Who here is selling windows 7 or windows 8 OS for CF-30?

This laptop came with a hack version of windows 10 which was liceneced for HP laptop. Its slow right now and there has been times, that when doing field support services, the remote desktop agent wont except windows 10.

 

Your plan is over-complicated
Download any Windows you want from Microsoft, install OS, install drivers, buy a key, activate OS.

 

What mk CF30?
What is the full model number?

 

There's no specific windows 7/8/etc version for panasonic laptops. All Windowses are the same. Just install and go forward.

P.S. I recommend to you to use Windows 10. It works faster than 7 and 8

 

That's not exactly correct. While there is not a standalone Toughbook version of Windows, there are recovery disks for each specific model/mk.
The official recovery disk has the Panasonic tweaked version of Windows on it.
A CF 30 mk3 has Win7 available.

 

I agree. Both OEM logo and OEM info are Panasonic tweaks )

 

The "tweaks" are only the included drivers and eventually preinstalled applications. Nothing else. Windows will download the drivers from the internet right after the install anyway. It's the same like you install a generic ISO, prepare it for normal use and then make an image after the installation. Not a big deal - it just saves some time..

 

I will make this my last post in this thread. Arguing is a waste.
Windows will update a generic install with generic, incorrect drivers. Been there Done that
Other hidden tweaks are to the power usage and thermal settings. Tweaks that are not seen in the GUI.

Also, something no one here is mentioning is the tweaks and crap that the "generic" HP or Dell disks install.
Hp disks install all kinds of extra bloatware. No thanks..

If you guys want to spend a couple hours with a generic OS install and driver install, go ahead.
I can spend $35 for a recovery disk and have a very clean, PERFECT OS install in less than 1/2 hour.
I have loaded Windows on probably 100 Toughbooks.
My time is valuable to me.

 

Oh no, let's proceed There are no more interesting open topics in this forum now )

Why do you think it's very clean and perfect? Maybe there are tons of spyware inside )

 

/ me looks for my GIF of "kicking a dead horse" .

 

I'm not talking of HP/Dell/etc images. As a "generic" I mean the Windows ISO downloaded from MSDN.

About the "incorrect" drivers - they can't be incorrect. Drivers for any specific device are distinguised as:

1. Signed and unsigned
2. Newer and older

Windows will download the latest signed drivers which are published from the vendor to their repository.

What makes a problem with these old computers is that the latest signed drivers submitted to the repository are actually too old. There's almost always much newer and more stable (sometimes unsigned) driver from the hardware vendor. By hardware vendor I mean the website of the actual manufacturer of the device, not the company who assemble it. For example the newest driver for your WiFi card can be found on the website of Intel - not through windows update, not on the panasonic website.

And now wait a minute - are the drivers on your "recovery disk" somehow better? No, they are just normal signed or unsiged drivers. And yeah, they are always old, because they can't be newer than the time when they recorded the disk. You can easily see that by installing windows from such recover disk - running Windows update will find newer drivers for few devices.

Now what I really want to emphasize here is that the generic MSDN Windows ISO is much cleaner from what you called "bloatware" than any other ISO, including images from reputable companies like Panasonic... That's why I prefer clean Windows and I always install newest drivers form the manufacturers websites. This is what makes the machine stable.

 

P.S. If I have to install OS on 100 laptops... hell yeah, I'll prefer ready images No argue on that... I'll even think about doing a network install too (if they have ability to boot from network).

 

I'll take what Shawn says over anything so-called computer experts say or post on forums when it comes to Panasonic Toughbooks.

 

That's what Panasonic does installing dialup modem and 1394 ports into modern CF-19's ))

 

breaking my own rule.
Panasonic is known to customize the drivers. This is to conserve power, reduce heat, and to improve reliability.
Toughbooks are usually set to run at much lower than maximum performance specs. The drivers are designed to work with this. This is done to get maximum reliability.
Stock hardware vendor drivers may work but not as Panasonic intended.
Toughbooks have the lowest failure rate in the industry. That is for a reason.

Toughbooks include those "old" ports such as 1394, dial up modem and serial because industry, police, and military still use those hardware interfaces on a daily basis. Toughbooks are NOT designed for a consumer like you or me. They are designed for those entities I just mentioned.

Have you guys ever used an official recovery disk? If you had, you would KNOW that there is ZERO bloatware or extras on a Toughbook recovery disk. They do not even have a desktop wallpaper. They actually seem CLEANER than a Microsoft iso in some respects.

 

"They do not even have a desktop wallpaper"

That is about as bloat free as it gets!

 

Shawn is cool. Love to read his posts even when I think they are tedious and predictable. He's like parson who, when you are on the edge, can convince you god exists or, in our case, toughbooks are coolest laptops and panasonic engineers are saint apostles )
Shawn, my respect )

 

I agree with the need for the serial port other old ports. They are still widely used in car repair shops, military/police, etc.

About the panasonic drivers - I highly doubt what you said. I almost ready to bet that it's a myth. Can you point an example of a modded driver - we can easily compare with the same version of the original.

 

If they were using military spec hardware, then yes the drivers might also have higher reliability standards. However, I don't think they have this option. Having said that, I 'm also using the factory's recovery partition. Main reason is that the included drivers have been tested for the specific laptop. If you want to stay up to date, first you make a clean install from the factory's partition and then you upgrade to the latest drivers from Panasonic's site. Again these drivers have been tested for the specific laptops.

 

found it !