Windows 7 on a Surface Pro?

Windows 8.1 IT Pro > Windows 8.1 Hardware Compatibility

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Anybody going to put Windows 7 on a Surface Pro?

Here's the situation. My IT dept is not ready for Windows 8. We won't be moving off
of SCCM 2007 for another 9 to 12 months and we won't be have 2008 on the domain
servers for another 7 to 10 months. So we're just not in a position to deploy W8
for a little while. However everybody wants Windows 8 hardware. Bottom line, I
will be building OSD driver packages for Windows 8 hardware like the Dell XPS 12
duo and the Surface Pro. Anybody else have any experience with W7 on W8 hardware.

Changed type Leo HuangModerator Monday, February 18, 2013 8:28 AM

Saturday, February 16, 2013 9:17 PM
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Spetroski40 Points
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Hi,

Surface is only for Windows 8 right now. And it was not design for Windows 7.

Leo Huang
TechNet Community Support

Monday, February 18, 2013 8:29 AM

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Leo HuangMicrosoft27,970 Points
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Leo/Vegan,

As soon as I receive my Surface Pro tablets and load my corporate Windows 7 64

Enterprise image via OSD I will post my experience. I thank you for your input but
you failed to grasp the real world situation of a Fortune 500 company.

Monday, February 18, 2013 6:36 PM

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Spetroski40 Points
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Leo/Vegan,
As soon as I receive my Surface Pro tablets and load my corporate Windows 7 64
Enterprise image via OSD I will post my experience. I thank you for your input but
you failed to grasp the real world situation of a Fortune 500 company.

So, what happened?

Are there even Windows 7 drivers available for all the hardware that would allow a
Surface Pro to fully function on Windows 7?

Even though people "don't like" the UI, the reason we can't use Windows 8 now is
because there is some mandatory security software that must be deployed on all
systems that may not be updated to support Windows 8 until 2014 and management
would like to get Surface Pros (or similar Core i5 tablet) now.

Thursday, March 14, 2013 3:17 AM

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MyGposts925 Points
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Why do you want to use an touch unfriendly UI on a Tablet? Use Win8 but install
StartIsBack and Modern Mix, to have a lot of Win7 features back:

http://www.startisback.com/#download-tab

http://www.stardock.com/products/modernmix/features.asp

"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code"

Thursday, March 14, 2013 6:11 AM

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Andre.Ziegler75,901 Points
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I am going to try this now, Install Windows 7 Ultimate X64 on my Surface pro using
the Windows 8 Driver pack, I was able to get the windows 7 installer to launch by
going into the advanced options boot menu in Windows 8, starting Command Prompt,
changing the directory to the windows 7 drive cd D:/ and running Setup.exe
Wednesday, June 26, 2013 9:12 PM
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ethancedrik0 Points
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MS posted a KB and said that it doesn't owrk:

Windows 7 Setup hangs at "Starting Windows" on Surface Pro

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2828074/en-us
The Surface Pro is a Class 3 UEFI device that does not support legacy BIOS
Interrupt 10 (INT 10H) video transitioning and it requires Windows 8 or later
operating systems to run.

"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code"

Thursday, June 27, 2013 5:34 AM

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Andre.Ziegler75,901 Points
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MS posted a KB and said that it doesn't owrk:

Windows 7 Setup hangs at "Starting Windows" on Surface Pro

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2828074/en-us

The Surface Pro is a Class 3 UEFI device that does not support legacy BIOS
Interrupt 10 (INT 10H) video transitioning and it requires Windows 8 or later
operating systems to run.

"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code"

of course MS is going to tell you this, they dont want you to know you can turn off
the UEFI in the bios.

I find it very hard to believe that if people can get Ububtu Linux to run without
issue on the Surface Pro(don't believe me go ahead and google it) that Windows 7
wont run, I suspect if you follow the instructions to turn off the UEFI that
windows 7 will infact run on the surface pro
Sunday, July 14, 2013 4:57 PM
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Ubuntu supports Secure boot while Windows 7 doesn't. That's why it works. I don't
have a Surface Pro so I can't look into the UEFI.
"A programmer is just a tool which converts caffeine into code"

Sunday, July 14, 2013 6:47 PM

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Andre.Ziegler75,901 Points
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loolllll its true I tested it and my SP crashed and wouldn't want to load windows
Friday, September 27, 2013 6:12 PM
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zacsteeve50 Points
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As soon as the folks at the Microsoft store figure out how to process credit cards
(they've been failing for 6 weeks), I'll be getting the SP 256GB. As everybody
knows, Windows 8 and 8.1 are horrible, unintuitive, ugly, and otherwise horrible
operating systems. I personally am not even interested in the touchscreen (it's
the digitizer pen I want), and much less so in the crappy RT experience. So,
getting this excellent piece of hardware to run the currently best (though still
disappointing) OS of Win7 would be amazing.

We've seen the official knowledge base item stating: "The Surface Pro is a Class 3
UEFI device that does not support legacy BIOS Interrupt 10 (INT 10H) video
transitioning and it requires Windows 8 or later operating systems to run." and
some of us hopeful dreamers are still in doubt that this is the final word.

I've seen hints that there is a way to install Windows 7 on a UEFI device, and that
the secure boot can be turned off, and those together should mean that it is
possible to get Win7 on the SP2. Okay, so that will void the warranty, but I'd
rather have a great and usable computer with no warranty than a brick of digital
feces under warranty. Drivers shouldn't be an issue, it's only the install that's
questionable. Anybody out there have a link to instructions on how to do this
successfully?

Friday, November 29, 2013 12:17 AM

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Arroneusan undisclosed location5 Points
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Hello Vegan Fanatic, your comment implies, but does not state, that one can
successfully install Windows 7 x64 (Ultimate) on the Surface Pro 2. If that true,
and you have succeeded in doing so and/or know somebody who has, then please post a
more detail set of instructions on the materials needed (e.g. Win 7 x65 on USB
drive formatted as...or using a specific installer gotten from...), the steps (e.g.
first do ... to access the UEFI to turn off secure boot (or not), then ...). There
are lots of people who want to format the harddrive and start with a clean install
of Win7, so if you can provide thorough and accurate instructions on how to do so
you'd be a HERO!
Friday, November 29, 2013 3:12 AM
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Arroneusan undisclosed location5 Points
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I see. The problem is that the assumption that the SP2 has nominally the same UEFI
BIOS as other computers may not be true. The knowledge base comment about it being
a Class 3 UEFI device is supposed to imply that (in distinction from class 1 and
class 2 UEFI devices) the SP and SP2 do not support legacy BIOSs...which is needed
to run Windows 7 x64. Other UEFI do support legacy BIOS and the INT10H protocol
needed, but reportedly not the one used by Surface Pros.

So what's needed is a person who really knows how these works actually doing this
Win7 x64 install on a SP (or other Class 3 UEFI device) and showing how it works
(and preferably explaining why the KB comment was only partially correct). I've
got some more info on a different thread
(http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/445a83c7-12a0-471e-bdce-
460a4d831fdc/clean-install-of-win7-on-surface-pro-2?
forum=surfacesoftware2#2de1320a-76c5-4895-8149-5978b4de71f2).

Drivers are always a nuisance, but that doesn't phase me. They exist and can be
installed if Win7 can be.