My Windows 7 "UEFI boot-mode" problem -- seeking hands-on insight

[BonzaiDuck]

I started a thread on "Memory and Storage" -- and many thanks to PuffnStuff for his comments there.

"What happened when I installed a slipstreamed Windows 7 adding a USB3 driver)?"
The disk had already been initialized as MBR, so that's what I got, despite setting all the storage devices to "UEFI only" -- changing from "UEFI and Legacy."

"Why was it necessary to convert to GPT?"
I have a "plan" to order a Sammy 950 Pro M.2 drive next month -- or whenever the budget feels more comfortable. I believe if I want to clone Win 7 (and Win 10 as dual-boot) from an SATA SSD boot drive to the M.2 drive, the SATA SSD must be GPT.

"Then what happened?"
I've converted the MBR partition to GPT with EaseUS Partition Master.

"What's wrong?"
The BIOS secure-boot is "wrong." OR -- WIndows 7 is "wrong." I can only boot to Win 7 by changing boot-mode from "Windows UEFI" to "Other OS." Even so, it seems to "work" -- since I've reset storage devices to "UEFI only".

I can turn off Secure boot mode on the ASUS board by deleting the PK key, but I still apparently need to select "other OS." I think I may be "95 % there." IF -- I can either use a utility (and I'd rather save the chump change for the M.2 drive purchase) to "fix things."

Otherwise, I am wondering if I can boot the Windows Install disc from a [UEFI] optical drive, run "Repair" with "Windows UEFI mode" selected in BIOS, and it will correct the problem for me.

Any insights or experience on this?

I'm going to add Win 10 to the equation for a dual-boot system -- first on the SATA SSD and then when I clone that drive to the M.2. No need to ask me "Why Win 7?" -- there are reasons. the major reason you'd likely glean from the HTPC forum. but I want to make this a tidy dual-boot system for the clone to M.2. And I THINK that if I do that, the NVMe features of the M.2 will be available.

 

[vailr]

There's a bios setting "CSM: enabled/disabled" that needs to be changed from the default "enabled" to: "disabled" in order for certain advanced features like NVMe to function. As far as cloning an existing Windows 7 SSD to an NVMe M.2: a fresh install of Windows 7 might be a better plan of action. An NVMe driver would need to be supplied during the initial Windows 7 installation procedure. If you're talking about a Skylake system, that would also require some extra work-around to get past the lack of USB mouse & keyboard functionality when using the stock Windows 7 installation disk. Using a PS/2 mouse during Windows 7 installation would be one option.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

There's a bios setting "CSM: enabled/disabled" that needs to be changed from the default "enabled" to: "disabled" in order for certain advanced features like NVMe to function. As far as cloning an existing Windows 7 SSD to an NVMe M.2: a fresh install of Windows 7 might be a better plan of action. An NVMe driver would need to be supplied during the initial Windows 7 installation procedure. If you're talking about a Skylake system, that would also require some extra work-around to get past the lack of USB mouse & keyboard functionality when using the stock Windows 7 installation disk. Using a PS/2 mouse during Windows 7 installation would be one option.

Hmmm! I thought I was best to leave CSM Enabled! I wonder if that has anything to do with the anomalies I've seen so far.

I didn't have any real problems with USB mouse and keyboard, nor with USB mouse and PS/2-with-USB adapter on this system. Put it another way: before I would notice any problem with USB devices during Windows Installation, it would get to the partition-selection screen and tell me it couldn't install on the selected disk. And it's still a mystery as to how adding a USB3 driver would eliminate that problem with an SATA drive.

If ONLY they HADN'T DISCONTINUED Media Center with Windows 10. Fur-Chrissake -- as dominant firm in the software industry, their profits coincide with the excess profits of monopoly. They are to be congratulated in how they've plowed those profits back into R&D all along, but we've all paid them well. They could continue to cross-subsidize Media Center, while re-negotiating a better framework for the de-facto regulation of HDCP and DRM in the property-rights complaints of the Jack Valenti Media-Nazis.

And there ought to be some means by which a DVR library from one PC can be transferred to another PC if the old one dies. Think about it: I may have "purchased" my 33 1/3 '60s and '70s rock and jazz collection, but I still have them as long as the hardware functions or it can be replaced.

One could argue that my TV provider is only giving me a "subscription." I may be able to DVR a movie and watch it several times in the next year, but it's a temporary rental which should have no more expected life-span than the provider's own DVR service and hardware offer.

Well, I also have about 2 decades worth of subscription computer magazines in my possession. So there's my counter-argument.

 

[vailr]

I've read some online instructions on how to extract WMC from a Windows 7 installation disk, and enable WMC to install and run on Windows 10.
There may also be other alternative free software that functions similar to WMC.
If WMC is the principal reason for holding back from running Windows 10.
If Win10 telemetry (Microsoft spying on your system data) is a worry, there are other 3rd party software to help take care of that problem.

 

[XavierMace]

You should also check out Plex. DVR support with SD HomeRun's is in Beta right now.

 

[bruceb]

You can install Windows Media Center on Windows 10 ... link to instructions are below (I did it on my computer just fine)

http://www.howtogeek.com/258695/how-to-install-windows-media-center-on-windows-10/

Note: When windows does a major update again, it will probably be pulled out, so you will need to reinstall it.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I've read some online instructions on how to extract WMC from a Windows 7 installation disk, and enable WMC to install and run on Windows 10.
There may also be other alternative free software that functions similar to WMC.
If WMC is the principal reason for holding back from running Windows 10.
If Win10 telemetry (Microsoft spying on your system data) is a worry, there are other 3rd party software to help take care of that problem.

That was great . . . . for about 1 month.

Then the "anniversary-build" update came along in August or thereabouts. It completely borked the WMC install which had been wonderful for a month. You can join me on my thread about other aspects of my current crisis.

With just a little bit of rational paranoia, one could imagine that MS is trying to cut off Win 7 holdouts who can't fix their own problems.

The Updates this month borked my two Sandy machines. My new Z170 didn't miss a lick with them -- all working tip-top. I would assume that MS thinks it has done wonders to give support going back to C2D with Windows 10. And they want to reduce their costs for maintaining Win 7 equally. Maybe they even want to terminate the Media Center updates for channel guides, but they have to continue for Windows 8, which goes beyond 2021, and there's hardly any real extra cost for doing it in win 7. But Win 7's media center "guide" features have begun to deteriorate. I cannot even understand why Netflix dropped their WMC plug-in, but I'll also need to forge ahead in seeing how "internet TV" will work for me without the Silly Dust Cablecard tuners.

But I still can't see how they need to make the new Update paradigm the ordeal that it is.

The Silverlight October update killed both of these machines, but I restored them effortlessly with my WHS-11 server. It took me a while doing updates one at a time to find the problem with Silverlight -- now restored to the previous revision and the new one removed with "Hide" in the Win Updates dialog.

The other updates were horrendous as I will explain. They create a situation where an impatient user can bork them while they're in progress, and heaven knows what other instability that might add to an otherwise -- and long-lasting -- stellar and stable Win 7 configuration.

"Shutdown" may seem to take forever. Reboot may get to the reset point but hang at a blank screen. "Preparing to configure windows . . . do not turn off your computer" may take an hour's time or longer. Once you enter your password, thinking the worst is past, you get a black screen with a moveable mouse cursor. You can watch the HDD activity light, but sometimes it will seem dead for several minutes. Eventually, it all comes back.

These things I've experienced, perhaps missed by other helpful forum members, add up to reasons that "Mainstreamers can't endure Windows 7 no-moh." So they all flee to Windows 10.