Downgrading to Win7

iceman (Mike) · #1 04-04-2014, 07:23 PM

I've tried to like it - I've tried to persist.

But this laptop and Windows 8 don't mix. Maybe it's the laptop, or a faulty hard-drive or something. But Windows Explorer, especially with Dropbox, and any sort of photo editing (lightroom and Photoshop) are sooooo slow with Windows 8.

I always run in desktop mode, never use ANYTHING from metro.

Just opening and click through folders takes forever.

The specs of the machine are probably double my previous laptop (with the exception of the SSD), but almost everything is slower.

So, I'm going to downgrade to Win7.

Will I have to buy a Win7 key, or should I be able to use the key on the bottom of my old Toshiba Laptop?

There's no Win8 key on the bottom of this laptop - it was already "installed". Not sure how I'd upgrade in the future.

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #2 04-04-2014, 07:47 PM

I did the same..... had a go with Win8.1 .... never did really get to like it.
I even had ' classic shell ' installed to try and give it that ' Win7 ' feel ... but it didn't grow on me.....

Now running Win7 Ultimate 64bit.......on Intel 128SSD ......Laptop to.

Like a ' breath of fresh Air ' .....I know where things are now.... not the ' run around Win8 gave me '

Col.....

Screwdriverone (Chris) · #3 04-04-2014, 07:51 PM

Try here Mike, http://www.microsoft.com/oem/en/lice...id=oYZsy1C0N9Y

It looks like an OEM version can be downgraded to Win 7 and you may have to use your Win 7 key from your previously purchased version.

Chris

killswitch (Edison) · #4 04-04-2014, 07:57 PM

Mike your toshiba laptop will have an OEM licence which is tied down to the laptop via SLP (system locked pre-installation). The key wont activate on other machines, but if you ring the activation line instead of doing it online it might work.

AstroJunk (Jonathan) · #5 04-04-2014, 08:38 PM

The one thing that Win 8 isn't is slow. I think you have laptop issues...

Open up task manager and have a look at what's going on. Its a hundred time more informative than win 7 and before. If there is a rouge program or process, you will find it there.

acropolite (Phil) · #6 04-04-2014, 09:21 PM

Mike, your problem may be W8's search indexing, if you turn that off, access to files is dramatically faster.
http://www.addictivetips.com/windows...-in-windows-8/

Another thing to look out for is links to networked resources, I'd be suspicious of any dropbox links for starters.

If you started with 8 then upgraded to 8.1 that could also be part of the problem, the web is littered with reports of broken installations after the W8.1 update, I had to do clean installs of 8 on both my laptop and desktop after installing the 8.1 update.

That said, I'm also about ready to give up on Microsofts latest experiment. Some of the changes they've made are at best counter productive, most are just plain stupid.

Not sure about your combination, from what my reseller said, my combination of Lenovo/Win8 Pro can be "downgraded" by ringing Lenovo support, apparently they then supply a downgrade key and you can supposedly use any W8 distro. How that works in real life is another thing, I can imagine that tracking down appropriate driver downloads will be a chore.

I believe that pretty well all OEM W8 Pro installs have downgrade rights.

Renato1 (Renato) · #7 05-04-2014, 12:02 AM

I remember when some years ago I hated Windows Vista on my Acer laptop, and installed Windows XP on it in dual boot mode (which turned it from a snail to a rocket). I could only do it properly and get everything to work because someone on the internet had gathered all the stuff I needed to download and install after I'd installed XP. This included a lot of Acer laptop specific stuff, like power management. I recollect that without it, the computer would work fine until it went into hibernation mode, but when it came out of that mode, the fan wouldn't start up and the laptop would overheat.

Anyhow, I have no idea if that would still be the case nowadays, but in the past going back to a previous OS could be more finicky or problematic on a laptop than on a desktop. Perhaps check the internet and see if others have done the same exercise on your laptop that you intend to do.

Regards,
Renato

iceman (Mike) · #8 05-04-2014, 09:26 AM

I use Start8 to boot into desktop mode. As I said, I don't use ANYTHING in Metro.

I agree Win8 shouldn't be slow, but there's nothing in task manager that is consuming resources. Also agree the new Task Manager is a dramatic improvement.

I'll try search indexing, but it doesn't explain why Lightroom/Photoshop are slow. Most of that should be in-memory accessing of the photo, especially with 16GB.

How can I find links to networked resources? I'll try with dropbox off but it shouldn't be an issue - it's no different than 'OneDrive'.

I do have 8.1. I never tried 8 on its own.

Marios (Marios) · #9 05-04-2014, 10:00 AM

Take it from an IT guy, Windows 8 is a lemon. You're better off switching to Windows 7 64bit and enjoy a well supported OS.

RB (Andrew) · #10 05-04-2014, 10:07 AM

Windows 9 should be out shortly, MinusculeSoft knows Win8.x has a bad uptake rate.

Sorry to hear about your woes mate, that laptop has great specs on paper, as you know I almost bought one.
Doesn't make sense.

I refuse to go to Win 8, from what I've seen so far.

AstroJunk (Jonathan) · #11 05-04-2014, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

I use Start8 to boot into desktop mode. As I said, I don't use ANYTHING in Metro.

I agree Win8 shouldn't be slow, but there's nothing in task manager that is consuming resources. Also agree the new Task Manager is a dramatic improvement.

I'll try search indexing, but it doesn't explain why Lightroom/Photoshop are slow. Most of that should be in-memory accessing of the photo, especially with 16GB.

How can I find links to networked resources? I'll try with dropbox off but it shouldn't be an issue - it's no different than 'OneDrive'.

I do have 8.1. I never tried 8 on its own.

Task manager will show you if you have something hogging the network - check the furthest column in the processes tab. Whilst you are there, start up PS and open a decent sized image and watch what's happening both to the disk and memory usage.

If you have gone from SSD to a laptop HHD then it will seem VERY sluggish...

acropolite (Phil) · #12 06-04-2014, 07:30 AM

Wireshark is also good if you suspect that there's something odd going on with your network. Wireshark will let you analyse the traffic to and from your PC, I tracked down a problem at work that way. It's not an easy tool to use and undrstand but even with my limited knowledge I was able to resolve a problem that we had with a PC at work. In our case the the issue was a shortcut to a network folder on the desktop, for some reason XP was searching the web before looking at the LAN.

Regarding Win 7 and Win 8, I did some work yesterday on a new PC with W7 and SSD, it actually booted faster than my desktop with W8 and SSD.