This post is more than 5 years old
1 Message
1
7902
Any issues running Windows 7 on the the Dell XPS 15 (9560)?
Hello,
I am interested in buying the Dell XPS 15 9560, but due to the privacy nightmare that is Windows 10 I want to clean install Windows 7. Long story short I disabled almost everything on the privacy menu on Windows 10 on my desktop and they switch back to re-enabled when I do a Windows Update which is pretty sketchy.
Has anyone done this? Which features no longer work with Windows 7? Any driver issues? Thank you for the feedback.
ejn63
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
87.5K Posts
0
February 21st, 2017 03:00
Windows 7 is not supported on the Kaby Lake platform (this model).
The only version of Windows that supports Kaby Lake is windows 10 -- the Skylake platform (9350) was the last one with Windows 7 support.
sc0tt_ta
4 Posts
0
June 29th, 2017 09:00
Me too.
sc0tt_ta
4 Posts
0
June 29th, 2017 09:00
Microsoft has stated Windows 10 will be the only compatible OS for Kaby Lake and AMD Ryzon. This is a push to get Win 10 acceptance. The "in-comparability" is ***. Windows looks for the CPU ID and if it finds Kaby Lake, it has a pop-up warning and blocks updates.
The real questions is will any of the drivers work with Windows 7? The challenge is the new PCIe SSD socket drivers. Windows 7 does not have native support for them. Dell will probably not offer a driver for Windows 7. Windows 10 supports them out of the gate. I do not know if the previous model (9350) also has PCIe SSD of if it will be a compatible driver will work with the 9560.
I have Kaby Lake CPU in my PC and run Windows 7. Intel and Microsoft have always been backward compatible. I am an Engineer who used to work with Intel. A friend/colleague tested Kaby Lake compatibility with motherboards and says there is nothing different with Windows 7/10 that makes it incompatible.
Asus provides an awesome installation solution for Windows 7 that includes 2 drivers that are not found by Windows Installation program. Once those drivers are included with install, install was a snap.
I am having zero issues keeping Windows 7 up to date. Yes, I have a workaround preventing the pop-ups and still get Windows Updates.
ejn63
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
87.5K Posts
0
June 29th, 2017 10:00
Bear in mind this is just the beginning - updates may work for now, but you'll eventually find MS cuts them off completely.
You may have found a stopgap for now but it will not last forever.
sc0tt_ta
4 Posts
1
July 18th, 2017 00:00
I just installed Windows 7 on my 9560. To be safe, I got another M.2 SSD so I can swap it back out to user for work tomorrow.
Give credit to David Zou....
I found this page (davidzou.com/.../dell-xps-15-9550) that gives great instructions to do this with the 9550. Same applies for 9560.
The SSD did not show up with Intel RAID controller driver but once I disabled RAID (enabled ACHI) in the BIOS, and tried again using Samsung NVMe driver the drive appeared and continued with the installation..
I download the drivers from Dell Download and most appear to be installing and working, so far. But time for bed so I will finish this tomorrow. Lots of Windows 7 Updates to get.... and the Win 7 Kaby Lake hack.
samos1111
489 Posts
0
July 18th, 2017 02:00
I think meanwhile Windows 7 has been updated with most of the privacy issues of Win10. If this is not about compatibility with certain problematic older software or hardware, I guess it is a better idea to use Win10 and google up how to lock it down.