Greetings
First of all please let me ward off any posts to tell me that Win7 will only be supported for another 2 months. I don't care and I'm not worried.

I can simply disconnect networking for 95% of what I still need any Windows for and I am absolutely NEVER going to buy Win10. In fact this sort of manipulation only adds to my reasons to dismiss Microsoft. Additionally and for example, it is already known that many hardware drivers labelled "Win10 only" aren't actually "only". Many apparently run just fine on Win7, or they did with Z390 systems, and that's my main remaining usage - some hardware drivers.

Currently I have a Z77 USB 3 machine with working Win 7 installed. So far partition cloning, copying to System32 safe mode generic USB drivers, and even reworked Win Install media via Rufus as well as Gigabytes (generic) EZInstaller have all failed to work on my new Z490 system. Simply put I can't type or click to even login to run the setup disk or setup apps or do a repair install.

Any specific suggestions to installing chipset/usb drivers for Z490 to Win7 are gratefully welcome. Thank you in advance for any help or even ideas you may have.

Actually Windows 7 support ended back on 14 Jan...

From what I have just read the existing USB drivers will not work with the motherboards builtin ports. I found one thread where the poster installed Win7 and a compatible PCI USB card on an older system then moved the drive and the USB board to the Z490 system. A bit of a kludge.

It took me a while to get past the xhci driver issue. Finally found some OEM program that added in drivers to image. I tried to make new wim file for days using windows image builder and the Intel drivers. As to the program I don't recall. Maybe Acer or maybe A some company.

Maybe?? http://www.asrock.com/microsite/Win7Install/

Thanks jefro. I don't know about the Asrock version but I know many mobo manufacturers have made such utilities available but Intel endorses the Gibgabyte version as a generic support utility. It's linked on intel.com.

I'm reading that many so-called win 10/64 drivers work on win 7/64. Some posts/articles are confusing because they may only apply to previous chipsets. I have found a few for newer chipsets supporting Coffee Lake but still earlier than Z490CPUs.

Here's one - https://www.overclock.net/threads/ho...-hero.1642446/

I'm now wondering if a PCIe to PS/2 adapter could work if only to log me into a repair install where I could get the drivers included on my mobo support DVD installed.

Assuming you have a Windows 7 licence - install Windows 7 and upgrade it to Windows 10 for free.

Then run something like privatezilla and disable all bundled spyware.

Thanks cynwulf but Microsoft is never getting another dime from me. I will get Win7 working or I won't use Windows at all. It seems especially disingenuous to me to sign acceptance of such a criminal EULA and then attempt to defeat it afterwards. Being proprietary there is no way to know for certain one has been 100% successful even if one's morals allowed such duplicitous behaviour.

You misunderstand - the upgrade is free if you have a Windows 7 licence. You do not need to pay a thing, nor "defeat" anything. Just download the "media creation tool" from MS and upgrade. Ensure your 7 is activated first.

My sincere thanks for making that process clearer, cynwulf, but my main point is I won't be forced into an "upgrade", I resent the deep machinations that have closed doors, and I absolutely will not sign that despicable EULA. From my POV that would be akin to buying a new window that required me to give a key to the front and back door and legally waiver the manufacturer's "right" to enter my home and rifle through my drawers at their "discretion". Furthermore it would be like rewarding an Olympic sprinter who rigged the race and tripped those who couldn't be bribed. I'm not buying the "kinder, gentler" Microsoft for a minute... not even close.

So this doesn't completely come off as merely some sort of foundless rant, the issue of USB isn't new. I bought a license for Win95 back in the day and rather long after it was released, being a happy OS/2 user. The biggest problem for OS/2 was hardware support but my newish motherboard with the then new AGP slot worked just fine in it. It wasn't even recognized as an unsupported device in Win95. Searching around I discovered a single, 32KB .dll file was all that was needed. After discovering that file was unavailable online I called Microsoft. I was told, "No problem! We can send you that file for just $50.00 USD!.....BUT if you're really wise just add another 30 bux and get Win98!!"

IBM, long characterized as the epitome of Crushing Capitalist Big Brother made available massive upgrades, over 20 of them nearly the size of the original install, for every release I ever bought (3 of them), and at no additional charge. This is the perspective through which I began to see Microsoft. Win98 was little more than a new windshield and a paint job by comparison to any one of the IBM free with subscription service packs. Completely aside from my moral outrage, and concerns for my own liberty and rights of ownership, just on the basis of "value per dollar", I'm not doing business with a company like that. Win 7 was the last dime they will ever get, and if there ever was any remaining doubt, the lengths they have gone to, to disable that option, confirmed that bent and destroyed any remnant of trust.

No, it's not.

It was zero cost for a period, but that period has ended.

It might still be possible to install and activate a non-upgraded Windows 10 using a Windows 7/8 license key, but this is not officially supported by Microsoft.


(Personally I refuse to use Windows 10 even if you paid me, and I suspect enorbet would agree with that... yep, just seen he's posted whilst I was writing this.)

