Downgrade Windows 8 Pro: Walk Me Through

Ok so I ran the Windows 8 consumer preview on my laptop and it was working fine, now I'm running Windows 8 Pro and my Intel GMA 965 (Supported in the preview) is no longer supported!!! I downloaded the drivers straight from Intel and it only works, till I turn my system off, then I have to reinstall. To my dissatisfaction I have to downgrade back to Windows 7, but I need help.

Is there a way to downgrade and keep all programs that I use now? I have a lot and it would be a pain to reinstall all of them.

Can I retain all of my settings? Again a hassle to deal with if I have to.

I have Win 7 Ultimate. Can I downgrade to that or do I need Win7 Pro?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Unfortunately there is no way to do an in place downgrade, it is a wipe and load situation.

 

You can downgrade free to Win 7 pro from Win 8 pro. If you have a purchased Win 7 Ultimate key you could use that as well but again it will not be free unless the key you got was free. Unfortunately as far as I know all the programs will have to be reinstalled, the again I personally have not done the downgrade so others here may know of a method.......

 

If you already have a Windows 7 pro or higher install disk that is the only way to get a full install of W7 otherwise unless your manufacture offer a downgrade option you won't be able to go to W7 unless you wipe and reinstall a full W7 O/S and then but before all this make sure the manufacture has drivers for your laptop before doing so otherwise you should make sure you have a Restore W8 DVD when you bought or ordered just incase something like this was to happen you can restore to factory settings.

 

Ok new topic: since I can't downgrade w/o losing my programs, is there a way to fix this display driver? I can install it and after a restart it will work like it's suppose to. When I turn my computer off, it stops working. Any idea what the issue is?

 

Your best bet is to go to the particular board for your machine and ask there as maybe there is a quirk specific to the machine itself. Also this becomes a different topic and more hardware/driver related............

 

I installed the GMA X3100 on Windows 8 by using the Windows 7 X64 driver installed manually through device manager and it has worked correctly.

 

good deal................