Can I Clean Install 7 On An HP Pavilion Laptop That Has 10?

I am planning to purchase a brand new laptop that is an HP Pavilion 17. It has Windows 10 Professional 64 bit pre-installed on it, and I have purchased an OEM to downgrade it to Windows 7 Professional 64 bit via a clean install. Doing this via the optical drive, and not the usb method, will there be any problems involved with doing this?

I have read of people being unable to do this with some laptops via usb, and wondered if that extended to the optical drive. I have read of the various issues with Dell.

I know how to do the clean install of 7, since I did one for my current computer (a desktop about a decade old now, also HP; and I installed a different OEM of 7 on my father’s computer) about 4 years ago to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit. I think I know where to find the drivers on HP's site following any clean installation. It’s just the question on if I’ll have be running into any problems getting 7 to install on HP these days.

Is it just a matter of making certain it’s not a 7th generation processor when I purchase the laptop, or do I need to be on the lookout for more to avoid?

If you can be sure to get a Haswell or Broadwell CPU (4th or 5th Generation), AND if you can get Windows 7 drivers for your laptop, then you shouldn't have any problem. I personally wouldn't spend the money for anything newer than a Broadwell CPU if I were going to go with Windows 7 - it's too much of a risk that you might not be able to do Windows updates.

mrjimphelps said:

If you can be sure to get a Haswell or Broadwell CPU (4th or 5th Generation), AND if you can get Windows 7 drivers for your laptop, then you shouldn't have any problem. I personally wouldn't spend the money for anything newer than a Broadwell CPU if I were going to go with Windows 7 - it's too much of a risk that you might not be able to do Windows updates.

Thank you!

Scroll to the bottom of this page:
http://store.hp.com/us/en/mlp/busine.../elite/viewall

There are some brand new HP laptops available with Windows 7 pre-installed. They have 6th Generation CPUs, so likely they are on the approved list for Windows 7 updates. However, they are quite expensive.

Dell has some new Windows 7 laptops which are a lot cheaper than HP:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/...finements=6633

When you go to the Dell website, if you go to the "business" computers, you can specify that you want Windows 7.

mrjimphelps said:

Scroll to the bottom of this page:
http://store.hp.com/us/en/mlp/busine.../elite/viewall

There are some brand new HP laptops available with Windows 7 pre-installed. They have 6th Generation CPUs, so likely they are on the approved list for Windows 7 updates. However, they are quite expensive.

Dell has some new Windows 7 laptops which are a lot cheaper than HP:
http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/...finements=6633

When you go to the Dell website, if you go to the "business" computers, you can specify that you want Windows 7.

Again, thank you for all the help. I'll certainly be sifting through the HP store again (and checking various local places that I know of) shortly, because I likely missed several of those on the approved list, while looking primarily at the 17 inch Pavilions.

mrjimphelps said:

If you can be sure to get a Haswell or Broadwell CPU (4th or 5th Generation), AND if you can get Windows 7 drivers for your laptop, then you shouldn't have any problem. I personally wouldn't spend the money for anything newer than a Broadwell CPU if I were going to go with Windows 7 - it's too much of a risk that you might not be able to do Windows updates.

As I was sifting through and ruling out the ones that wouldn't be compatible, when I ended up going to Amazon, I've got a question. What about AMD A12-9700P? Would it be possible to install Windows 7 with that one? They aren't Intel, but I wasn't sure if that extended to AMD with blocking 7.

AMD also has certain CPUs which will allow Windows 7 updates and certain ones which won't. However, I'm not up on which ones will and which ones won't.

Win 7 isn't compatible with secure boot, so the most important thing to look at the new laptop is if you can disable it. On BIOS it can be as OS=other and/or CSM=enable.

You can install win 7 on 6th (skylake) and 7th (kabylake) generation Intel systems, although, 7th (kabylake) is more tricky.
As 6th (skylake) and 7th (kabylake) chipsets doesn't have USB 2.0 (only 3.x) you will have to add have USB 3.x drivers to the installation disk. It's also the same for M.2 and SATA drivers.
I've never installed win 7 on new gen AMD, but it's the same issue.
Read my tutorial Create a Windows 7 USB flash installation with new drives for new MB's - Windows 7 Help Forums

As there are many pirates copies of Win 7, only buy from trusted sources.
Have a look at the laptops you like, take note of the brand and model and place here so we can have a look at the specifications.

Megahertz07 said:

Win 7 isn't compatible with secure boot, so the most important thing to look at the new laptop is if you can disable it. On BIOS it can be as OS=other and/or CSM=enable.

You can install win 7 on 6th (skylake) and 7th (kabylake) generation Intel systems, although, 7th (kabylake) is more tricky.
As 6th (skylake) and 7th (kabylake) chipsets doesn't have USB 2.0 (only 3.x) you will have to add have USB 3.x drivers to the installation disk. It's also the same for M.2 and SATA drivers.
I've never installed win 7 on new gen AMD, but it's the same issue.
Read my tutorial Create a Windows 7 USB flash installation with new drives for new MB's - Windows 7 Help Forums

As there are many pirates copies of Win 7, only buy from trusted sources.
Have a look at the laptops you like, take note of the brand and model and place here so we can have a look at the specifications.

I won't be doing it via USB, but by an OEM CD-ROM if that makes a difference. I spotted the thing about the USB 3.x drivers issue, from reading through the forums, and have read your tutorial. (I printed it out just in case, at one point.)

If it the new laptop only have USB 3.x ports, you may not have mouse / touch pad and keyboard (they can use USB) to install from a DVD. And you may not see the disk if a new SATA driver is required.