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General discussion

Windows 8 just isn't my thing, can I install Windows 7 over

Jan 25, 2013 6:58AM PST
Question:

Windows 8 just isn't my thing, can I install Windows 7 over 8?


I just bought a new PC that came with Windows 8 and it is just too
different for me and my wife. We'd like to go back one step and install
Windows 7 over it. Is this possible to do? And if it is, can you tell
me exactly what the procedures are and what version of Windows 7 (upgrade or full version)
is needed to accomplish this? Thank you for your help.


--Submitted by: Gary G.

Discussion is locked

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interface of the future ?
Feb 1, 2013 11:32AM PST

Certainly not ! Microsoft dumped the support of 3D and transap^rency just because it was still unable to make it work with RDP 8.0 for virtual desktops.
The future WILL have full support of 3D desktops, including with 3D HDTV on tablets.
Dropping the support of 3D in RDP 7.0 (including in Windows 7 if you ever upgrade its RDP support to vCool was a severe error ! Microsoft will restore it in RDP 9... for Windows 9 AND Windows 7 (because it will still be within the lifetime cycle).
Tablets today DO have 3D desktops, just like all Linuxes and even iPads, or Android smartphones.
Windows 8 and Windows RT are just out of date, back to the old days of 2D only.
The only merit of RDP 8 is to introduce the support of multitouch, but multitouch is ALREADY supported in RDP 7 (alreasy used to connect to virtual desktops).
If you're not convinced, look at what are the best UIs on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices.
Direct X 11, trying to dump the support of OpenGL for remote connections is a severe error when medias are already created to use 3D for lots of things.
The Metro UI was shipped like it is now only because Microsoft wanted to expand its MediaCenter to the desktop, and to integrate it with Windows gadgets (that have also been dumped) just to enfore the use of Internet Explorer (and HTML5).
Even HTML5 is going to support full 3D integration, with full support of virtual GPUs. Given the huge capacbilities of today's GPUs, which are even more efficient than CPUs for solving highly parallelizable problems for computing and advanced signal processing, Windows 8 is just completely excluded.
Aero will come back in Windows 9, and the Metro menu will just be in the future a tab within Internet Explorer for supporting online games : and games without 3D support are just NOT games.
Even for professionnals working in CAD softwares, OpenGL is NOT an option. Scientists all want OpenGL to work withing today's and tomorrow clouds with ful virtualizations,
The Metro UI is just a basic interface jut suited to build the Microsoft's Application store, and nothing else. Users will still want to have gadgets on a traditional desktop with windows side by side. It is perfectly possible to run apps with a limited view mode for multitouch UI.
The Metro UI is like what it is today only because of the limitations of the Microsoft Surface and Windows Phones (that are very late in capabilities).

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Thouthtful
Feb 1, 2013 11:37PM PST

While I don't agree with everything you said, at least you present cogent analysis.

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Huh?
Feb 2, 2013 2:54AM PST

The question was about installing W7 over W*. What is all this gibberish you are spouting. Stick to the question, SHELDON.

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Scrapping Windows altogether
Feb 2, 2013 7:50AM PST
I use a PC and want to go all the way with Google Chrome on it. The question is can I and is there a Google programme out there that I can download or get my local computer guy to download for me.
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Google Chrome is a browser that runs w/any Windows version
Feb 2, 2013 7:55AM PST
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You Got It Right
Feb 1, 2013 10:28PM PST

My experience is about the same as yours. I started with computers back in the DOS days. I've seen it all since, including a patch with a Mac. I've up graded all my home computers to Win 8 Pro (couldn't beat the upgrade deal). I like it. I've added acouple of small twicker programs to bring back the start menu and boot didrectly to the desktop. I've added back the charms menu. It works and looks just like Win 7 only it works faster and is way more stable. The pluses far out weight the minuses. Anyone who has a system that will support Win 8 should move to it -- it is the future. By the way I use a mouse and key just like always. I have a touch screen but find the mouse much faster for fine work.