Officially no, unofficially yes. I installed Windows 10 in a virtual machine with an old Windows 7 key almost a year ago and it still works fine. Unfortunately for specific reasons/hardware I still need to run Windows.

From what I read in my original search a PS/2 card should work.

enorbert, One could argue that you already run an MS OS and signed the EULA, so it makes little difference at this stage, so long as you're not paying any more.

boughtonp, The upgrade still works, but MS just don't publicise it - and it is supported, is "genuine Windows" and does receive all the regular updates from Windows update. Unsupported windows gets flagged as "non genuine windows" and won't even activate to start with.

MS could close the loop on Windows 7 and 8.1 keys being used at any time, but they haven't.

Two reasons:

1) Their deal with OEMs - so the official line will always be "buy a new computer".
2) They want users to move to Windows 10.

I suggested the Windows 10 upgrade to enorbert - plus something like privatezilla to disable telemetry (telemetry can be disabled in 10, either by group policy or via the registry - simply because there are corporate users that require that), because the whole process of upgrading, removing the spyware and getting to the point where he wants to be, will be far less painful than his suggested route. enorbert also mentioned that it will be offline "95%" of the time.

While, I sympathise with your stance on MS Windows, unfortunately I do get paid to use it at work and it puts food on the table, pays the bills, etc. I don't have luxury of choosing what OS my employer uses.

Hello Cynwulf,
While it does disturb me that MS has become so powerful that people can be so forced, I most certainly do not begrudge you or anyone else for what you must do to put food on the table. On a completely idealistic level it'd be great if nobody was willing to sign such a EULA and Win10 just flopped, but the practical likelihood of that is near zero. Speaking of EULA I am rather shocked that you find that of Win10 anywhere near equivalent to Win7's. They are VERY different... "No, those aren't shackles. Those are the latest in jewelry! Everyone whose anyone is wearing them".

My concern for as rare and little as I must use Windows is simply that I'm quite confidant that given drivers, any application I need will still run for many years to come... unless MS decides to break that link, too. I would like to point out that MS does such things and always has. Back when I was using OS/2 two nasty memories stand out.

1) MS renamed the descriptor for an Extended partition, literally flipped one bit of only the name, causing it to be unrecognized without a workaround and aiding in number 2

2) Upon installation of any Windows OS, it identified the generic name still used for Extended partitions by IBM (NTFS was so like HPFS it was difficult to differentiate that) and offered to format (destroying) any OS/2 partition because "it can't be read".

To me this is very close to an equivalent to offering to destroy any brain cells that recognize anything but MS products as valid and useful... invasive and destructive as well as deceptive in the extreme. That such behaviour wasn't and isn't severely punished as well as controlled as critically monopolistic is only a measure of how deeply the fangs were already embedded in the throat of government by the time any of those rank noobs were aware of the coming Information Age.

Incidentally, I have two periods exceeding 12 months of uptime for Linux on my Main(s). 95% is an exceptionally low estimate. I simply disconnect networking the less than 1% of the time I must use Windows 95% of the time I'm in it. I don't care to calculate how little overall that is.

FWIW I have stopped trying to create a slipstreamed Install Media for now and have purchased a PCIe card for PS/2 and a -- Periboard 505 Plus -- Keyboard w/ Trackball on a PS/2 cable. I hated spending any additional monies but I'd rather spend it with anyone other than Microsoft, even if it fails. I will report back here, on Reddit, and elsewhere if it succeeds.

Minor Update - I just received a cheap PS/2 Keyboard with trackball and a reasonable PCIe expansion card with 2 x PS/2 ports. They did allow me to login to Win7 so I'm part way there but I'm as of yet still having difficulties getting hardware support for this Z490 board. Oddly enough SATA works but USB3 is still a pita and Lan and Wifi installer completed but they aren't active yet, likely because I have yet to get Chipset drivers in. It used to be one could just rt click a .inf file and select "Install" but that no longer works.

I am not finished trying but I am discouraged. I may be forced to either give up altogether or consider stripping down a Win10 installer to bare bones sans MS spyware.

Unnecessary. You seem intent on doing this in the most painful manner imaginable...?

To activate Windows 10, it has to go online, as with Windows 7. Once the initial activation is done, you can take it offline, then disable all telemetry via group policy and the service manager and/or registry. You can find numerous guides for this on the web, or you can use a 3rd party tool which can do this for you such as privatezilla, which is FOSS and released under the MIT licence: https://github.com/builtbybel/privatezilla

I repeat: You can also upgrade that existing Windows 7 installation to Windows 10 - assuming you have a Windows 7 licence and it is already activated? I have done this on numerous occasions. The "free" upgrade simply stopped being offered, but the facility is still there - it was never shut off.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/soft...load/windows10

I'm unsure as to why you need Windows specifically on that machine, but have you looked into alternatives or (and I hesitate to mention it) wine?