The easiest method is to create a VHD within disk management. Follow this guide by MSoft "Enable Boot to VHD with BIOS and GPT" -- hxxps://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/dn858566.aspx I used Win7 x64 Enterprise its fully activated and I'm currently posting from it. I purchased my laptop a few weeks ago. Its a HP Envy 15-AH150SA. It came with Win 10 Home and has a UEFI BIOS with GPT partitions on the HDD. Id suggest not messing around creating new physical partitions for an OS only a data partition (shrink/extend etc) if you must. Before you do anything make sure you have a system image/recovery media as a precautionary measure. Store this on a different drive/usb flash. Remove any partitions you have created. Keep the system as fresh/stock as possible. Also backup your bcd store using bcdedit /export C:\bcd_backup_acer or whatever you want to call it (replace drive letters accordingly). Make another copy of this file (copy & paste) to another medium/usb flash incase you cannot access your hard drive. In the root of your current system partition say C:\ for example, create a directory called "drivers" or whatever and place in there the drivers for your current laptop. My laptop already had a driver directory structure setup, OEM installs usually do (C:\DRV, then in here were sub-directories such as Audio, Chipset, Network, etc) Also download "Microsoft Toolkit 2.5.3" and save in there aswell. Once the install is complete and you have booted to the win 7 desktop, the VHD will become the new "C:" and you will be able to access your Win 10 partition root directory (usually D:\ or whatever), so you can execute and copy & paste files back and forth. Handy! Next, follow the MSoft tutorial I posted. You can use the /Index:1 switch for the Enterprise iso since it contains only the Enterprise variant of Win 7. If you are using a different iso then the command "dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:\sources\install.wim" (using D:\ as an example) will list the available windows variants within that iso. So you can change the index number accordingly. Once you have completed the procedures in the article reboot your laptop go into your BIOS and enable "Legacy Support". When I enabled this option the BIOS automatically disabled "Secure Boot". You might have to disable secure boot manually. Also Enable "Virtualisation/VT". Save and exit. Upon restart your BIOS might prompt you to enter a 4 digit code to proceed, otherwise let it boot and choose Windows 7 from the boot menu. Devices will install within 5-10 mins then the regional screen prompt will appear. the enterprise install didn't ask me for a license key either. Once booted you can install your drivers. Network, Chipset, Display etc by browsing in Windows Explorer and opening your Win 10 drive. Next, I opened IE and googled .NET 4.6.1 offline, installed that (accessing the Microsoft site kept crashing the browser for some reason so I used a mirror) then copied the Microsoft toolkit 253 from Win 10 drive to the win 7 desktop. Once you open it and hit the windows icon, go to the "product keys" tab and hit "check" (the one in the first column and last row). Check the output is correct. Change the product to "Windows 7" and Edition "Enterprise". Then click the "Activation" tab under "Activator/Tool" make sure it shows "AutoKMS" and hit the install button below it. Ensure it is successful, then hit the "EZ-Activator" button and it should activate within 1-2 mins. Check in system properties.
just downloand RUFUS USB creator tool after that downloand windows 10 multi iso and make with rufus a usb bootable windows 10 select fat32 and gpt uefi after finish go to windows 10 bootable usb go source and remove install.wim after remove put inside the windows 7 install.wim now boot your pc from bootable usb and install windows 7.
If I make another partition on C:\ in disk management say D:\ 50gb NTFS (Primary) will the install see this partition D:\? Also will it make the win 7 default OS/boot or give me an option to select either Win 10 or Win 7 on boot, or will it screw up my BCD file? Thanks.
We been through it many times. Win 7 x64 will NOT EVER work in pure UEFI, it MUST have in BIOS CMS enabled If PC does NOT have that option, then Win7 is a NO GO
I'd spoken with BigReds about that this morning and He recommended going with a VHD. I've been looking at tutorials and YouTube Vids using disk management, diskpart, bootice etc. and everything I found just seems to overcomplicate the process. Anyone knows how to explain it in Simple terms ?
just tried this method the install starts and then stops ahead and says a cerificate is not valid so i will try making vhd and see if that works
hi, it was set foe efi boot and i got choice of win 7 or 10, i choose 7 it starts but freezes on window animation, i think once again driver issues, intel on board graphics, my only option is to put in another h/d with win 7 installed on mbr and see if it runs.
That shouldnt be an issue with a VHD. My graphics are AMD R6 Carrizo and windows 7 booted up fine from VHD (using generic win drivers). It should use generic drivers after which you can update. Do you have an option in your BIOS to change the USB3 controller settings? And have you enable Virtualisation/VT?
the bios on this acer e15-573 is rubbish you cannot do much configuration on it, no control of usb, no virtualisation, only eufi or legacy choice, and then by choosing supervisor p/w it lets u change tcm and secure boot, and options linked to that. i'm in uk anybody living nearby to manchester who can give hand look at laptop?
I wrongly assumed Your laptop didn't have Legacy support. For My own laptop I multi-boot using small cheap SSDs in a caddy that takes the place of the DVD drive so I have Win 7 in MBR and just change boot order in BIOS. (Generic Term) Your Motherboard has the connector even if your laptop doesn't have the optical drive.