OT computer help please

The firmware for Windows 8/10 (UEFI) is completely different to the old BIOS which you would need for installing Windows 7.

 

Don't some motherboards BIOS have a legacy mode option so you can run Win7 even with an EUFI MB (as mine is). I have grown to not dislike Win10 64 bit quite so much but with one exception i.e. The loss of ability to select which updates to install which is really cr*p as on one or two occasions the updates have stopped certain features , customisations or even some of my apps from working and I have had to spend time fixing them.

PS apparently Windows 7 x64 (64bit) does indeed support UEFI, and installs transparently; Windows 7 x86 (32bit) does not.

 

I bow to your superior technical knowledge. I just remember when I bought a new laptop in 2013 (Win 8) and being told by PC support people at work that "downgrading" to Windows 7 was a difficult process because of the UEFI and non-MBR disk issues. I guess things have moved on or become better understood since then.

 

Have you installed any windows updates this week. The meltdown/spectre patches have bricked computers.

 

Windows 10 automatically downloaded a critical update not been right since

 

OK refer back to my earlier post re backup software and....
You can stop Win 10 automatic updates by selecting metered connection . Go to Settings>Network Internet>Change connection properties>move Metered connection radio button slider to ON.
Remember however, not accepting automatic critical security updates leaves the PC more vulnerable to attacks it does allows you to control WHEN to install those updates. Used in conjunction with backup software i.e. take an image backup of your drive immediately before you run the MS updates so if they screw up your PC you can roll back to the original image prior to the backup (unless you want to trust the MS backup - roll back 'restore to previous point') which I personally don't trust as in the past specific updates have not allowed restore points to be accessed.
I stress given WIN 10 , all the ransom software/ viruses and Trojans knocking around it is critical to make a one of recovery disk and then take regular drive images onto a separate internal or external physical drive so you can restore the PC should the thing get corrupted.
Final point and apologies if you already know this but never back up to a different drive letter (partition) on the same physical drive since if the drive fails you lose both the original image and the backup . Also backing up to the cloud is fine but only for data since how can you access the internet if the OS is stuffed. Obvious you would think, but someone recently asked me how they could restore their Laptop from the cloud backup where they had stored their HDD image!!

 

Err don't trust my so-called superior knowledge Whilst I have (had) MCSE+MCP+MPI qualifications, they date back to 2000 before even QoS existed and as soon as I got them I ended up working in IT Telecoms in CTI (Genesys) and VOIP for 10 years far removed form the intricacies of Microsoft apart from the odd server platform build and configuration and the so my "knowledge" only comes from battling with various iterations of Windows on my and friends' laptops and PCs over the years. Some of this stuff is easy peasy compared to getting CubaseLE DAW SW to talk to an old Pro Tools MBox 2 audio unit plugged via USB into a Win10 PC when official ProTools driver exists for Win10.
Computers invented to make life easy....Not!!!

 

Quite, I spent almost 30 years programming in PASCAL on OpenVMS in the coal and motor industries.