How to install Windows 7 (and probably Vista) with UEFI firmware

[Jakob99]

Most computers made from 2010, especially those after Windows 8's release come with UEFI firmware, however, those also have the legacy BIOS option, which is what many people set the BIOS to when trying to set up Windows 7 on modern computers, but what if your BIOS does not have a legacy option? Newer Class 3 UEFI BIOS does not have a legacy mode and you'll notice that if you try and run the Windows 7 installation USB (after creating it in something like Rufus with UEFI/GPT options selected), it will freeze on the "Starting Windows" animation and all you'll most likely see are just four dots instead of the fully formed Windows logo.

How do we overcome this issue? What is the cause? Does my media creation tool such as Rufus not properly handle the UEFI/GPT options?

Overcoming the issue is as simple (or complex) as adding in a driver to the Windows 7 media. The problem does not lie with your media creation tool, but rather a quirk in one of Windows 7's Basic driver. The cause of this freezing issue has to do with the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. This driver and UEFI do not get along, and so to get UEFI to work, you have to integrate your graphics driver into the media using something like DISM (you may need a Windows 10 installation for it). If your graphics hardware supports 7 out of the box and your graphics card is in the inf file, then no modding is needed and you can just integrate it to the media, after which you can build it up using Rufus.

Since you will most likely be installing Windows 7 to a modern processor, some inf modding is required. Since modding the files unsigns the driver and Windows installer doesn't like that, we will have to resign them. Luckily, there is a guide that shows how to do this. This guide comes courtesy of bloodhandsv over at Notebook Review. This guide is written for the Acer Spin 5 and Intel Graphics, but can be applied to your hardware.

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by Jakob99

[Jakob99]

I tested this with a Windows 7 laptop that I had and it worked successfully. Only problem is that it installed Windows 7 Home Basic despite it being an Ultimate ISO that was used. Also, there is a part mentioning a cert1 and cert2 file. If your graphics driver features your processor in it already (I.E. You did not have to edit the inf file), then you do not need the cert1 and cert2 files. You can just skip injecting those and inject your graphics driver. If you do have to modify the inf, than those will be needed.

[Tripredacus]

Your guide has been removed because it violated the forum rules.

Windows install.wim has multiple editions and either the answer file or ei.cfg will determine which edition is installed. This is handy because you can use just one install source for multiple editions.

[jimbo74]

Hi Jakob99, can you tell me where I can get a copy of the guide you previously posted? I'd like to try an install of Windows7 on my Acer Aspire 3 A315-21-975A as it's just so SLOW!!

All the best