Intel's new Skylake CPU removes support for USB based Win 7 install

[Raw]

Wanting new hardware, but not new OS, to me, is fail. I 100% support the idea that if you want new hardware, you gotta buy a new OS, too. Running software from 5 years ago on new hardware is just more work for the OS maker, and that takes resources away from them doing things right in the first place. I'd much rather see investment in the future, rather than the past. And looking for old software to work old hardware is simply that... investing in the past.

WinXP is 14 years old. Windows 7 is 6 years old. Both are dinosaurs in the hardware world, so if you want to run legacy software, you should run it on legacy hardware.

Makes sense and I have to agree with you. "I'd much rather see investment in the future, rather than the past."
Has it been 14 years already...holy shit!

 

[ChevyOwner]

We have one machine that is windows 95 on our network. AFAIK, it hasnt been rebooted or turned off in years. Im not even sure what the purpose of the machine is.

These machines just insert stuff into mail. I understand they run hundreds of thousands of letters a day.

 

[Constantine Yevseyev]

It shouldn't be too hard for someone to create a Windows 7 ISO with a generic Microsoft USB3 driver.

Sorry, but it doesn't work as of now. Intel has a pretty complicated implementation of their USB 3.0 hub, which basically sits on top of a secondary device, so when Windows PE loads your copy of Intel USB 3.0 driver software, only the "bottom-level" eXHC device starts working, while the other thing that you need (xHCI Root Hub with your USB drive attached to one of its ports) remains inactive for it's "located" on that very host controller.

To be honest, you get the same architecture with USB 1.1/2.0, but in that case both the controller and root hub are already working when the PE environment is loaded, while with USB 3.0 you basically have to restart your PC after getting eXHC to work, so... Yeah. You can't really do that, hah.

My theory is that you can perform a two-stage "fake" Windows installation, during one of which you will install an eXHC driver, then commit changes back to ISO, and then spin everything up again and finish up with installing the actual USB 3.0 Root Hub driver (and then your ISO should be ready for shipment). It's totally different from using a "safe" Answer File-based approach, but if it works, that would be really cool. Well, as long as Intel provides you with said Windows 7-compatible driver for your USB 3.0 hardware, which might not happen with Skylake.

Oh, and sadly there's no "Generic Microsoft USB 3.0" driver for Windows 7. I mean, as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't exist, and OEMs/IHVs are responsible for providing it solely on their behalf. In Windows 8+, sure, but not in legacy operating systems.