My laptop is by default installed with Windows 10. I've tried to downgrade it to Windows 8, but the touchpad wasn't recognized and the screen brightness couldn't be changed due to Intel graphics driver. I did try downloading the drivers from Intel website (my Samsung laptop uses Intel hardware), but they only install in Windows 10, not in previous versions.
I'm interested in downgrading to Windows 7, however I can't simply install the official disk image as I'll have the same issue I had with Windows 8 (touchpad, graphics etc.). I found that someone made a custom version of Windows 7 to support actual drivers: youtu.be. I could test whether that custom Windows 7 works, but I'm not sure how I could dual-boot with Windows 11 (my actual OS) and Windows 7. Does anyone know if Windows 10+ designed-drivers will work in that custom Windows 7?
Best Answer
Windows 10+ designed-drivers have no chance of working in Windows 7, as the driver model has changed. The two versions are too far apart.
You will need to search for drivers for each of your devices that shows up with a yellow warning icon in Device Manager.
Specifically for the Intel UHD Graphics 610, Intel does not support Windows 7 for their Kaby Lake 7th generation CPUs, which includes the Iris and HD Graphics that are built into the processors. Upon attempting to install the graphics drivers on a Windows 7 machine you will get the message "The computer does not meet the minimum requirements".
This can be fixed by copying one line in the driver
.inffile.For information about this hack see
Fix for Windows 7 drivers for Intel 7th gen HD graphics 620 610 615 630 Iris 640 650.
(Note however that Windows 7 is too old and is completely vulnerable to attacks. I don't advise connecting it to the internet.)