Locked Windows 7 Installation

[Nayan2658]

How can I install windows 7 in latest generation laptops like 11 gen above.

Any idea please suggest me to install windows 7

 

[Cyler]

You probably can't and the issue is not so much the CPU itself but the drivers for it and for everything else your laptop has. Even if you manage to bypass the installation issues by injecting a generic NVMe Driver and USB 3 driver, it will probably work driverless with full of yellow exclamation marks on the device manager, and not work as fast as it can cause Windows 7 is so old, it can not fully "understand" the current hardware. Multicore CPUs (6+ cores) don't work as efficiently (even Windows 10 had that issue till 1802), NVMe will probably never work at its full speed, and without proper drivers for the motherboard, etc, USB 3.1 or 3.2 will work either slower as USB 3.0 (or even 2.0) or not at all in some cases, and old graphics and other drivers will have issues with current games/software and let's not forget Lan and WiFi will probably not work either especially if you use the newer wifi protocols.

Now if you still want to do it, sadly you will have to experiment and research it yourself. You need to find proper drivers for your hardware that support Windows 7 (or early Windows 10 versions) and search/read about how to inject your own drivers into the Windows 7 ISO and do a few tries, tweaking things in case something fails based on the error codes you might get, and even then it's not guaranteed it will work well or at all. We have a couple of versions here I think that support usb 3 boot so these can be a good start I guess. Check the Windows 7 section for the latest builds, and see which ones say they can boot or include usb 3 support. Keep in mind that laptops are a bit more difficult than desktops due to the extras they have like cameras, touchpads, etc which are very specific to laptops and you may have to try several drivers till you find ones that work, even partly.

Personally, I would recommend Windows LTSC If you want something close to how 7 works, or if you are not fun of LTSC, check the other Windows lite, etc we have here.

Hope it helped.

 

[GregCorner@123]

can we try it in virtual machines right??

 

[Cyler]

can we try it in virtual machines right??

In a VM you can even run Windows 3.1, that's not an issue, and it's only recommended when one has an application that absolutely needs older Windows and won't run on current versions. VMs will run anything slower compared to real hardware (tho if the apps are old you probably won't feel it) and it has a huge overhead when it comes to resources. I think tho that using a VM for an app only, should be the last solution and the user should try other methods before that.

 

[GregCorner@123]

Its HHard to follow up but thanks guys...

 

[pleiadians]

If your hardware is all Intel then you might be able to get the text drivers for the hardware and insert them at the text driver stage of windows 7 installation, if you have to install it. However, even windows 10 doesn't have the processor scheduling for performance / efficiency cores for newer chipsets and cpus so performance can suffer. "The optimization between the processor and Windows Task Scheduler relies on Intel® Thread Director technology. Intel's Thread Director is a microcontroller built in each Alder Lake processor (12th Generation Intel Core processors ) that is optimized for Windows 11 Task Scheduler to decide which thread goes where (P-core or E-core). Thread director also works with Windows 10 Scheduler, but it is not optimized for it. In summary, for optimal performance for 12th Gen processors, you should go with Windows 11.", from Intel.

 

[ki_2004]

you may try win-raid forums. They have some modded drivers for such purposes. Your results may vary and you may or may not get exactly what u want but no harm in trying though

 

[Wichestery2k]

give up with Windows 7 it will never run on modern processors.... this will be locked soon, due to nonsense!

 

[erobbins]

This thread got me to wondering about Hasleo Win to USB and installing whatever Windows you want on a portable SSD or portable laptop hard drive. So far, installed W11 and W10, they both work great on my capable desktops. Not planning to try W7, but you never know. Since the idea behind Win to USB is that you can take it to different computers, what would be the outcome if used on a laptop such as above?

 

[Apollo_]

This thread got me to wondering about Hasleo Win to USB and installing whatever Windows you want on a portable SSD or portable laptop hard drive. So far, installed W11 and W10, they both work great on my capable desktops. Not planning to try W7, but you never know. Since the idea behind Win to USB is that you can take it to different computers, what would be the outcome if used on a laptop such as above?

Windows 10 or 11 works mainly because they have support for modern hardware internally such as multicore CPUs, USB3, touchpads, wifi, and so on. Windows 7 doesn't have those natively cause when Windows 7 was out, none of the current technologies even existed so you maybe make it boot but your display will be 800x600, the network, wifi specifically, will hardly work, USB3 ports keyboard and mouse or touchpad will have the same fate, and so on. A lot depends on the actual chipset but chances are they won't work or will work in legacy mode.

I don't think anyone will like such a system.

 

[erobbins]

Windows 10 or 11 works mainly because they have support for modern hardware internally such as multicore CPUs, USB3, touchpads, wifi, and so on. Windows 7 doesn't have those natively cause when Windows 7 was out, none of the current technologies even existed so you maybe make it boot but your display will be 800x600, the network, wifi mostly, will hardly work, USBs keyboard and mouse or touchpad will have the same fate and so on. A lot depends on the actual chipset but chances are they won't work or will work in legacy mode.

I don't think anyone will like such system.

What I was getting at though, doesn't the Hasleo Win to Usb (Windows to go) allow the portable drive to use the drivers of whatever computer the external is connected to? Probably not, but wanted to ask.

 

[Apollo_]

Very good question. To use a device (hardware) you need a driver (software) and almost non of the current software drivers will work with Windows 7 as many manufacturers dropped support for 7, or worse haven't released a win 7 driver at all, and since Windows 10 uses a different driver mechanism internally than 7, almost none of Windows 10 drivers will work on 7 either. As I said it depends on the actual chipset but even if you make it boot, it will underperform compared to win 10/11.

Check the Intel graphics driver, the last supported for win 7 was for 6th Gen CPUs and the OP has 11th gen which never released a win 7 driver.