Windows 7 Ultimate on an i7-7700HQ

As title,
I wanted to ask if Win7 will work with an i7-7700HQ.
I looked up the Acer website and they said that Windows 10 is the only OS supported on my machine,the Acer Predator Helios 300 with an GTX 1060,driver-wise.
Is it possible to even install it on my laptop?
I am kinda sick of Windows 10 and I have three choices:
1.Windows 7.
2.Windows 10 LTSB.
3.Linux.
Maybe I will do it next year, because I am kinda busy with lots of things right now.
Should I do this?Or stick with this god awful OS?
Also will Linux support things like Optimus and C-states and things to save energy?

 

Yes, you can install Windows 7 on your laptop although you have to hunt for the drivers yourself, because you have nVidia I recommend Windows 8.1 for greater driver compatibility, just install ClassicShell and hunt down Aero8 and you good to go.
Use AIDA64 or HWINFO to find all the device name.

 

What kind of drivers do I need?

 

Look in driver manager and AIDA64 and just note it down and download it, W8.1 usually always come with Ethernet or even wifi drivers already with it so rarely do you end up in deep trouble without internet access.

 

Is there something like,I don't know,"forward compatibility" in Windows 8.1 since they only have drivers for Windows 10?
And as I heard of,support for Windows 8.1 will be dropped sooner than Windows 7 right?

 

No big deal... I have had my updateds turned off for over 1 1/2 years now. Most of there updates are crap anyways.

 

Windows lifecycle fact sheet
Applies to: Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8.1
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet




Around the time Windows 8.1 extended support expires, some form of Windows LTSB should be stable enough to step over to, at least that's the dream

 

You can try to extract the drivers and try forcing the .inf through driver manager, sometimes it works sometimes it does not, I had luck doing that with Vista trying to install Windows 7 only drivers.
W8.1 and 10 are pretty similar still so it should not be such a big issue.

This is sort of, we cannot really help you that much, we can only give advice, firstly I do not know your hardware list, i7-7700HQ works on Windows 8.1, heck it works even on Windows 7, Intel has chipset drivers for both OS on their websites and they come with Windows updates too, nVidia also provides GPU drivers to both W7 and 8.1, already you secured the two most important hardware, W8.1 like 10 already come preloaded with tons of modern drivers and downloads those you do not have, if you do not have a backup computer which you should have, dual boot W8.1 alongside 10, use EasyBCD if dual boot has some issues otherwise it should work just fine without as Windows provide you a boot menu to choose 7 or 10.

You really need to install W8.1 to see which drivers you need, none of us can predict which driver it is unless someone out there has already done this which by now seems like no one or they have not seen this forum page yet.

If I came across as mean or rude I apologise but I rather people at least try to work out a new reinstall themselves before I step in and give a hand, finding drivers is easy today even those which manufacturers never release. There also driver updater software, some are pretty **** others are quite good, if you want one I can try to recommend a good free one.

And as always, rule of thumb, never ever update drivers that works just fine without any problems, keep them. Just ask if you run into trouble I will try to answer them as quickly as possible

- Intel graphics drivers for Windows 8.1
- nVidia drivers for W8.1

This guy got W7 installed on a similar spec laptop with same generation Intel processor http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/install-windows-7-on-acer-a715-and-a717-nvme-ssd.808381/

 

This becomes a DIY and the only person whom can give you support would be yourself here and you will have to do the homework to find and install the drivers assuming they have them for W7. You can go it alone but that's what's going to happen here.

So what is the nature of the W10 problem? I have a clean self install of W10x64 Pro 1803 and have no issues making it look like W7. I use only two programs and everything becomes W7 and I even removed the Tiles to make it look cleaner. And it actually runs better then W7 also with W7 soon to run out it's better to be safe then sorry when malware targets outdate O/S. I changed all my families computer to a clean W10 install not factory OEM disk and they have no issues using W10 since I made the looks like W7.

 

You know,I am so tired and fed up doing things like fixing Windows or optimizing it.
I want something that I can do very little tweaking(other than things like ThrottleStop or OCing),install games and software and be on my merry way.

