Hi there, I am very interested in getting newer Intel WLAN cards work in good old Windows 7. When I am saying "newer", I mean, for example, any WiFi 6/6E card like AX200 or AX210. Based on my experience, Intel 8265 was the last card with official Win7 support including drivers. Maybe also 9260 series, but this card requires CNVio interface and I assume that majority of current Win7 users are users of older laptops - I personally use Thinkpad W541. Intel does not provide Win7 nor Win8.1 drivers since 21.* version and the most recent 21.40.5 branch does not contain Intel AX drivers. Branch 23.40.0 contains drivers for AX series but only for Win10/Win11. My research so far: I bought Intel AX210 card from Aliexpress (as AX210 does not use CNVio interface but it requires only usual PCI Express), installed in my Thinkpad M.2 slot, verified that PC recognizes it. I also tried booting live Ubuntu and WLAN works well there. Booted in Win7 x64 SP1 and no driver could be found for the card. Win10 drivers unmodded does not work - it even cannot be forced in Device Manager. Great googling. Every site mentioned that Win7 is dead system with no support and if I want to run modern WLAN card, I need to upgrade OS which I don't want to do. I did not find any useful info about possibility of driver backporting. INF modification. I was in a big hope that I could backport Win10 driver to Win7 21.40.5 driver pack by modifying INF. I tried the following steps: - replaced OS version in [Manufacturer] section like NTamd64.10.0 to NTamd64.6.1 which I already knew as working, but without success - copied line in [Device] section containing the AX210 entry, like %NIC_210_2x2_AX_6G% = Install_GEN_SLR_TyP_210_AX_6G_2x2_WinT , PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2725&SUBSYS_00248086 ; AX_6G and also added [Install_GEN_SLR_TyP_210_AX_6G_2x2_WinT] sections including corresponding .HW and .Services subsections, - sections DelReg_Common_14, Reg_Common_14, Reg_Common_WPP_14, Reg_NDI_14, Reg_NDI_INT_WDI_14, Reg_IHV_Router_14, Reg_2x2_14, Reg_NDI_2x2_14, Reg_NDI_AX_14, Reg_NDI_6G_14, Reg_AX_6G_14, Reg_6E_14, Reg_NDI_TYP_14, Reg_NIC_210_2x2_AX_6G copied also from Win10 INF, - section [Reg_NIC_210_2x2_AX_6G] also copied, - added NIC_210_2x2_AX_6G = "Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6E AX210 160MHz" line to Strings section After this mod, I am able to force this INF to be used for the card (with driver signing enforcement disabled) but the driver does not start successfully and Code 39 is triggered. I suspect that the driver uses some API calls not present in Win7 kernel but I don't know how to check this. I am not experienced enough to further debug this with more verbosity. Kernel Extenders. I am aware of VxKex and I am happy user of this extender but it is suitable only for programs and not for drivers. Does something similar exist "system-wide" so it could be used for running Win10 drivers in Win7? Or does anyone have any idea how Win10 driver could be modded to be usable in Win7? Thanks & Regards, Ondrej - dj-bobr
The win10 officeal driver can not work on win7, even you modify the *.sys file,because of the NDIS.SYS not support. If you want to use wifi 6 on win7, you can use realtek RTL8832 series cards.
@canonkong @nisutuk Where can i find Windows 7 drivers for the RTL8832AU chipset? A lengthy search did not return anything, and Realtek only lists ethernet drivers on their official website.
You are welcome. That same driver package has worked well for me with the Realtek RTL8832AU 802.11ax WiFi 6 devices.