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Windows 8
Aug 23, 2013 4:17PM PDT

Really that's good information you share ..........

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But Windows 8 is fr superior to all previos versions.
Feb 1, 2013 9:20AM PST

Really. I it is faster, easier to use and much friendlier.

Just consider how much better this is for your children and girlfriend (or BF or BFF).

We all need to move forwards. The first railroad train made people afraid that they would die if the train went faster than 25 miles per hour.

C'mon. Be modern. You can take the speed. It will not kill you.

By the way. IE10 is much better than IE9 on Windows 7. Streaming HD video is awesome.

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W8 superior...
Feb 1, 2013 9:43AM PST

I noticed one thing about Windows 8 --- It's great at generating a constant stream of network traffic to feed all of the garbage apps that comes with the default install.
I have to agree with the people who find the W8 "wish I was a tablet" User Interface stupid and cumbersome. It's typical that Microsoft didn't include a "classic" desktop setting that switches out all the stuff that so many people will never use.

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My Win 8 works just like Win 7+
Feb 1, 2013 11:38AM PST

I have a desktop and no odd consumer apps. Just don't buy from a vendor who loads the box or just delete them

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Vilification
Feb 1, 2013 11:29PM PST

Windows 8 is intended to be a cross platform solution to current computer needs. Had Apple made the decision to create an OS that had the same look and feel on everything from a phone to a desktop, people and the press would have called it brilliant, BUT because people, even longtime users, have held an anti-Microsoft prejudice of years DESPITE the fact that it is largely an open system (unlike Apple), instead of recognizing that Microsoft is merely trying to avoid being marginalized by changes in the industry (and consumer purchasing patterns) and embracing the future of interface design, people choose to complain about the fact that Microsoft got there first.

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Yet MS Did Marginalize It
Feb 2, 2013 1:26AM PST

They did so by marginally merging the two interfaces. If they would have simply gave desktop users a more friendly interaction w/o having to resort to external third party sources, they would have been champs. But no, they made a guffaw that reflects poorly on them. I think the phrase is, "Shoot yourself in the foot".

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Not Vilification, Just Knowledge and Need.
Aug 24, 2013 12:22AM PDT

People are not "vilifying" MS. Just observing that with software, just like surface transportation, it is extremely difficult to make an Amphibian Vehicle that works as well as a boat for water and a car for road transport! Win 8 is, in fact, considerably more difficult to use and cumbersome as compared with Windows 7 ON A DESKTOP PC WITH A MOUSE. It is pretty much OK on a tablet. If you are "just playing" with software this may not make much difference. If you are trying to WORK using Win 8 as your OS on a desktop, it slows your work down considerably and causes (just as an example) a couple more mouse movements for most any action you want to take. People who design with computers want the OS with the least "clicks" to do the job. Unfortunately, Win 7 is considerably better than Win 8 in that regard.

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Well...
Feb 2, 2013 4:00AM PST

How about the entire kernel has been changed, issues with drivers that are either broke or don't yet exist, corrupted DLLs use..... should I go on? Windows 8 May get there to Windows 7 but it's not there yet.... it's too new.

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OK.. Here are my experiences with 2 months of Windows 8
Apr 13, 2013 3:14PM PDT

More problems with Windows 8 running on my HP dv6T-2000 laptop - and on HP TouchSmart .. and a new ASUS laptop... and more

Just My opinion.. Windows in the Win8 version is not suited for home use any longer. It is overly complex, and, even for experienced Windows users, it is counter intuitive in many areas. I think Windows 8 has taken complexity "one bridge too far" for ordinary users. This comment by me, a MSEE who has been programming computers ever since punch card days and who has been thru computers from assembly language, C, Unix, and all versions of Microsoft OS systems from DOS onward. Below are listed some UNRESOLVED frustrations from my first months with Win8.

