Installing Win 7 Pro over Windows 10

G'day,

I recently purchased a laptop that came with Windows 10 pre-installed and I would like to use Win 7 Pro instead. Can I just install Win 7 over Windows 10 or is there something that will prevent that? Will there be driver problems involved that might make things difficult? There are two drives on the computer, an SSD for the OS and apps and a 54000 rpm hard drive for files. I would appreciate any and all help and advice. Thanks up front.

Cheers,
Fritz

You should be able to do a clean install of Windows 7 over Windows 10. There are two things to keep in mind:

1. You will need an install key for Windows 7. Do you have one? Did you get a Windows 7 license with this laptop, allowing you do downgrade to Windows 7? If you don't have that, don't even start the process, because you won't be able to activate Windows 7.

2. If you have a Windows 7 install key, then you will want to do a clean install of Windows 7 -- as clean as you can do. That means that you should do either of the following:

• If you can do a factory restore to Windows 7, that will be the best option, because not only will it completely wipe the drive, but also, it will install all of the drivers that are needed for your laptop.
• If you are doing a clean install with a standard Windows 7 install disk, at the very beginning of the process choose Custom Install. Then remove the partition which has Windows 10 on it, and recreate that partition, then format it, then proceed with installing Windows to that partition. This will clear all traces of Windows 10 off of the main partition before you install Windows 7.

After completing the Windows 7 install, make sure that TRIM is active on your SSD.

mrjimphelps said:

• If you are doing a clean install with a standard Windows 7 install disk, at the very beginning of the process choose Custom Install. Then remove the partition which has Windows 10 on it, and recreate that partition, then format it, then proceed with installing Windows to that partition. This will clear all traces of Windows 10 off of the main partition before you install Windows 7.

After completing the Windows 7 install, make sure that TRIM is active on your SSD.

Thank you very much, Mr. Phelps, for your swift reply. I can't do a restore, so I have to do a clean installation.
I do have an OEM Windows install disk and a serial number. My problem is that I am ignorant of how to delete the partition and recreate it, much less how to format it. I know next to nothing about Windows 10. I don't even know how to find out how many partitions there are on my drives. Would it be advisable to delete all the partitions on both drives and start from there? Thanks once again.

Cheers,
Fritz

Please give us ALL the laptop specs (Brand, model etc)
- If you have used your OEM license on another computer, you can't use it anymore on another computer.
- New hardware requires some drivers that aren't on Win 7 installation disk. You will have to add those drivers (USB 3.x, SATA and NVMe) to the installation disk before you begin.
It isn't an easy task.
Read my tutorial Create a Windows 7 USB flash installation with new drives for new MB's - Windows 7 Help Forums

If you have to replace the MB, M$ may reset the counter and you may use the license again. Depends on the humor of the attendant.

Another thing

W10 Pro and above machines from some OEM's DO have downgrade rights.
BUT it also depends on whether the specific model has been "stopped" by the OEM.

easy check run the tool from here, if the downgrade is available - W7 details will be shown.

ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Forums

Roy

Megahertz07 said:

Please give us ALL the laptop specs (Brand, model etc)
- If you have used your OEM license on another computer, you can't use it anymore on another computer.
- New hardware requires some drivers that aren't on Win 7 installation disk. You will have to add those drivers (USB 3.x, SATA and NVMe) to the installation disk before you begin.
It isn't an easy task.
Read my tutorial Create a Windows 7 USB flash installation with new drives for new MB's - Windows 7 Help Forums

Thanks, Megahertz. The laptop is an Asus S410U with 8 Gb RAM, one 128 Gb SSD, one 1Tb HDD, Nvidia GeForce MX150 with Windows 10 64 bit pre-installed. In addition to the OEM disk, I have an .iso copy of Win 7 Pro. The copy of Win 7 that I have has been used on another machine, so if I can't do a restore, I'll have to get a new copy of Win 7 and I don't know that it's worth it to me. Thanks again.

Cheers,
Fritz