Removing windows 8 - put windows 7 on.

timmy222

timmy222

timmy222

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Hi chaps, I have had a new laptop and cannot get on with windows 8.
I have read a bit on how to do it and I should be ok.
Bit worried about formatting the drive with windows 7.
What is this gparted?
Will it stop me formatting the drive because it is ReFS.
Any hints and tips please chaps.
 
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Your system drive is ReFS? Even 2012 didn't have the option to boot from ReFS? :confused:

I believe 8.1 (and 2012R2) has the ability to boot from ReFS.
 
Sorry, I should be more clear.
I have not tried to do the installation yet so cannot say what format the drive is in.
Just trying to check for all problems I may come across thanks.
I did see some strange partitions on the drive though last night.
Not seen these before so hence questions.
 
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Wait till the 17th, get 8.1 and you will find it can be made to look more like Win7, though with the benefits of Win8.

If not, move back then but it is worth giving it a go.
 
I can't wait for the upgrade

Windows 8 is plum horrid.
I think I may have all the info I need.
The UEFI has to be changed to boot from dvd.
Then I should ( I hope ) be able to delete the partitions and format the drive then with the windows 7 disc.:)
 
Yes, that's literally all you need to do.

However, the only real (visible) difference between Win8 and Win7 is the absence of a start menu (or the addition of the Modern UI Start Screen, depending on your PoV). Have you tried something like StartIsBack on Windows 8?

It's exactly the same as the Windows 7 start menu, AND you get all the benefits of Windows 8 (better file copying dialogue boxes, better task manager, faster boot times, etc).
 
I did do, when Windows 8 was in it's infancy. I now run either Windows 8 "as is" (on my gaming PC), or 8.1 "as is" on my workstation (at work) and 8.1 "as is" on my Surface Pro.

Now I've got used to Windows 8, I don't really feel the need to run a start menu replacement.
 
Did you try a load of different Start Menu replacement type programs then and settled on Startisback?

Just wondering as I bought a copy of W8 when it was cheap, however I've tried and failed to get along with Metro. I'm considering giving it a go with one of these programs that puts the Start Menu back - I just wondered if there's a "better" one than the rest of the group.
 
Do a normal installation of Windows 7. The quick format option will wipe the Win8 partitions from the drive.
 
Tute said:
Did you try a load of different Start Menu replacement type programs then and settled on Startisback?

Just wondering as I bought a copy of W8 when it was cheap, however I've tried and failed to get along with Metro. I'm considering giving it a go with one of these programs that puts the Start Menu back - I just wondered if there's a "better" one than the rest of the group.
Click to expand...

I tried a number of alternatives, Ex7forW8, Stardock's Start8, and Pokki. StartIsBack is the only one (other than Ex7forW8, which removes too much of Windows 8) that felt like it was part of the OS, rather than added on top.
 
All sorted

Had to mess with the bios for the boot settings, wiped the drive and away it went for a few mins then it got stuck.
Back into bios turned off smart boot and it loaded up fine.
Thanks guys.:)
 
paradigm said:
I tried a number of alternatives, Ex7forW8, Stardock's Start8, and Pokki. StartIsBack is the only one (other than Ex7forW8, which removes too much of Windows 8) that felt like it was part of the OS, rather than added on top.
Click to expand...

Fair enough.

I don't like Metro at all, i've tried to get along with it but I feel that for a mouse and keyboard user it's just a total step backwards from the logical and straightforward Start Menu system.

It grinds a bit when people accuse me of "disliking change" as it's not about change - change is good when you take something and improve it. This is the first Windows release where I feel like it's a bit of a step backwards for me.

What it comes down to is - if you take Metro away and put the Start Menu back, is Windows 8 really worth the faff when Windows 7 just comes with all these things already installed? I can't seem to decide on an answer to that one at all.

Things like the ribbon interface, improved task manager, and DirectX support just aren't big enough to upgrade for, and I don't find the speed of Windows 8 in booting or usage any improvement over Windows 7.

I feel I want to upgrade, i'm just waiting for that "killer reason". :)
 
I guess it depends on if you need the benefits of the ecosystem as a whole.

With a Windows Phone 8 device (Lumia 925), and a Surface Pro, running Windows 7 on my PCs wouldn't make for a particularly unified (nor properly connected) ecosystem. You can't even properly sync a Windows Phone 8 device on Windows 7 :/
 
Tute said:
Fair enough.

I don't like Metro at all, i've tried to get along with it but I feel that for a mouse and keyboard user it's just a total step backwards from the logical and straightforward Start Menu system.

It grinds a bit when people accuse me of "disliking change" as it's not about change - change is good when you take something and improve it. This is the first Windows release where I feel like it's a bit of a step backwards for me.

What it comes down to is - if you take Metro away and put the Start Menu back, is Windows 8 really worth the faff when Windows 7 just comes with all these things already installed? I can't seem to decide on an answer to that one at all.

Things like the ribbon interface, improved task manager, and DirectX support just aren't big enough to upgrade for, and I don't find the speed of Windows 8 in booting or usage any improvement over Windows 7.

I feel I want to upgrade, i'm just waiting for that "killer reason". :)
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That's pretty much how I felt when I went from Vista SP2 to the newly released Windows 7. I wondered, "With such small discernible differences, how have people gone from vicious hatred of Vista to immense glorification of Win7?"