1) IE10 seems to drop a box asking if I want to "allow this page to use scripts" on about every new page. I finally got disgusted and turned IE10 OFF. Interestingly, turning IE 10 to OFF involved many minutes of "computing" plus a reboot!! On an iPad, I can get rid of an APP by pressing the icon, getting the quivering icon with the X in a corner, touch the X and gone it is..J Why should IE10 be handled differently from other browsers? This is supposed to be a touchscreen OS so comparing it to the iPad OS GUI seems fair.
2) It is not at all obvious how to SEARCH the STORE for an app. I finally went on the Internet and watched a video on how to use the store and that showed me how to do it. OBVIOUSNESS is a good characteristic in an OS.
3) The rectangular Win 8 APP icons are MUCH too big and cannot be sized except from much to big to even bigger. This makes my Win 8 desktop take up three pages when it COULD take up just one page. This is not too bad on our large touch screen computer, but on my laptop with a mouse this factor slows down operations too much.
4) The "Touch Screen Features" on a desktop WITHOUT a touchscreen is actually a big hindrance to productivity. Seemingly, there are maybe twice as many mouse operations to get things done on Windows 8 as compared with Windows 7. Even on the HP TouchSmart (with a touch screen), there is more effort to "do things" as compared with Windows 7. I compare this with my iPad where I feel like the iPad is considerably more efficient and easy to use compared with Windows 7 and VASTLY easier to use as compared with our Windows 8 TouchSmart touchscreen computer.
5) To increase my efficiency at doing ordinary computer work with Win8, I installed the "Windows 7 Desktop" app on both Win8 equipped computers. Going from my "new" Win 7 desktop (an APP from the web called Classic Shell) to the Win 8 desktop is a small chore. It should be possible to go from one page to any other by fabricating an icon to command the change in a single touch or mouse click. How to do this SHOULD be easy, but so far, the method escapes me.
6) Things often do not work intuitively. For example, if I right click on the IE10 icon on the Win8 desktop, one of the options is UNINSTALL. When I push this, I go to the Program Uninstall page and bounce right back. This implies that the action was accomplished but it is not. Instead, a very involved procedure is necessary to uninstall IE10.
7) Similarly, going to SETTINGS and then moving the mouse to the upper right corner and picking SEARCH and inputting BLUETOOTH SETUP fails to take you to the right place. I could go on and on.
Cool Tell a new Win8 user to go and find and start Windows Update and he has a serious chore on his hands. I finally found it, but none of the Win8 SEARCH features took me there.
9) When I asked the Bluetooth Troubleshooter why Bluetooth audio did not work when the music was playing from my laptop speakers, it reported "all was working properly". Clueless Troubleshooters are worse than no good.
10) On our TouchSmart HP computer, the "smoothness" of the touch screen functionality is compromised as compared with the HP/Win7 touchscreen driver functionality. For example, with Win8, It usually takes me two or three swipes to bring out the command icons. Using Win7, one swipe always executed your command.
11) I cannot find any option to CALIBRATE the touchscreen on my HP TouchSmart to my finger. It would be nice if each individual user could perform and store such a calibration with his username.
12) As far as I can tell, there is no way to get suggestions/problems to Microsoft Win8 Management. For the iPad, I can phone and get a rep and/or email problems and at least get a human response. Hopefully there is such a mechanism for Win8 and many people are sending in these comments.
13) Pressing F12 over and over during boot does not bring the computer up into the "which drive to boot from" as in past Windows versions. There is already enough new stuff to learn without making UNNECESSARY changes to commonly useful commands. Gratuitous changes like this are extremely aggravating and undesirable in ANY new software version.
