If I understood that correctly (without havin paid too much attention) Win 7 can no longer be installed on every hardware. What do I have to look out for, when buying a new laptop? My desktop works fine, but I travel and my trusted old HP 530 Notbook, though much "improved" is almost 20 years old. I think.... Thanks
I mainly upgrade/downgrade MSI notebooks. That is why I listed the above. Don't know much about the others. Why wouldn't you consider the latest tech? 7th Gen cpu running on the latest chipset? Since Kabylake doesn't officially get support from Microsoft for Win7 & no one ships with that SKU then it's odd that the manufacturers still include Slic with some units. WS63 7RK is another new example... Good luck with your search!
I've done plenty of installs for Win7 on the latest hardware. Never had any missing driver. The only non whql driver I've seen is for Intel HD Graphics. There is a 4508 beta that installs & works. The majority of notebooks also run with nvidia graphics so any worthy app would use the nvida anyway (or you can just set it to run the nvidia only)...
I've seen issues where some OEM's provide no driver support for Windows 7 on new hardware (7th gen cpu & Intel 200 series chipsets), There are also some OEM's do not let you access the secure boot option in the bios so you can install Windows 7
Don't know if will help you any but I have Asus desktop MB with 270 chipset (latest asus MB update win7 drivers July 19, 2017) & i7 skylake, both supports win7. Prior to buying new laptop google laptop model # , go to support page and check if any current driver downloads for win7.
"Why wouldn't you consider the latest tech? 7th Gen cpu running on the latest chipset?" I am simply a computer user, I have no interest in competition. This computer here has a five or six year old i5 and an SSD I added three years ago. When I start it up in the morning it takes 8 seconds until even Firefox is opening. Why would I want anything faster or what is considered to be "better"? I am not gaming I am simply surfing, downloading and mailing, for that I do not need the "latest" chipset, which be no longer the latest chipset in a few months and will be an old chipset in a few years? You are still misunderstanding the question I asked. I did not ask what to do, I asked what NOT to do. Please do not misunderstand, I appreciate anybody's help very much.
Thank you for that one, that sounds like good news. Does this means I do not need to worry about the droiver issue, or, what graphics card is inside, or is there a list of those that will not work, because of the driver issue? I will not buy anything state of the art, or any benchmark top hardware anyway.... as I wrote: it is not for gaming.
You assume correct, not surprisingly as this has always been the true base of M$ policy. They want you to use Win10 so they can have your data. Only fools could believe they would give you Win10 for free.....
Yes, but 7th generation is out anyway, so unless there could be the same problem with 6th generation....?
"go to support page" Whose support page? The computer manufacturer, Microsoft Win7, or the chip producer?
@ThomasMann: "Wait right here...I'll get my manager."... With computers, even sales is engineering. There's a lot of leg work needed to figure out which computer you want. And it's getting harder every day. Never buy top of the line. As you yourself said, you don't need it. If you're gaming, or have a specific need, you make sure that the machine you get supports the feature(s) you want. And be prepared to shop. It took me 3 months to finally settle on my MoBo / CPU combination. I took everyone's advice here and finally made my own choices. But that's a desktop. Not a laptop. Laptops are much more tricky. You can't swap out hardware so easily. In many cases, not at all. Apart from "off-brands", there are 4 or 5 companies that make laptops. HP / compaq, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba. I would mention Sony Vaio, but I've had poor experiences with them. Most, if not all of these companies are going to be pushing their latest machines, which means WIndows 10. That means you have to look at the older laptops. And you may not have the luxury of going into a sales room and trying them out. Here's a few questions you can ask: How much RAM can you stuff into the laptop? Can you install an SSD into it at a later time? How may ports does it have (USB, spare monitor)? And do you need to buy a docking station? What's the battery life going to be like? How much does it weigh? Does the keyboard feel nice? Or is it crappy. How big do you want the display to be. This is going to sound facetious, but it's not meant to be. "Google is your friend" Search, find a brand you might like, that does what you need, and post questions about it here. I'm almost positive that someone here has owned it and will be able to tell you about it. I hope this helps.