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Yes, you can still add drivers, however, someone (Intel probably) would have to release those drivers for Windows 7. If they are built for Windows 10 and use W
by 4ad 10y ago
Yes, you can still add drivers, however, someone (Intel probably) would have to release those drivers for Windows 7.
If they are built for Windows 10 and use Windows 10 kernel-mode APIs, they won't work on Windows 7.
However, I don't think Intel won't build drivers for Windows 7. It's against their own interest. Intel just wants to sell hardware.
- agumonkey 10y agoI was thinking of a non corporate effort, maybe some people from the linux world. I don't think Intel cares because they surely have ties with MS ensure Win10 on Kaby Lake boxes.
- 4ad 10y agoIn today's mobile world I'd guess most Kaby Lake boxes are sold to enterprise customers, who care a lot about Windows 7. It's just a guess though. Porting/using as reference Linux drivers (a lot of which are written by Intel people anyway) to Windows just doesn't seem to happen very often. Technical difficulty aside, which is significant (I've written both Windows and Unix (although not Linux) kernel mode drivers for years), nobody seems to care about such things, so I wouldn't get my hopes up.
- walterbell 10y agoOne option could be running Linux as the host operating system on Kaby Lake hardware, then running Windows 7 in a VM where drivers would mainly need to support virtual hardware. CPU/microcode compatibility may still be an issue.
- rbanffy 10y ago> then running Windows 7 in a VM With the added benefit of being able to run on immutable disk images or to roll them back to safe states in case some malware decides to take residence.
- cptskippy 10y agoMy mom works for a health insurance company and all of their machines boot off immutable network images. The only downside seems to be longer boot times and immutable desktop icons.
- agumonkey 10y agoLots of enterprises end up in this situation. Tax office had Windows machine only to run an AS400 terminal emulator.