14) Oops! I just found out that there is apparently NO WAY to cause a computer to boot up using the CDROM drive except to go into the bios and change the boot order. Whose decision was THAT? Why did I need to know how to do this? One of my friends just bought a new laptop with Win8 and was so frustrated with it after a week that he went out and bought a copy of Win7. But then, he was not able to figure out how to get the Win8 OS to boot into the Win7 installer CD. Changing the boot order in bios got him going. He is happy again. This is NOT a good sign for Win8. This man is also an engineer with many years of Windows User experience.
15) In the Windows APP store, there is no indication of PRICE of the APPs on the very first icon/description of the app. With the MS store, you have to dig deeper and almost buy an app before you can find out the price. I do not think this technique is going to generate sales OR confidence in the store.
16) I set up my wife's user name "anne" with her password on "live.com" Little did I know how big a mistake that was! Now, I want to change her ACCOUNT NAME in live.com from anne@something.com and "live.com" will not allow this!!!! Why this limitation??!!
17) I set up my wife's computer with her as administrator. Windows 8 will NOT allow her to access drives on our other computers running Windows 7 unless I use the "homegroups" technique. Why cannot I simply allow her to use MY username and PW in the access protection pop up window? Win7 was bad enough! My wife wanted me to change back to Win7 soon after I upgraded her to Win8. The only thing that has kept her hanging on with Win8 is the "Windows 7 Classic Shell Desktop" free add-on that I downloaded from the Internet.
1Cool Our HP TouchSmart 420t does not "power down" or dim the display as set up in the Power Options. The computer stays up continuously and the display does not dim despite display dim set to 15 minutes and "shut down" set for 60 minutes. My HP laptop power options work properly.
19) I tried to pass out three copies of Win8 upgrade at an engineering firm I consult for. Only one taker. The other engineers said they would wait for "blue" which they think is the code name for Win9. I did say that a condition was that they had to install it and demo it to me within a week. That was a deal breaker.
20) I wanted to copy + paste a folder from my TouchSmart Win8 computer over to one of my Win7 PCs. (I know how to do this with Win7). But here I get the error message: "Destination Folder Access Denied. You need permission to perform this action." There was no other advice given!! I can SEE the folder I want to put the to-be-backed up folder into. I can PASTE it into this folder using Win8. And then after maybe a minute, I get the above error message! So much for compatibility. But By God.. It is SECURE! PS: I am not able to get HomeGroup to work on this Win8 computer either. Win8 is certainly SECURE from Win7 users tampering with it.
21) Cannot get Pandora Radio (running on Chrome Browser) to connect to HP bluetooth headphones. Win 8 says the headphones are linked, but no audio passes. Volume is up on headphones and on laptop. Bluetooth Earphones link and play music from Pandora fine on iPad and Win 7 equipped computers.
22) Pandora radio runs fine on Chrome, but not on Mozilla ver 19.0. On Mozilla, Pandora never loads. There is no error message.
23) Bad News: My Windows 8 equipped laptop suddenly got so it could not access the internet despite having LAN access for file transfers. When I attempted to REBOOT, the system "crashed" and could not complete the reboot. I did a Windows 8 recovery and got booted up again. Then I attempted to restore from a week old backup on a USB 1TB hard drive. In its wisdom, The resurrected Windows 8 destroyed the backup file when I plugged the USB drive into my laptop. A Virus??? Well, I ran Norton AV just after that and no viruses were found. I think it was just a mangled Windows 8 OS. Luckily, I had been experimenting with a new backup manager called Macrium Reflect and that backup was available as well as my old Acronis backup system's file. I was able to get back up and running in a few hours. Now.. It turns out that without a Windows 7 backup, reverting back to Windows 7 and reinstalling all your programs by hand could REALLY be time consuming. If you DO chose to upgrade to Windows 8, I recommend you BE SURE to save a complete backup image of your Windows 7 system to a separate hard drive so you can easily "go back".

