After Months Of Agony - New Laptop Purchase For Show Biz & Office
- Thread starter Cap Capello
- Start date
My worst fear being realized. This laptop does not apparently have downloadable Windows 7 drivers. The challenge is on finding drivers just to get the mouse working.
It's true, and MS is doing it right. "When you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow."
It's true, and MS is doing it right. "When you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow."
Sorry you had to be the test subject lab rat in all this - even with all your prior research.
On the plus side, we are all better for knowing what you're going through and learning from your current MS cage match.
Though there 'may' be a little truth to that, such as Windows being able to access 'features' of BIOS that either were not available before or other OS may not, I am 99.9% sure that there is no 'Win10 Only' BIOS. If there is such a thing, MS is digging a hole that they'll never get out of. Trying to get Win7 Pro at this time may be an issue as there are no retail copies available any longer. 'Downgrade Rights' were also very limited and mainly applied to Win 8 / 8.1 users to get back to an OS they could actually use. Currently, Win 7 has reached the end of Mainstream Support and is now in it's first year of Extended Support. What does this mean?
On Jan 13, 2015, Microsoft announced the end of mainstream support for Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2.
Ending mainstream support for a product means Microsoft will no longer be enhancing that product. Microsoft will continue to issue bug fixes and patches for security and reliability issues for these products until the end of Extended Support.
When extended support ends, you can no longer count on any security patches or reliability patches. This is what happened previously for Windows XP, and also for Windows Server 2003 on July 15, 2015.
This is the BIGGEST reason that those of you with XP machines need to get them offline - there are no updates or support whatsoever for XP.
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Cap, the Mouse drivers will usually come from the vendor - unless it uses the built in MS drivers, in which case your mouse is no different than any other mouse and is compliant with Win7 as well. Asus does not display Win7 drivers on their site probably because this model was not available when Win7 was out .. and again, Win7 is now in Extended Support (see previous post for definition).
That said, if you were comfortable with Win7, Win10 has a similar feel to it.
-- Update --
Cap, I spoke to ASUS .. it may require a little bit of work to install (could be really simple too) .. but it may be possible to put Win7 on this machine. The issue really comes down to the independent drivers and not specifically 'Windows'. This specific machine is so new that Win 8/8.1 was not installed on any of them either. In addition, because MS does not support Win7 any longer, ASUS can't support it either.
If you want to take this further, let me know and I'll tell you what I know. If you decide to pursue Win7, you must realize that there will be no MFR or MS support other than routine patches and security updates. You may be able to get independent component support but it also may be limited.
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In my opinion, Win7 drivers for all this hardware does exist .. it's just not tested / supported / readily available from ASUS .. but it should be do-able.
I agree with you, ittigger... There is little difference between Windows 7, 8, and 10 drivers, so Windows 7 is likely going to work. I'd install a new drive (keeping the original Windows 10 drive intact) and take a crack at installing Windows 7.
Example, the most popular on board audio driver is the Conexant Audio Driver - and it's been built into Windows since like XP. As long as it uses the standard driver, then it should work just fine.
Your network card is made by RealTek - they've been around for years and I can't imagine that specific card is so new that there are no Win7 drivers for it. Where I see there being possible issues - chipset and video driver .. video drivers are usually very specific and considering that this is a higher end 'gaming' laptop, the video drivers are even more specific - but again, I can't imagine that this is so new that there are no Win7 drivers available. Worst case scenario, Win7 will use the standard built in VGA drivers, but it would still display. I don't foresee chipset issues either.
With regard to Warranty .. if you have any hardware issues, your warranty will remain in full effect. The only issue you would have with warranty would be when it comes to software or need help from them with software - as you would be running an unsupported configuration. The only possible 'front' I see here would be if software caused a hardware issue, such as when Win10 Beta was fatally crashing SSD hard disks.
Win10 was released to the public less than 6 months ago. I'm willing to bet your hardware has been around for at least a year and for some equipment, many years.
Your network card is made by RealTek - they've been around for years and I can't imagine that specific card is so new that there are no Win7 drivers for it. Where I see there being possible issues - chipset and video driver .. video drivers are usually very specific and considering that this is a higher end 'gaming' laptop, the video drivers are even more specific - but again, I can't imagine that this is so new that there are no Win7 drivers available. Worst case scenario, Win7 will use the standard built in VGA drivers, but it would still display. I don't foresee chipset issues either.
With regard to Warranty .. if you have any hardware issues, your warranty will remain in full effect. The only issue you would have with warranty would be when it comes to software or need help from them with software - as you would be running an unsupported configuration. The only possible 'front' I see here would be if software caused a hardware issue, such as when Win10 Beta was fatally crashing SSD hard disks.
Win10 was released to the public less than 6 months ago. I'm willing to bet your hardware has been around for at least a year and for some equipment, many years.
