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HP urging consumers to NOT downgrade to Windows 7


Guest LilBambi

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Guest LilBambi

HP urges consumer customers not to downgrade new PCs to Windows 7 - Computerworld

 

 

Will not support Windows 8-to-Windows 7 moves with drivers, company-provided apps

 

 

Downgrade rights -- which let customers replace a newer version of Windows with an older edition without paying for two copies -- are de rigueur with business-class editions of Windows, and are meant to let companies keep new machines on their preferred OS.

 

Only Windows 8 Pro comes with downgrade rights; the consumer-standard Windows 8 does not. Windows 8 Pro users can downshift to Windows 7 Professional or Vista Business.

 

BOLD emphasis mine

 

You are responsible for getting the downgrade media from your OEM computer manufacturer and doing the downgrade yourself.

 

For consumer grade computers, you can upgrade to Windows 8 Pro to be able to obtain downgrade rights, but HP charges $70 for the move from Windows 8 to Windows 8 Pro.

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I experienced this same behavior from HP when I bought a brand spanking new Vista bookshelf computer from them. When I downgraded to XP Pro from Vista Ultimate, which Microsoft gave me the right to do, HP would not support me with any software. The OEMs under contract to HP who manufactured the components were prevented from assisting me with finding drivers because of their organized criminal syndicate "Partner" agreements with HP.

 

Fortunately, I had been messing around with Ubuntu Live CD's for about 6 months. I wiped the entire drive and installed Linux. That box never saw any version of Windows again until the mobo fried. That machine always ran very hot.

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Hello,

 

Interesting. I usually never have any problems finding device drivers for most components, unless the manufacturer is extremely obscure. Even then, searching on the PnP Vendor ID usually turned up something that allowed them to be identified.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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Hello,

 

Interesting. I usually never have any problems finding device drivers for most components, unless the manufacturer is extremely obscure. Even then, searching on the PnP Vendor ID usually turned up something that allowed them to be identified.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

The OEM mobo was manufactured by Asus. The Asus support website has hundreds of mobo part numbers with all the drivers for each, very nicely organized. The part number for my board was not on the list because it was a custom design manufactured under license for HP. Asus claimed they never wrote drivers for it and that all software support had to come from HP. When I got on Live Chat with pro tech support, I asked could they tell me what other boards used the same , or similar, components. The answer was that the contract they had with HP prohibited them from helping me.

 

I seached the net for the mobo components and matched it up with about 5 other boards manufactured by Asus. I tried all the drivers for them and could not get USB controller to work. I was in a box made of Microsoft's Partnership agreements and HP's OEM agreements with the hardware manufacturers.

 

That's when I decided to just use Linux.

Edited by amenditman
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The OEM mobo was manufactured by Asus. The Asus support website has hundreds of mobo part numbers with all the drivers for each, very nicely organized. The part number for my board was not on the list because it was a custom design manufactured under license for HP. Asus claimed they never wrote drivers for it and that all software support had to come from HP. When I got on Live Chat with pro tech support, I asked could they tell me what other boards used the same , or similar, components. The answer was that the contract they had with HP prohibited them from helping me.

 

I seached the net for the mobo components and matched it up with about 5 other boards manufactured by Asus. I tried all the drivers for them and could not get USB controller to work. I was in a box made of Microsoft's Partnership agreements and HP's OEM agreements with the hardware manufacturers.

 

That's when I decided to just use Linux.

I had a similar experience with a clients HP tablet with a touchscreen. The client had some custom software they never could get to run in Vista. And HP didn't have any drivers for the touchscreen for XP. I wound up having to have the box dual boot XP and Vista.

 

But what I find truly amazing is that some people *never* experience problems with *any* MS products. :whistling:

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I don't see why you'd want to buy a consumer version of Windows 8 and downgrade when you can still get good deals on Windows 7 machines at clearance prices. I got a great deal on an HP notebook for my daughter at Staples a couple of weeks ago. Even had the latest AMD Trinity Mobile APU.

The refurb stores in my area that sell off-lease PCs will have Windows 7 Pro machines available for at least the next 3 years - even longer if the companies they get them from continue to run Windows 7.

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  • 8 months later...
Guest LilBambi

You can also still go to HP's site, Lenovo's site, and Dell's site and get a Windows 7 computer. They don't have as many different deals nor are they as cheap inexpensive, but the pricing isn't really that bad. Only about $100 more/more for comparable machines.

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V.T. Eric Layton

I just don't understand why people think that going from Win 8 to Win 7 is a downgrade. ;)

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Hello,

 

The data is two months out of date, but ~4% of our customers were running Microsoft Windows 8 when I last checked. I would imagine it's gone up since then a bit, though.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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