I am hopeful that these are just "early anomalies" in Windows 8 and that future revisions will clean up the program and, at least, make it as usable as Windows 7. Some say that much of what I speak of above are just "learning problems". However, I have had no such "learning problems" when moving from one major version of MAC operating system to another. IMHO, any NEW OS should attempt to be at least as easy to use as its predecessor. Windows 8 fails that test.

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Perhaps the reason why 8 is so bad is just concatenation.
Apr 14, 2013 7:28AM PDT

Having read your post I believe Microsoft to be moving toward considering a human to be a mouse and as such Windows 8 as such is at best just an experimental OS without the use of any cheese or peanut butter.

The kinect interface with a siri clone is their only hope in ever achieving anything new and exciting with windows 8 at all. Now that the cat is out of the bag though as a user (mouse) I certainly have become more than a little concerned!

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epri307@aol.com
Feb 1, 2013 8:52AM PST

windows 8 I HAVE BEEN RUNNING WINDOWS 8 FOR PAST FEW MONTHS AND HAVE ENJOYED IT SEEMS I CAN READ AND DELETE MAL ALOT FASTER, IT IS MORE SEURE THAN WINDOS 7 LOADS
FASTER ALL THSI GOOD STUFF. I LIKE IT PERHAPS YOU REALL YDID NOT GIVE IT A FAIR SHOT
AFTER ALL THEY ONLY HAVE 100 SHOTCUT TIPS FOR WINDOWS 8 ONCE WE LEARN THE SHORT CUTS WINDOWS 8 IS NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL, JUST GIVE IT A TRY PRINT PHOTOS FROM 8 COUPONS. LETTERS SO FORTH.

GOOD LUCK WITH 7 I HAVE MY PC SET UP WITH DUAL BOOT SO I CAN PICK N CHOOSE 7 OR 8 WHICH WAS THE WAY TO GO. YES START MENU IS NOT THERE AMONG OTHER THING JUST GIVE IT A CHANCE ITS LIKE ANYTHING NEW. ELLEN

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But it seems.......
Feb 1, 2013 9:39AM PST

.....that the caps lock is broken on your Windows 8.

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Re: But it.......................
Feb 4, 2013 11:32PM PST
Wink Seems like spell checker doesn't work either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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But...
Feb 1, 2013 12:44PM PST

...apparently, spell check and grammar check are broken on your W8 install. Maybe you should switch to the OTHER Internet Explorer that comes installed in Windows 8. You know, the limited (and redundant) Metro version.

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Tablet VS Desktop
Feb 2, 2013 12:37AM PST

It would be interesting to know how many of the pro Win 8 advocates are tablet users. For me, Win 7 is better on a desktop. I like the tree hierarchy menu, and really dislike the tiled menu of Win 8. Win 8 also makes you go back and forth between desktop, when is clearly a Win 7 formality. Also, every Win 8 app is so watered down, that they are only for tablets. They offer nothing but basic function

Don't get me wrong, I use 8 on a machine, and not a Win 8 hater. It is faster, more secure, but for desktop users it has a split ego that gets in the way.

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Wiows 8 or 7
Jan 25, 2013 9:13AM PST

Hi There. If you install the "CLASSIC SHELL EXPLORER" programme, you will get back the old Desktop display. I had the same problem, and the "Classic" addition lets me have the traditional display that I think you miss. Leslie.

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Classic Shell is great
Feb 1, 2013 12:41PM PST

It also lets you use the old un-"improved" windows file manager with plenty of settings for that and for the start menu.

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Win 8 with Start8 = Best of Win8&7
Jan 25, 2013 9:28AM PST

Yes, I upgraded from Win 7 to Win 8 without a touchscreen, and I've considered going back to Win 7. I downloaded Start8 from Stardock, and it returned the features from Win 7 that I really missed, and frankly needed to maintain productivity. You can use it free for 30 days, it's just a few bucks after that. Gives you the start button and the start menu, and all of your Win 7 apps in a familiar form, without losing any of the Win 8 features. I'm just a user, not a promoter, it was a good solution for me.

