Windows 7 - sysprep like with Windows 10 ?

3LeggedHuman

New Member
Hi,

I'm wondering if there is any way to make Windows 7 more transferable from old hardware into new hardware just like running Sysprep on Windows 10 ?
I think one way is to make a backup by using Norton Ghost 15 then when restoring select "Restore to indifferent hardware" but then what to do when the OS doesn't have any drivers that needs to be installed ?

Any ideas on how to make Windows 7 more like Windows 10 but with Sysprep function ?

Thanks,
Oliver
 
What you're talking about is capturing the sysprep image as a WIM, and importing it to NTLite. From there, integrate any missing drivers to the mounted image.
 
I don't understand the question. Both Windows handle sysprep about the same, except for the additional questions/features that W10 added. When you boot the image, it will make a best attempt to recognize the local HW, or revert to some generic drivers. The major difference is W10 ships with a whole bunch of UPDATED drivers which have a better chance of matching your HW.

Those included drivers are ironically the ones everyone rips out to save space.

Sysprep is really about stripping out system and user customizations that might conflict on a mass deployment of the same image across multiple machines. Like overlapping host names, user accounts, etc. It's goal is to convert a customized image back to a somewhat generic one without starting from scratch. When you have a great tool like NTLite, sysprep becomes less useful in prepping images.
 
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I don't understand the question.

Ok, let me give you easy example that is easy to explain.

You have a PC with Windows 7 installed and either your CPU or Motherboard have died out of nowhere, you swipe it with a new one and can't boot into Windows 7 as it doesn't re-detect new hardware but instead is stuck in restart loop. While, when you have a Windows 10, it would restart itself, trigger hardware changes and re-configure the drivers and boot into it.

Do you see the difference now ? Is there any way to make it to work after such failure or just to transfer the whole OS with settings, installed programs, preferences etc into newer PC without reinstallation ?

When you boot the image

I'm not talking about the image that is bootable from USB/DVD but rather the already installed Windows on the SSD/HDD that is in working order.

The major difference is W10 ships with a whole bunch of UPDATED drivers which have a better chance of matching your HW.

Are you aware of any driver's package that I can integrate into the ISO image to have support for newer hardware within Windows 7 image ?


Those included drivers are ironically the ones everyone rips out to save space.

I wonder if I can rip them out and transfer them into Windows 7 ISO to support newer hardware.
Anyway, how much space are those drivers taking ?

For comparison, W7 SP1 is dated April 2011...

Yet, it still supports Ryzen 7 2nd gen processors, not sure about the 3rd gen tho as I saw someone running Ryzen 7 3800x\3700x on Windows 7 like a year or two ago.
 
First off, you need to confirm W7 driver support exists for your mobo. Clanger's got experience in which AMD ones work. Most of the headache is UEFI and USB3 differences. If you can make a booting ISO, then you can port the drivers back to your image.

W7 drivers work under W10, but most W10 drivers use a new architecture specific to W10.
 
First off, you need to confirm W7 driver support exists for your mobo. Clanger's got experience in which AMD ones work. Most of the headache is UEFI and USB3 differences. If you can make a booting ISO, then you can port the drivers back to your image.

W7 drivers work under W10, but most W10 drivers use a new architecture specific to W10.

Generally, looking at your reply and the Windows 7 driver support that is being dropped for newer hardware on Windows 7 makes it pain to use it as there are most likely issues with lack of drivers and incompatibility. I wish that newer hardware would still support Windows 7.
 
garlin i havnt used win 7 on amd socket am4 and i have no plan to, i only used 7 om FM2+. w7 and 8.1 on intel 8/9th gen yes. 8.1 may be worth trying on AM4 because ms has native usb3/3.1 drivvers.
 
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