I used to use StartIsBack and it essentially made Win8 exactly the same to use as Win7 but retaining the benefits of Win8.

The only thing I saw as an "actual" issue with Win8 is within a multi-user environment, where, upon starting up the OS, instead of being presented with a user-select interface, Win8 will automatically try to log in to the last account used. I'm not sure if this is still the case (due to, perhaps, a Windows update).

That aside, I think it makes little to no sense at this point to go through the hassle of installing Win7 over Win8, backing up, restoring, setting up etc, unless the £1.70 asking price of StartIsBack is a barrier.
 
Tute said:
Fair enough.

I don't like Metro at all, i've tried to get along with it but I feel that for a mouse and keyboard user it's just a total step backwards from the logical and straightforward Start Menu system.

It grinds a bit when people accuse me of "disliking change" as it's not about change - change is good when you take something and improve it. This is the first Windows release where I feel like it's a bit of a step backwards for me.

What it comes down to is - if you take Metro away and put the Start Menu back, is Windows 8 really worth the faff when Windows 7 just comes with all these things already installed? I can't seem to decide on an answer to that one at all.

Things like the ribbon interface, improved task manager, and DirectX support just aren't big enough to upgrade for, and I don't find the speed of Windows 8 in booting or usage any improvement over Windows 7.

I feel I want to upgrade, i'm just waiting for that "killer reason". :)
Click to expand...

To be fair at least you tried Metro etc for more then 5 mins which seems to be the average life span for a typical user that dislikes Metro,nothing wrong with disliking something but at least give it a good try like you did.

I'm sort of bored with Metro now yes bored and want something new to try, I don't want to go back to the old Start Menu, I think 18 years is more then enough for any sane person lol...
 
paradigm said:
I guess it depends on if you need the benefits of the ecosystem as a whole.

With a Windows Phone 8 device (Lumia 925), and a Surface Pro, running Windows 7 on my PCs wouldn't make for a particularly unified (nor properly connected) ecosystem. You can't even properly sync a Windows Phone 8 device on Windows 7 :/
Click to expand...

With regards to smartphones, I've had an iPhone since 2008 and I still do. I've invested a lot of time and money into the apps on it and whilst I do like Windows Phone, I can't justify scrubbing all my apps and rebuying them when there's nothing wrong with what I currently have (and the Windows App Store still has catching up to do).

Sighn said:
That's pretty much how I felt when I went from Vista SP2 to the newly released Windows 7. I wondered, "With such small discernible differences, how have people gone from vicious hatred of Vista to immense glorification of Win7?"

I used to use StartIsBack and it essentially made Win8 exactly the same to use as Win7 but retaining the benefits of Win8.

The only thing I saw as an "actual" issue with Win8 is within a multi-user environment, where, upon starting up the OS, instead of being presented with a user-select interface, Win8 will automatically try to log in to the last account used. I'm not sure if this is still the case (due to, perhaps, a Windows update).

That aside, I think it makes little to no sense at this point to go through the hassle of installing Win7 over Win8, backing up, restoring, setting up etc, unless the £1.70 asking price of StartIsBack is a barrier.
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It doesn't help that I have a copy of Windows 8 sitting dormant doing nothing. I feel like it should be utilised in some way.
 
The problem is that Metro was designed for a tablet or a phone and not a PC. If you are used to working in an office environment then Windows 8.1 with perhaps Classic Start 8 is more to your need. It gives you almost exactly the same as Windows 7 Start Menu with 8.1 at its core. If you have SSD's as boot drives it is more user friendly than 7 and optimizes the drives without worry.
As for Windows 7 being the B all and whatever, it is merely an extension of Windows Vista except with a more compact kernel. Also with Windows 7 you are limited to 16GB of Ram unless you have Ultimate. Even then Windows 7 is leaky. W7's Task manager is dog slow compared to W8 and the Search Engine on the newer 8.1 is more convenient. In windows 8 if you wanted to search for something you would also get Internat options and links where now on 8.1 you do not have to get your liks online if you don't want them.
Overall tayloring Windows 8 to what you want is much easier than going back to Windows 7. Windows 8 Supports 32GB of Ram out of the Box with no issues or conflicts.
 
jeffa123 said:
The problem is that Metro was designed for a tablet or a phone and not a PC. If you are used to working in an office environment then Windows 8.1 with perhaps Classic Start 8 is more to your need. It gives you almost exactly the same as Windows 7 Start Menu with 8.1 at its core... Overall tayloring Windows 8 to what you want is much easier than going back to Windows 7. Windows 8 Supports 32GB of Ram out of the Box with no issues or conflicts.
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Yes... but not quite. I dislike the "flat" icons, they have no depth. And I miss Aero. If it could be made to look just like W7 I would probably switch.

My motherboard only supports a maximum of 12GB anyway so thats not an issue. Unless I'm running Skyrim with umpteen HD texture mods and Opera with a 100+ tabs open at the same time I don't have an issue with running out of ram tbh.

I don't have a problem with change per se I went from Windows 95 to 98SE, but I avoided ME because it clearly wasn't an improvement, I did use 2000 but XP was the big improvement, I avoided Vista because it clearly wasn't a fundamental improvement but switched to Seven because it was. I don't feel 8 is a fundamental improvement over 7, although it's different alright.
 
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