link provides a realistic picture of what downgrading entails:

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2015107/downgrading-from-windows-8-to-7-what-you-need-to-know.html

Whether or not downgrading is supported is not the primary issue for many people though. All they really want is a fully functional Windows 7 desktop. If MS wanted to provide better customer service they would have made the touch interface optional. They could have offered a "magical button" in the control panel that would toggle between the 8 and 7 UIs. That would have been far easier than downgrading, but obviously this doesn't coincide with their self-interest.

 

I totally agree.

 

Me too.. and that's why 8 will be a total failure in the public eye...

 

Microsoft doesn't make the PCs (ok.. they now have the surface, but it's just one model among thousands), just the OS. The OEMs are the ones who decide things like this. If OEMs decide to sell PCs with Windows 7 and not Windows 8, they can do so AFAIK. However, the Modern UI was asked by OEMs, so obviously they are not going to do that - besides the other benefits of Windows 8.

As for the toggle between the 8 and 7 UIs, Classic Shell and several other apps do that in a few clicks and it's far easier to just use them instead of downgrading. But keep complaining, it's on your right lol. Just understand that no one can please everyone.

 

I don't think this is true WH. The OEM's would never ask for Metro UI. They know people will hate it. There was most likely massive strong arming and pressure of the OEM's by MS to accept it and put it on machines. The OEM's decide nothing... they do what MS and the Windows monopoly tells them to do. Let's be honest.