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You've had the box 4 days minus one day at the tech = 3 days, IMHO that is not enough time for someone who never had Windows 8 or 8.1 to get used to 10. Everybody is uncomfortable with change, and you are looking at this as change for "change's sake" - I can assure you Microsoft does not. I would suggest you play with it a bit longer before being in a rush to "make it like Windows 7".
Imagine if a company came up with a new way of actually doing something better, but everybody resisted it simply because it looked "different". Let me think of an example. Oh yeah, how about the Bose F1?
Imagine if a company came up with a new way of actually doing something better, but everybody resisted it simply because it looked "different". Let me think of an example. Oh yeah, how about the Bose F1?
Handinon, I appreciate your "call to arms" and "reach out to embrace change" and "give peace a chance".
Let me explain to you that I've been involved with computers since the Commodore and Wang. The operating systems up through Win 95 were fairly transparent to day to day activity. It was the programs that required training. From DOS 3.0 through DOS 6.1, I could write batch files and script to make the machines sing. 95, 98 and XP were a bit more cumbersome but could be tackled with fairly simple environmental and registry massaging. Vista? Joke. Win 7? Again, easy to follow architecture to allow deep personalizations. Win 8? Another joke. Win 10? Same joke only not as funny.
When the new machine is fully structured with Win 7 so that I can use it as efficiently and streamlined as my older machines do (including one with Win 98 and five with Win 7), I will put Win 10 back on it over the quieter Jan-Feb-Mar time frame and tweak the living shyte out of it. If it still falls short of my expectations (no one else's matters), Win 7 stays regardless of MS support or not.
The example of the F1 is a very weak and unrelated analogy. You can buy the new F1 however the L1 Model 1S & 2 are still viable and being sold. So is the 802 series which is moving into it's 4th decade of production. Choice and support for all is still active and ongoing. Perhaps a better more relevant comparison would be PC to Mac operating systems. If I have to learn something new, maybe it's time to get over my "i-anything" phobia and consider moving from Microsoft's handbag to Apple's.
Let me explain to you that I've been involved with computers since the Commodore and Wang. The operating systems up through Win 95 were fairly transparent to day to day activity. It was the programs that required training. From DOS 3.0 through DOS 6.1, I could write batch files and script to make the machines sing. 95, 98 and XP were a bit more cumbersome but could be tackled with fairly simple environmental and registry massaging. Vista? Joke. Win 7? Again, easy to follow architecture to allow deep personalizations. Win 8? Another joke. Win 10? Same joke only not as funny.
When the new machine is fully structured with Win 7 so that I can use it as efficiently and streamlined as my older machines do (including one with Win 98 and five with Win 7), I will put Win 10 back on it over the quieter Jan-Feb-Mar time frame and tweak the living shyte out of it. If it still falls short of my expectations (no one else's matters), Win 7 stays regardless of MS support or not.
The example of the F1 is a very weak and unrelated analogy. You can buy the new F1 however the L1 Model 1S & 2 are still viable and being sold. So is the 802 series which is moving into it's 4th decade of production. Choice and support for all is still active and ongoing. Perhaps a better more relevant comparison would be PC to Mac operating systems. If I have to learn something new, maybe it's time to get over my "i-anything" phobia and consider moving from Microsoft's handbag to Apple's.
That is certainly a logical way of doing it. I would be interested in any tweaks you come up with that offer significant improvements and/or operating ease for DJ's using 10. However, it cannot be done in a vacuum, but along with other installed software - i.e. Traktor, VDJ, Serato, iTunes, Musicbee, etc., etc..
Except for a small hiccup with Mixxx 2.0 RC1, Windows 10 has been dead solid for me on two different laptops. Boots fast, runs great.
Just got the machine back from supertech. There isn't even a driver for the usb ports or mouse except for what's embedded in Win 10. So, it's WIN 10 or nada.
First example. I want the windows explorer menu fonts to be 10pt Tahoma bold. Think you can do that simple task? Nope. One workaround was found by a Windows 10 user who remembered Plus! on WIN95 which, if you build on theme on the Win 95 machine with Plus, you can import it into 10.
Funny, ASUS has a Win7 mouse driver on their site for the 'ASUS Smart Gesture (Touchpad Driver)'. They also have a Win7 driver for what they call 'ASUS USB Charger Plus'. For your specific machine, they don't list a USB driver - this may mean that they're using generic Win10 drivers. ASUS does have Win7 USB drivers though - and they should work.
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Yep. Your machine is listed as having a 'ASUS Smart Gesture (Touchpad Driver)'. They also list a 'Mouse Gaming driver' - whatever that is. Is there a secondary mouse on it?
Maybe the 'supertech' should be demoted to 'notsogreattech'....lol