HP warns for downgrading Windows 8 to Windows 7

The answer is simple of course. Don't buy HP consumer level products if you think you'll need to switch to Windows 7.

Hilarious, Apple will support installing Win 7 on all their new hardware but HP won't. Too funny.
And sadly, too late. HP posted this in on their support site, where people who already bought the hardware go! Oh you bought our product but want to downgrade it now ? Sorry sucker! How about advertising this fact on the sales pages HP ?

It wont matter much anyhow. I bet Windows 9 will be out way faster than Win 7 came after Vista, to try to recover from the Win 8 disaster ASAP.

I think Windows 7 should now be referred to as Windows 7XP, because it will last.....

Why would anyone want to downgrade? Just buy Start8 or get the free Win8 and its then pretty much identical to Windows 7 anyway

http://windows8startbutton.com/

Not sure if its ok to give links here but this is the free app that brings the classic start bar back.

I wouldn't have expected any hardware maker to support an OS other than what was sold on the machine. Seems like common sense to me.

Obviously it would have been better for HP to do this quietly on a case-by-case basis or leave it in the fine print.

But then it would never have occurred to me to buy HP hardware either.

Looks like no HP computer for me, but then again I like to build my own.
This will come back to bite them in the ass. You watch.

I think this primarily applies to laptops, because almost NOBODY is buying a desktop machine anymore.. the numbers from Intel and Amd prove as much..
there are also fewer upgraders since there really is not the kind of innovation that we've seen in previous decades. Companies are resting on their laurels.. so much so that tablet makers are now shining in the spotlight. That's embarassing for Intel to not have a strategy to get customers back.

I am not recommendiing anyone buy ANY HP product. Recent moves makes this a risky buy due to the fact that the compnay has 'SPUN' off it's hardware biz and future support is shady at best. At worst.. you have a lump of hardware that will have no support.. and particularly for proprietary hardware that is truly a bad raw deal to spend hundreds on equipment you can flush down the toilet.

Why would anyone expect HP (or any computer manufacturer) to provide tech support for any operating system other than the one they installed? That doesn't even make sense. If you downgrade to Windows 7, HP will still provide warranty/tech support for the hardware, just not for the operating system that they didn't install. (If Apple does, hooray for them. But it really isn't reasonable to expect it.)

windows 8 = fail

Brad and CDDan .... because MS offers downgrade rights and for good reason. If one H/W manufacturer decides to not let their customers use them... well they suck for it. Any decent PC maker will offer drivers for several O/S's. That is what this is about, the driver support. The problem is HP won't let you download the Win 7 drivers from the site for the H/W in question.
When a new O/S comes out and especially one with such fundamental changes like Win 8, there needs to be overlap. If PC makers don't offer choice of the O/S while the previous O/S is still in MS's active lifecycle, and instead force Win 8 on them, how is that good ?
And BTW, the Win 7 drivers already exist for the Intel chipsets and all the other hardware inside any HP, as well as for the practically-identical H/W they are selling to corporate customers who are allowed to downgrade. It's not like HP has to code the Win 7 drivers themselves ! So there really is no excuse, they sure as hell did it for Vista/XP.

BTW, on subject of HP sucking, their new G8 rack servers suck too. They support PCIe x16 cards but just try installing one, even a slim one... I dare ya. It will not fit thanks to foolish new server designs!

HP never said they won't have hardware drivers for Windows 7. Of course, they will. What they won't do is provide software support for people who install Windows 7 on a computer that they sold with Windows 8 installed. If they didn't sell or install Windows 7 on the computer, why should they provide tech support when a user installs it and hoses it up? But sure, hardware drivers and support, they'll provide all the support you need.

Oh yeah so hilarious buddy! You're mixed up. Apple don't provide tech support for Win7 when you install that on an Apple computer. You can still downgrade to Win7 on an HP but you're not going to receive tech support for Win7 OS related issues. There's a big difference between allowing an installation and providing tech support for it.

It might be a disaster in your eyes but there are plenty of people who have customized win8 the way they want it and consider it an improvement on Win7. There are significant improvements all over the place if you know where to look.

The only support HP would provide is to restore the factory image anyway. No loss.

And HP doesn't even ALLOW the installation, so sorry but you are WRONG !

READ the freaking article which clearly you guys did NOT. So you missed the part that says "there will be no drivers, apps or Windows 7 content made available for downgraded computers."

Then try this: Go to HP.com. Go to Support and Drivers, enter HP Pavillion model "p7-1420t", there are ONLY WINDOWS 8 DRIVERS available.
So how does one get around that ?

