Can we install windows 7, 8, 8.1 on the new Intel CPUs/mobos? Official response: "No, only windows 10 is the supported OS" Reality check: Actually we can install Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 on those CPUs/mobos and in fact exist official drivers to install them. But down the road, Intel by itself? or with the pressure of Microsoft? or was it Microsoft? or maybe both Intel and Microsoft? must have demanded from the hardware makers to not release and to remove all the drivers (at least the Intel ones). Personally I'll buy a Ryzen 1700X because it seems that AMD values me as a client while Intel does not give a **** . And probably I will never again buy another intel product... and this comes from someone that owns 2 Macs, 2 Intel laptops, 3 Intel desktops and 2 Intel NUCs... Anyway for those that already bought the New cpus/mobos and do not want to install Windows 10 or want to simply test Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 on their new beasts I list bellow all the drivers that you need depending on your mobo. Search the net and you will find them... but not in the Intel site and not on your product support/download page. Panagiotis
A friend asked me if I could upload those drivers and since I already did... I decided to add the link here, in case someone needs to find them in one place. https://mega.nz/#F!BSIhVChS!Eg5LVimXhBI98F1LAE6xWA Important: Only windows 10 and Linux is officially supported with the z370 chipset and the 8th gen intel processors. So if you decide to test with windows 7 and windows 8.1 you are on your own and don't expect support from Intel, Microsoft or you motherboard manufacturer. The VGA drivers are considered beta. Again, if you decide to use windows other than 10 you do it on your own risk/responsibility. Panagiotis
great post thanks, as I am considering going to coffee lake and dont want to use windows 10. https://github.com/zeffy/wufuc I will mirror the above drivers on google drive, which is a much more user friendly download location. mirror https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LN6qglbykYlRQZ6_-Um-Y-yGFGOCejGs
No but I was already signed in with own account. The bad news is the chipset drivers wont install, the bar sits at halfway forever (gave it 6 hours). Trying to install in safe mode just gives "unknown error". Try it again, I set it to public.
Try the chipset drivers from https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-X-HERO/HelpDesk_Download/ select windows 10 64bit expand the drivers and download "Intel_Chipset_10.1.1.45" "Intel_Chipset_Win10_V101144_20170830_7.45" please report back how it goes (I'll update the files in my link if the asus version works better).
Have an Asus Z370-H. Tried WuFUC and the driver above, absolutely no difference. Can't get a display driver nor both Audio devices. not sure what else. board is working fine. Just the display driver isn't there so likely crappy video.
Super post as mentioned. The series of 10 systems I have are about as tricked out security wise as I can take it and while it's not so bad with customizations I always have to stack onto any windows, I am 100% sold on Windows 8.1 and gladly accept what risk might crop up. The anticipation of a really beefed up 8.1 far appeals to my satisfaction then 10 anyway. Hence a reason I use the avatar that displays. They, Microsoft can call 10 Win 10 till the cows come home, but I consider it Windows 9 in my own little tech imagination Really appreciate the useful links shared above. They're sure to help. Thanks
I am up and running now on my old win 8.1 install, steps as below. Note I did all this with only system drive connected and only reattached others afterwards. Grab drivers from this thread 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 (will need to force reset) Install ASMEDIA 3.1 USB drivers. Reboot (will need to force reset) Install INTEL LAN drivers (remove old existing first). Reboot At this point the system should stop freezing on shut 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. The chipset drivers wont install due to a locked up kernel, until the new LAN and USB drivers are installed first. I had to reactivate windows over phone, office reactivated automatically over internet. The only issue I got is the ps/2 port is now keyboard only, ps/2 mouse's no longer work (same in bios so not an OS issue).
@chrcol With windows 7x86 and windows 7x64 that I tried on my friends system everything worked fine. (I always install first the chpset drivers and last the gpu drivers) Maybe the Windows 8.1 problems are related with one of the following problems related with intel gpus. info https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...age-when-you-run-a-directx-11-game-in-windows hotfix https://support.microsoft.com/el-gr/hotfix/kbhotfix?kbnum=2976943&kbln=en-US info https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-on-systems-with-intel-processors-that-are-ru hotfix https://support.microsoft.com/el-gr/hotfix/kbhotfix?kbnum=3029348&kbln=en-US info https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...se-intel-and-amd-graphics-adapters-on-a-windo Panagiotis
I don’t know what happened, but Win 8.1 ran perfectly after changing to Asus Maximus Gene X and 8700K. No windows key requests, USB seems OK and only the drivers installed are the Nvidia drivers for a 1080TI. I’m truly shocked that it is same on Cinebench as the Win 10 boot, which was prepared in advance for the change over from a 4770K. In fact , OCing is better on 8.1 as Win10 needs to be restarted before OC applied, whereas Win 8.1 can go straight into 5.1 overclock from a cold start. I’m due for a win from Windows and finally have one!!!
