CF53A mk1...Win8.1..64bit

Figured I would do a trial install of Win8 on this CF53A and see how it went.
There is no one click bundle for Win 8 64bit on a mk1..
I ran the bundle for a mk2 and that seemed to catch most drivers...
I have a Intel 7260AC wifi card installed...The driver for this was very difficult...I finally used a CF53 mk5 Intel 7260 driver and it worked.....No stock Intel driver would work...

The display adapter driver has been VERY challenging....CF53..Mk1..Win7.. 64 bit driver would put the thing in a lock screen loop..Had to go to safe mode and uninstall the driver....
The driver downloaded directly from Intel would not load...I think it was missing the net framework stuff...
By the way..On the lock screen,,the power button....restart tab...Hold the SHIFT key while you click RESTART...Easiest way to safe mode.
Windows UPDATES has found and installed a Video driver..Intel HD 3000...It has not rebooted yet so we shall see if it works....
Rebooting now...We have a desktop ....and a working proper video driver...

So moral of story is.
number 1..INSTALL Classic Shell so it's a usable OS for a regular computer...DISABLE METRO..
number 2.. get wifi working
number 3..get Windows updates
number 4..see what's left to get drivers for..
number 5..INSTALL UWT for Win8...Disable Modern apps crapola...

 

Hmm. Right now I don't have any problems with 7260 Intel's driver. And it was PnP always, with some earlier power saving and speed problems )
Maybe it's different for cf-53. It's strange.
Why not Win10?

 

Tried Win10 a few months back.....Win10 is much better than Win8.1..
Tried Win8.1 because I had not tried it yet.
Yes the 7260 driver situation was very odd. This is the first time for me that a stock Intel wifi driver did not work on a Toughbook.

Something is different.
The Official Panasonic release is 251.45 mb
The Intel download for a 7260 is 32.4 mb