Buy a Mac and the bootcamp process installs the WIndows 7 drivers for you.

So YES ! The irony of this is such that I find it freaking hilarious ! As I stated in my original post, the lack of drivers is the level of support that I said was the show stopper: not even allowing customers to install drives that definitely do exist.

And its not me who finds Win 8 a disaster, its pretty much the whole tech industry. Even the tablet version on Surface is getting crapped all over in reviews. MS failed horribly. Most IT departments will not adopt Win 8 and have no plans to.. that in itself speaks to its failure.

That's the funny part in all this. When people discuss "support" its important to remember we are talking about HP.

It's still just a computer. HP doesn't design chipsets, video cards, etc. They probably don't code the drivers either. They probably just repackage them from the OEM of the chipset, video "card", sound "card", etc. Windows would likely be able to load drivers anyway.

You and I can but the average Joe can't. We are the exception.

Most people would be clueless to find the right Intel chipset drivers, the right NIC drivers. etc.. Wow, it just occurred to me HP do make the motherboard, NIC hardware, HDD controllers and many other onboard devices, so we would all be screwed there trying to find HP drivers. Or at least it wouldn't be easy.

Nope it's Not.. you just need to know How to use it and accept the Change for Good...

Quack doodle nonsense, as usual. Which is probably why M$ will get away with marching all you sheep into subscription-based cloud-based computing even sooner than I thought they'd manage it.

H-P won't provide support for folks who bought Windows 8 HOME editions. The M$ license requires them to support downgrading from Windows 8 PRO installations ... BUT given the technical and logistical hurdles M$ built into that process, no one in their right mind is going to be downgrading 8 to 7. It is really designed for the big commercial outfits with IT staffs and plenty of time and cash to work with. More on this over at PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2015107/downgrading-from-windows-8-to-7-what-you-need-to-know.html

Opposite ends of the sheep pen. Gotta <3 it.

You must've missed the users' review but it doesn't look very good for wide acceptance usage especially among corporations. Not everyone has a tablet and the laptop and desktop PC will be here long after the O/S has died off....Tablet are a niche market and will continue to be so and if they think people are going to jump boat and go tablet they have another thing coming.

I agree except tablets have a definite future ... they may form the bulk of new purchases at the Walmart/Target level, and find uses as data terminals, but are not likely to be replacing laptops or desktops any time soon IMHO.

Tablets will appeal to the kids moving up from smart phones. They want the bigger display so they can better see the games or whatever various parts of the anatomy have been posted to their Wall. They want a touch screen because that's what they're used to. They want a long battery life because that's what they're used to.

Will these kids ever move up to a laptop or computer? Not likely. Their life revolves around tunes, bffs and fb. If they have to use a real computer, it will probably be the one their employer provides and will likely be dedicated to one purpose. Our iPad is useful for quick email checks and reading books and the odd game or two. But it will never replace my desktop. It can't. The OS is so crippled, it doesn't even have a file manager, and printing from it is an exercise in torture. In other words, useless as a general use computing tool.

The funky Win8 interface will appeal to the tablet users because that is M$'s target customer. The marketing department apparently thinks that most new users will be kids coming up from cell phones. Existing users are not an issue; we can be dragged -- kicking and screaming -- into Win8 by virtue of the monopoly M$ holds on personal computing and windows support policies.

But don't throw in the towel ... until you have to.

At some point, your XP computer will fail unfixably -- or Chrome will drop XP support -- and then you'll be stuck buying a new computer with Win-de-jour. But until then, just keep on keepin' on. Who cares if M$ stops supporting XP! As long as the anti-bug manufacturers support XP and you can get parts for your computer, you are good to go.

P.S. Win8 is just an update to Win7 which was just an update to Vista which was just an update to XP which was just an update to Win2K which was just an update to WinNT. Know how we know that? Because at the heart of Win8, et al, is the Windows NT core. Look it up. All that really changes are bug fixes, hardware compatibility and the user interface.

BTW, in case no one has mentioned this:

If you want to run ANY WINDOWS software, do NOT buy a Windows RT computer.

Windows RT is NOT actually Windows software compatible. You have to buy Windows RT programs (which M$ has renamed apps so the cell phone crowd knows what they mean) at the M$ online store!!! Doh! A page from the Apple marketing book.

Go through some of the QA here and you will see that a lot of your present hardware is not supported on Windows RT. And under "What is Windows RT?", M$ flatout says you'll have to buy your RT apps at their store (politely couched in polite lawyereze of course).

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windo.../faq?length=12

Alex Roth wanders through the differences and limitations here:

http://www.techradar.com/us/reviews/...1113319/review