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I'll just complete the set...
Jan 25, 2013 1:00PM PST

Another alternative to restore the Win7 or XP feel is Vistart from lee-soft.com/vistart/ - no, nothing to do with our esteemed leader! It's free, very customizable so you can set it up just like you want it and get all the benefits of the improved Windows 8 kernel without the ex-Metro dross. I've looked at all three, ClassicShell, Start8 and Vistart for a colleague and we liked Vistart best but your mileage may very well vary. All are better than ex-Metro!

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Re: Zouch and mwoody---I'll just complete.... and Win8 with.
Feb 4, 2013 11:48PM PST
Shocked If it's "SO BLOODY WONDERFUL" why does one have to find add on programs to get it to function/ feel
like Win 7???????????? "If" it's so good it "should" work perfect or fine right out of the shrink wrap or download.
Shouldn't it?????

I laugh at all the people that state they love it "AFTER" (key word here), AFTER they had tweaked it!!!!!

WHY SHOULD ONE HAVE TO TWEAK IT?????????? Angry Angry Angry Cause it was designed for a stinking cell phone/ tablet/ Slate! NOT A DESKTOP! Laugh Shocked Laugh
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Windows 8 isn't for me either
Jan 25, 2013 9:30AM PST

I agree with you and I've been using computers for years, Unix before Windows came out. I've used them all and Windows 8 is the worst OS I've ever tried to do anything with. I removed it after upgrading also. Purchase a full install OEM Windows 7 Home Premium, about $89 at Fry's, and install it. Most of your hardware will work after the install except you might have to go to your hardware vendor, HP, Dell, etc. and download the drivers for W7 and your pc.

If you know how you can backup the Windows 8 just in case you want it later, otherwise you will always have the registeration code on the sticker on the bottom of your pc. Windows 8 works best if it's on a computer with a touch screen so you can slide everything across like a tablet. But then, why would you want to use your finger on your monitor. As for me, I would kill anyone who touches my 23 inch monitor with their fingers.

If you think this is too much for you then purchase Windows 7 and take it to a computer place and pay them to reload Windows 7 for you. It should work fine.

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Waste of time and your $$$ to go back to Win 7
Jan 28, 2013 12:57PM PST

Don't follow the advice to revert to 7 from an 8 machine!

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Dumping 8 for 7
Feb 1, 2013 9:02PM PST

Just bought a new Inspiron 660s for my wife. I asked Dell to put Win 7 on it. They said they couldn't but after I purchased the machine I could contact tech support and request a full OEM Windows 7 disk (for free). We tried Win 8 for a couple weeks after the machine arrived. My first thought was that Win 8 seemed pretty cool however it was way too cumbersome to work with multiple programs at the same time. Definitely not geared towards business type users. I ran the Win 8 upgrade compatibility tool on my own machine and got back a report listing several programs on my machine that are incompatible with Win 8 -- yes, even Microsoft's own Visual Studio 2010 is incompatible with Windows 8 -- so forget Windows 8 if you are trying to do at least semi-serious work.

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Sure you can (go back to Win7) and yes you should!
Jan 25, 2013 9:32AM PST

Any computer that is currently available will run Windows 7 just fine, and there will be Windows 7 drivers for all of its devices, even if the PC manufacturer doesn't offer them on its website.

First, you will need to buy Windows 7. You could buy a full-priced retail version (more than $200 plus tax) at a local store, but the OEM system builder version is best (and much more economical). You can buy this from websites such as Newegg.com. The Home Premium version costs less than $100, and is available in 32-bit or 64-bit versions. For a new PC, go with the 64-bit version.

Second, go into the Device Manager and write down the brand and name of each device in your system, i.e. the graphics chip, memory card reader, touchpad, audio chip, wireless card, LAN chip, etc. You will need this information to download suitable Windows 7 drivers, which you should download and save to a flash drive BEFORE you install Windows 7.

Third, use a program such as killdisk to do a zero-fill of the hard drive, eliminating the "recovery partition" and other garbage, along with the primary partition with Windows 8 installed.

Fourth, use your new OEM Windows 7 disk to load Windows 7.

Finally, install the drivers, and run Windows Update.