Using Windows 10 Drivers on Windows 8.1

[CompositeRegister]

Hello everyone,

I have decided that I wanted to downgrade to Windows 8.1 and everything is working pretty fine, except a couple drivers. They won’t run/install because they state that they need to be running Windows 10, but as far as I’m aware, isn’t the way drivers work nearly the same? What should I do to trick the drivers into thinking I’m on Windows 10 so that they install? I would try just using drivers for Windows 8.1, but the Intel 7560 Wireless card doesn’t seem to have drivers for it. Help is greatly appreciated. 

[Tripredacus]

It depends on the drivers and how they are installed. Some drivers that require installation from a program may have OS checks in the program itself. The drivers themselves may have a compatibillity check in them, which would normally cause a setup to work but for Windows to reject the install. That would be found in the .inf file. But even if the INF does allow installation on Windows 8.1, the binaries may require Windows 10 versions of some files to work.

The first step would be to post the hardware IDs of the devices you want to find drivers for. You may be able to find some in the MS Update Catalog, but know that they do not always have the correct OS information on that site. Meaning: They may show a driver for Windows 8 but it only works in Windows 10. You won't know until you try it.