Availability of Win 7 drivers

[GRoston]

My notebook computer is in sore need of being replaced and I am thinking about a MSI GP72X Leopard-667. My concern, however, is that I only see Win 10 drivers on their website and I would sooner chew off my arm than suffer with Win 10. Do Win 7 drivers exist for this machine? If so, where can I find them? If not, how can one go about installing Win 7 on a new machine?

Thanks.

 

[Acova]

I think in case of missing an appropriate driver for the machine it will use basic/default one made for Windows use, which won't make the best of it as a result. However, I've taken a look at your choice for the laptop:

MSI GP72X Leopard-667
So if it is to have: GeForce® GTX 1050 -/+ Ti , You can visit: Drivers | GeForce and search for it there.

If I don't mistake, Windows Updates component will include available updates on drivers on its own (upon update search), but in case if it doesn't you can always attempt finding one or two manually at the manufacturers' sites. Since they produce them, they provide relevant driver downloads too.

-

I've also come across a thing when system has Win10 but an old GPU, drivers of which are no longer supported for this OS. In this case I had options of two: keep using provided by Windows driver (generic), which would not allow me to have full/best resolution the GPU used to be capable of before (on different OS), or to somehow incorporate the driver in the system manually (via device manager...driver update...selecting package on own... or any other known methods). However, the use of not designed driver for specific OS may work against stability of your system: crashes may raise up, and etc. On the other hand, specifically taking a look into your situation, I think there is no need to worry about non outdated laptop builds with technology that is still emm active in production lines and which is still supported for a variety of OS versions.


Should you be very concerned about drivers of internal parts of laptop you are about to buy though, you certainly should look up for each of the components' model IDs and their names, and attempt to look up for their drivers online at manufacturers' sites for specific OS.


Or, you could rather look into Win10's problems and possibly do some work around (there are lots of online resources to go through when one needs to do some extra "customisation" to the functionality of Win10).


Hope the above helps you.

 

[SIW2]

Might be some useful info here:

Z370 Chipset Install



Allegedly there is a bios update for win7:
Support For GP72X LEOPARD PRO (7th Gen) (GEFORCE GTX 1050TI) | Laptops - The best gaming laptop provider | MSI USA

 

[Acova]

...
Allegedly there is a bios update for win7:
Support For GP72X LEOPARD PRO (7th Gen) (GEFORCE GTX 1050TI) | Laptops - The best gaming laptop provider | MSI USA

SIW2, I've actually got MSI laptop here as well but unlike you, I've totally forgotten about MSI's site existence (it's a midnight for me already)
It's good that you mentioned it (and thanks for this reminder ;D ).

---

GRoston, if necessary, don't forget you can request MSI advice/support in addition - I think, they should be able to aid you at this point. Also, what MSI suggests for drivers is to be taken into account, as they made these laptop builds, they went through those performance tests and etc, which suggests that their recommendations take over the highest priority among other ones. I've also read somewhere in manual that it is sometimes a case when laptop's manufacturer may add of extra own and unique bit to enhance compatibility among laptop's components. So, driver look up would begin first of all from their site.


Added: supportive example about drivers: https://www.qualcomm.com/drivers

 

[Pete4]

Since usually MSI laptops come with OS installed (Win10), what I would do if I was you, I would leave installed Win10 as is and setup Win 7 as secondary boot. In such set up:
a. you have working computer even if problems with drivers make Win 7 not bootable
b. you have working computer to search for solution on internet, even if it takes weeks.
c. you can access Win 7 partition from Win 10 and easily make changes from there, or for example read log files to see why is not booting.
There are programs that will allow you to stop Win 10 telemetry, constant updating and make it look and work similar to Win 7. If you are willing to spend some time to set it up properly, it's actually not that bad.

 

[GRoston]

All,

Thanks for the replies. I basically followed the advice of Acova and SIW2 - I went through each of the devices listed on the support page for the computer and looked for a Win7 version of the driver. In some cases, the default version seems to work across multiple OS versions, in others, there are Win7 specific versions. Following is my working list - perhaps someone will find it useful (In each case, the first lien is copied from the MSI site, the following line(s) is what I found:

1. Chipset, 2. Intel VGA, 3. nVidia VGA, 4. Audio, 5. LAN, 6. Card Reader 7. WLAN, 8. BT, 9. Touchpad, 10. ME, 11. USB 3.0, 12. Radio Switch, 13. Others

Intel Chipset Driver, Version 10.1.1.44, Release Date 2017-06-15, File Size 3.08 MB
Download Intel® Chipset Device Software (INF Update Utility)

Intel Graphics Driver, Version 22.20.16.4708, Release Date 2017-07-14, File Size 294.33 MB
Download Intel® Graphics Driver for Windows* [15.45]
Intel HD Iris Graphics Drivers Version 21.20.16.4526 WHQL

NVIDIA Graphics Driver, Version 382.05, Release Date 2017-06-19, File Size 562.99 MB
NVIDIA

Audio Driver with Nahimic, Version Audio driver:6.0.1.8237/Nahimic:2.5.21, Release Date 2017-09-29, File Size 310.03 MB
Download Realtek High Definition Audio Driver 6.0.1.7878 for Windows 7 64 bit
Nahimic 3D sound - download - not necessary?

Killer LAN E2500 & Killer Wireless Driver Suite, Version 9.0.0.42 (Package 1.0.762), Release Date 2016-11-14, File Size 111.73 MB
Killer Wireless | Killer Networking | Killer Ethernet Driver

Realtek Card Reader Driver, Version 10.0.10586.31225, Release Date 2016-08-16, File Size 15.92 MB
Realtek

Intel Wireless LAN Driver, Version 19.51.5.3, Release Date 2017-11-07, File Size 259.64 MB
Download Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 7*

Intel Bluetooth, Version 19.11.1639.649, Release Date 2017-01-09, File Size 91.06 MB
Download Intel® Wireless Bluetooth® for Windows 7*

Synaptics TouchPad Driver, Version 19.3.4.184, Release Date 2017-07-03, File Size 29.21 MB
Synaptics Touchpad Driver - Download - may be out of date

Intel Management Engine Driver, Version 11.7.0.1014, Release Date 2017-06-15, File Size 76.96 MB
Intel Management Engine Interface Download

Asmedia USB 3.1 Driver, Version 1.16.47.2, Release Date 2017-07-04, File Size 11.37 MB
Support For GP72X LEOPARD PRO (7th Gen) (GEFORCE GTX 1050TI) | Laptops - The best gaming laptop provider | MSI USA

ENE Radio Switch for Airplane Mode, Version 1.1.2.0, Release Date 2015-06-09. File Size 0.84 MB
uncertain - default might work

Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver, Version 15.2.0.1020, Release Date 2017-01-06, File Size 12.5 MB
Download Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST)

Based on this, I have a high degree of confidence that I can get Win7 running on this computer.

With regard to reaching out to MSI for their tweaked drivers: Something to consider. This will not be my primary machine, thus getting every last bit of performance is not critical.
With regard to dual booting: Not worth the effort. I have ready access to several other computers, so I do not need to go this route, but this is a good suggestion for someone buying their first machine.