HP Slimline Desktop problem installing Windows 7

Hello Friends,

A friend of mine bought HP Slimline Desktop - 260-a062il PC a few days ago. It had only FreeDOS 2.0 installed on it when bought. Now, he wants to install Windows 7 Home Basic 64 bit on it from a legal/valid/genuine installation DVD bought from a website. He has already tried installing Windows 7 a few times, but he has had no success so far. The DVD works fine on other pcs. The pc shop and local HP helpline has not been able to give us any clear guidance in this regard.

Can you please help?

https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c05149016

Thanks a lot.

Just realized that I need one more query to be resolved by you....

A friend of mine bought Lenovo laptop, which came pre-installed with Windows 8.1 64 bit. He wants to install Windows 7 Home Basic 64 bit on it from a legal/valid/genuine installation DVD bought from a website. He has already tried installing Windows 7 a few times, but he has had no success so far. The DVD works fine on other pcs/laptops. He did the BIOS settings as required for the installation of Windows 7. So it does not look like a BIOS settings related issue. Laptops (even from famous global brands)that come with Windows 8/8.1/10 pre-installed are not capable of running Windows 7 or their BIOS or motherboards are deliberately locked with some code? Does one need to do some tweaking himself to be able to install Windows 7? My friend does not want to indulge in any legal wrongdoing here at all. He is only looking for a workaround.

Can you please help?

Thanks a lot.

For the HP Slimline Desktop - 260-a062il PC follow this tutorial.
Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
As it has only 4G of memory, my suggestion is to install th 32 bits version.

For the Lenovo laptop you must give us the hardware specs as it my have a different approach.

Windows 7 Home Basic has geographic restrictions -- you won't be able to activate it unless you are in an "emerging" country. Home Basic includes geographical activation restriction, which will block you from activating it if you are in the US or other similar countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_7_editions

Having said that, if you have a lame computer, Home Basic sounds like a good choice, because I'll bet it requires less resources than the other versions of Windows 7.

Now, to answer your question: There may be a problem with the DVD drive in this computer. If possible, swap DVD drives (and their cables) with a computer in which this DVD works. Also make sure that this computer is set to be able to boot from the DVD, and that the DVD drive is earlier in the boot order than the hard drive.

tech291083 said:

A friend of mine bought Lenovo laptop, which came pre-installed with Windows 8.1 64 bit. He wants to install Windows 7 Home Basic 64 bit on it from a legal/valid/genuine installation DVD bought from a website.

Just curious: why does your friend want to go from pre-installed Windows 8.1 to Windows 7 Home Basic? Also, how do you know that the DVD he bought is legitimate? There is a lot of fraud out there with selling Windows DVDs and licenses.

You have something on the computer right now that is working, and it will be supported by Microsoft until January 2023. You want to go to a stripped-down version of Windows 7 that might not be legitimate, even though they told you that it is.

If you prefer the Windows 7 desktop over the Windows 8.1 tile interface, the easiest way to fix that is to install Classic Shell in Windows 8.1. You can then configure Windows 8.1 to look and feel exactly like Windows 7; you will receive security patches from Microsoft till January 2023 (rather than January 2020); you won't have to find drivers that will work for your laptop with Windows 7; and you won't have to go through the hassle of installing your operating system and all of your software.

tech291083 said:

Laptops (even from famous global brands)that come with Windows 8/8.1/10 pre-installed are not capable of running Windows 7 or their BIOS or motherboards are deliberately locked with some code? Does one need to do some tweaking himself to be able to install Windows 7?

The only concern you might have is that if you have a Kaby Lake or newer CPU, you will be blocked out from doing Windows 7 updates on your computer. There is a workaround, but I haven't personally tried the workaround. This applies if your CPU is Intel. There is a similar situation with AMD CPUs, but I don't know which ones are affected by this.

mrjimphelps said:

You have something on the computer right now that is working, and it will be supported by Microsoft until January 2023. You want to go to a stripped-down version of Windows 7 that might not be legitimate, even though they told you that it is.

correct.

If you prefer the Windows 7 desktop over the Windows 8.1 tile interface, the easiest way to fix that is to install Classic Shell in Windows 8.1. You can then configure Windows 8.1 to look and feel exactly like Windows 7; you will receive security patches from Microsoft till January 2023 (rather than January 2020); you won't have to find drivers that will work for your laptop with Windows 7; and you won't have to go through the hassle of installing your operating system and all of your software.

i will ask my friend to seriously consider installing Classic Shell in Windows 8.1. Practically this makes a lot of sense.

thanks a lot