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November 30th, 2013 08:00

Alternate way to downgrade from win 8 pro to win 7 pro

I received a new xps 8700 minitower with win 8 pro pre-installed. I believe this falls into dell's downgrade rules to win 7 pro. The question is can I use a dell win 7 pro reinstallation disc from a dell laptop to perform this downgrade? 

9 Legend

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16.3K Posts

November 30th, 2013 19:00

"I received a new xps 8700 minitower with win 8 pro pre-installed. I believe this falls into dell's downgrade rules to win 7 pro."

They are not "Dell's" downgrade rules ... they are Microsoft's downgrade rules, and yes, Windows 8 Pro (Pro ONLY) does qualify for downgrade rights.  Activation for downgrade rights is the responsibility of the user, so you can activate using ANY other license (even if used on another machine/account without affecting that license) ... a Dell installation DVD qualifies.  Normally, a Dell installation DVD does NOT require a key to be entered, and the range of systems that work with a DVD is extensive, but not universal, so if it asks for a product key, you will need to have one of your own to supply.

Why do you want to downgrade?

November 30th, 2013 23:00

I tried playing around with windows 8 but it is so cumbersome... It feels like every task requires an extra step, whether it's opening a PDF file or  going back to an already opened internet explorer, or getting into control panel, or even shutting down. Maybe it's just me still trying to cling to win-7.

9 Legend

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16.3K Posts

December 1st, 2013 06:00

Give Windows 8 a chance ... most people adapt to the different ways/places to do things within a few days.

  • For the old Start Menu, Start 8 or Classic Shell are very popular utilities to restore "familiar" functionality (I've never found these necessary, but they are very popular)
  • You can still install like Adobe Reader to replace Windows built-in (and cumbersome) PDF Reader
  • Pretty much anything can be found/run from the Start Screen (just like in Windows 7's Start Menu) ... just hit Start and type what you are looking for
  • I would recommend always using the Desktop version of IE and not the one from the Start Screen tile

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