 

Is there any way to improve the looks of Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 not over the top without using theme packs ?
8.1 is kinda fine for the age but 7 is just straight up so outdated.

 

Yes, you can use Windows Theme Installer for example and download themes off DeviantArt.
In fact I recommend DeviantArt for Windows 7 themes, there a lot of them, you can even make Windows 7 look like 10, there theme packages on DeviantArt for that too.

W7 and 8.1 unlike 10 are highly customisable, I also recommend looking into Stardock too but they cost money, its not much but their software solutions are really great, there other means of acquiring Stardock software if you are not willing to pay, I am not going to tell you how I am just saying its possible.

Here is a W10 theme for W7 from DeviantArt as an example
There are many examples, heck you can make W7 look like W8.1 which is my personal favourite, I love W8.1 look with aero glass, I find it vastly more modern than W10 look! Mostly cause I really love Aero in general, there is also a program that lets you turn W7's task manager into the W8.1 one called DBC Task Manager, really helpful! There also a ton of explorer replacements for W7 and even 8.1 and 10, one of my favourite ones that are at least stable is Better Explorer which give you the ribbon interface which is very handy in my opinion, quick access to all explorer shortcuts.

Now you got at least in my opinion the two most useful features in W8.1 the task manager and the new file explorer, there are of course a lot of other things that are better in W8.1 like improved SSD performance and handling and some other pretty minor features.

Also something that might be in handy for you which is coming to W10 in the next big update, tabs in explorer, Windows has had third party software that has done this since Windows 95 era, the best one is QTTabBar which lets you handle tabs in explorer very easily, another thing I recommend is chocolatey package manager which works in CMD and PowerShell, its a VERY easy to use package manager for Windows, there hundreds of thousands of software available on it like Chrome, VLC, Aimp, multiple anti virus like Avast or even Malwarebytes, and much much more.
Chocolatey is so easy all you do is write choco install winrar and that is it, they even got a graphical user interface to make life easier chocolateygui its called.

Good luck, W7 look dated but you can make it look and feel more modern and productive than W10 will ever be.

 

Will the QTTabBar work in tandem with Better Explorer?
Will Windows 7 supports touchpad gesture? Frankly I love the W10 gestures so much that I considered it to be a redeeming quality for the feces surrounding the OS.
Can I use WinAeroTweaker and is there a guide for it?

 

Better Explorer has tabs built into it, its just if you do not want to use it you can use QTTabBar to get the tabs without Better Explorer, I probably should have mention that to begin with though sorry about that.
Yes Windows 7 does have touchpad gestures, this is all up to the touchpad driver however, and like majority of laptops you probably have Synaptics touchpad drivers, W7 also has touchscreen support with gestures as well although to be honest the touchscreen options in W7 is not as good as W10 as Windows 10 is definitely designed around touchscreen devices hence why everything so Goddamn big.

 

After scouring the drivers for my laptop aka the Acer Predator Helios 300 G3-572 there is no such thing as touchpad drivers.
If I use Windows 8.1,will that make a difference?
Edit:Is there any power user's guide for Windows 7 to 10?With things like keyboard shortcuts,advanced settings,...
And the Device Manager does mention Synaptics but the question remains:will 8.1 supports multi-touch gestures?

 

Looks like Synaptic removed them from their homepage, shame but I still have them.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/twrlo8h5117tc00/(LATEST) Synaptics Touchpad Drivers v17.0.19 C_Vista, W7, W81 - x86, x64 Acme.zip?dl=0

Remember you have to configure all the touch gestures yourself inside the program or turn them on rather, its pretty easy, the reason for why is because its a stock driver its not really configured for your laptop so you must do it manually.

You have a full list of Windows 7 shortcuts here

 

Is there any difference jumping from 7 to 8.1?
I heard that Windows 8.1 will have support for USB 3.0 and up, and since I have a USB 3.0 and USB-Type C port,should I grab 8.1 instead?

 

Yes, I would recommend Windows 8.1 for you specially if you have type C port, W8.1 is also supported until 2023 so you get 3 extra years of security updates.

With ClassicShell, W8.1 is pretty great and you can get aero back using Aero8