Is there a way to officially downgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 7 on a 2 month old laptop?

Draeger

Draeger

Draeger

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Friend bought a Toshiba Satellite at Xmas from the purple shirted people. He is a pensioner and didn't know much at all about PC's. They advised him to go for Windows 8 as it was 'the newest and best operating system available' according to the sales pitch he got in the store. :cool:

However he just can't get to grips with W8. He was previously using and learning his way around a desktop which was Win XP and Windows 8 is proving to be much too much of a contrast in comparison. Hell - even I struggled to find my way around Windows 8 to begin with!!. He asked me if there's any way I could put Windows XP on it. Obviously that would be fairly silly but I was wondering if it was possible, officially, given that the laptop is only 2 months old to downgrade to Windows 7 from 8?. I was sure I read somewhere that you could do this but can't recall where.

Any advice appreciated. He's sat with a laptop worth £450 that sits in its carrying bag and never gets used as he's given up and gone back to his creaky old Win XP desktop which is a real shame.
 
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As a pensioner myself, I found getting my head round Win7 was a PITA after being used to Win XP since that was released, however I've now got Win7 sussed with no going back now.

I know there maybe issues with maybe some drivers but couldn't you just format & install Win 7? :confused:
 
If anything, Windows 8 should be easier for someone 'of age' to use I would have thought?
 
Thanks, Startisback looks intriguing. I'll take a look.

hondo said:
I know there maybe issues with maybe some drivers but couldn't you just format & install Win 7? :confused:
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I'm not sure what Win 7 media I would be able to use to do this, I'd need to buy a Windows 7 disc I assume?.

PiKe said:
If anything, Windows 8 should be easier for someone 'of age' to use I would have thought?
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Nope, he finds the whole Metro thing confusing, the 'app' screen in particular although obviously he could just use the desktop aspect of it. But with the Start button missing and other familiar (in the respect of things being roughly in the same place as XP) things being different it is fairly difficult to get to grips with. I think if he had purchased a tablet it would have become fairly easy to get around but the laptop really doesn't lend itself well to running Windows 8 when he's been used to a mouse and keyboard. Bear in mind he had never even used a PC until July last year when I gave him an old P4 XP based system I had lying spare and he started tinkering.
 
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I'll give it a go and see how he finds it. :) So is Startisback the best option when it comes to those?



Any other tweaks and changes I can make to it to make it easier to get around for him?.
 
startisback claims to basically extrapolate from the surviving start menu stuff that was left in windows 8. it doesn't run any background programs, and it's been perfect for me. i couldn't really imagine a "better" experience, since it really is just "start" from 7. cheap too.
 
Ask him what he uses and put shortcuts of them on Start and Desktop so he can launch them from anywhere and just remove the stuff from start he won't use....

I spent 10 minutes on my dads laptop with 8 and he has no problem now. The new OS will feel alien to most for the first few hours I've found but that soon goes away.
 
kitch9 said:
Ask him what he uses and put shortcuts of them on Start and Desktop so he can launch them from anywhere and just remove the stuff from start he won't use....
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I've just done that for him and he seems a bit happier with it. Is there a way to have it boot straight to the desktop and forget the sideways scrolling app screen thing completely?. I plan on adding Startisback as well and then I think he should be able to take it from there and get to grips with it a bit better.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.
 
Draeger said:
I've just done that for him and he seems a bit happier with it. Is there a way to have it boot straight to the desktop and forget the sideways scrolling app screen thing completely?. I plan on adding Startisback as well and then I think he should be able to take it from there and get to grips with it a bit better.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.
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Don't throw loads of 3rd party programs at him to confuse stuff further, just make sure his programs are in easy reach on Start and Desktop, show him where the desktop tile is and how to get back to start and he'll figure it out.

Trust me, if my 68 year old dad can do it, anyone can.
 
as I said in the other thread, I let my mum use my laptop which as win8 on it, she's in her late 50's and she's no techy and has no idea how to use computers but once she turned on the laptop and spent 10-15min messing about with it, she was starting navigating it easily without any help.

on win7 she'd always ask me how to open XYZ or where this, whats that
 
^^ My mum is the complete opposite - been using a Windows XP netbook for awhile and absolutely hates Windows 8 with a passion.
 
Rroff said:
^^ My mum is the complete opposite - been using a Windows XP netbook for awhile and absolutely hates Windows 8 with a passion.
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The key is to setting it up with the stuff they use so it's in their face and can't miss it.

I've always done the same for family and the office with all the os's as it saves hassle. If I didn't put shortcuts everywhere the average noob struggles with just using Start, and always has.
 
upgraded my mums vista laptop to w8 at xmas and not been too bad on support calls.

The key things were:

Explain the windows key gets you into start screen
The start screen is the start menu
Go to start screen all apps and pin most popular desktop applications to start screen
Remove some unnecessary metro apps, group metro apps into a named group and likewise for the pinned desktop apps.
Win key + I useful for charms bar power shut down options
Win key + x for the menu with control panel, remove programs, system etc
Teamview installed so in the event of a support call I no longer have to imagine what's on her screen :-)
Also put microsoft essentials on as that was what she had been using for emails
Installed chrome, pinned to task bar and start screen


8 has better security, so better to stick with it.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18433941&highlight=security


The most amusing mishap so far was when her broadband was down, she went in to the wireless charms menu and hopped on someone else's unsecured connection. She thought the button saying 'connect' was a directive rather than an option. Kept telling me 'but it had a shield on it'. Thankfully whatever she clicked didn't save it as a preferred network to reconnect automatically next time. Teamviewed in and did a cmd prompt cmd to see what wireless networks were remembered so I could delete any wrong ones.
 
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We have a disc at work that apparently is from MS (via our IT consultants) that allows you to install Win 7 on a machine supplied with Win 8. Not seen it, or have any idea how it works/how to get it for personal use however.
 
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